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The Turbulent 1960s
The 60s included all of the following:
Civil Rights Movement: From MLK to Black Power
Several Cold War foreign policy crises.
The Assassination of JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, RFK
Vietnam Conflict, Civil Unrest & the Woodstock Generation
There were three presidents in the 60s:
John Kennedy: 1961 - 1963 ; The New Frontier & Camelot
Lyndon Johnson: 1964 - 1968; The Great Society & Vietnam: I shall not seek nor shall I accept the nomination of my party for another term as president . . .
Richard Nixon: 1969 - 1974: Vietnam; Becomes the first president to resign (more about that in the 70s)
The decade that began with the election of the youngest president and the quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, “ ended in civil unrest, turmoil, and the election of a president who would lie to his country and would be forced to resign.
Classify the following pictures under one of the following topics:
•Woodstock Generation
•Vietnam War
•Cold War Conflicts
•Camelot
•Great Society
•Black Power Movement
•Social Unrest
Kennedy’s youth, optimism and charisma inspired Americans. His “New Frontier” agenda included increased aid to education, health care for the elderly and the creation of a Department of Urban Affairs.
Kennedy created the Alliance for Progress, a series of cooperative aide projects in Latin America.
Kennedy created the Peace Corps to help less developed nations fight poverty, training young Americans for two year programs to assist countries.
Kennedy promised a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
Cuba under Castro allied with the USSR & Khrushchev. Ike & the CIA had secretly planned an invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles. Kennedy proceeded with the plan, called the Bay of Pigs (1961). Disaster struck as air support was cancelled by Kennedy in the attempt to keep US involvement a secret, and the exiles were captured or killed by Castro.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961; it was a violation of the postwar Potsdam Agreements, which gave Great Britain, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin. The US government informed the Soviet government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force.
In 1962, American intelligence discovered Soviet equipment & technicians had arrived in Cuba. Photos proved that long-range missiles had been placed there.
The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade (quarantine) of Soviet ships headed to Cuba. The Soviets ships turned at the last second before reaching the American ships. An inside deal had been made that the US would take missiles out of Turkey and the Soviets remove their missiles. Khrushchev fell from power, leaving Brezhnev who was less interested in negotiation and more interested in an arms race.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) pushed for justice in political & social institutions. Tom Hayden, pres. of the U. of Michigan led the SDS beginning in 1960.The Free Speech Movement began in 1964 at Berkeley when 700 protestors were arrested & a campus-wide strike stopped classes for two days. The S. court validated the students right to freedom of speech and assembly on campus
• Johnson’s Vietnam strategy – Fine-tuned escalation of US force would lead to defeat with minimum loss of life on both sides – Enemy matched every increase with more man and guerilla warfare (Viet Cong)
LBJ’s Great Society promised an end to racism and poverty.
The Big Four legislative achievements of the Great Society •Aid to education •Medical care for elderly and indigent •Immigration reform •New voting rights bill
Judging the Great Society – Conservatives charged that the billions had been wasted In Johnson’s defense • Poverty declined markedly• Medicare brought down poverty among elderly • Project Head Start increased educational performance of underprivileged youth • Infant mortality rates fell in minority communities
The leaders of the counterculture, the hippies, did not seek to change society but wanted to create their own society that included communal living, rejection of materialism, long hair, and drug use. Haight-Ashbury was the center of the counterculture.The Woodstock concert in upstate NY was a three-day celebration of 500,000. Entertainment included Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Woodstock had rain, mud, drugs, two deaths, and two births, but no violence.
After completing the 200 in first & third place, Tommie Smith & John Carlos received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos wore beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred and for those who died in the middle passage.
The Austrian athlete, the silver medalist, showed solidarity with the two American athletes. Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith's pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left.
When The Star Spangled banner played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed and their gloved hands raised. Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."
Passage of Voting Rights Act of 1965 marked end of an era in civil rights movement Pre-1965 – movement was focused on nonviolent demonstrations in South, led by moderates like King, and wanted to bring blacks into mainstream American society Post-1965 – movement marked by militant confrontation, led by radical and sometimes violent spokespersons, and often aimed not at interracial cooperation but at black separatism
• Conflicting interpretations of Black Power among blacks – Some saw it as a broad effort to exercise political and economic rights and speed integration – Black nationalists (remembering Marcus Garvey) emphasized black distinctiveness • Promoted “Afro” hairstyles and dress • Dumped “slave” names for new African ones • Demanded black studies programs in colleges
The first large-scale demonstration against the war in Vietnam took place in 1965. Small by later standards, 25,000 people marched in Washington. By 1968, strikes, sit-ins, rallies, and occupations of college buildings had become commonplace on campuses, such as Berkeley, Columbia, and Harvard.
•August 11, 1965 – Watts Riots: Blacks enraged by police brutality rioted for 5 days Property burned, stores looted in their own neighborhood •Aftermath 31 blacks, 3 whites killed Over 1,000 people injured Hundreds of buildings had been burned
1968 a disastrous year in American history:
Tet Offensive
USSR invades Czechoslovakia
Vietnam War brings down LBJ
Robert Kennedy assassinated
Martin Luther King assassinated
Democratic National Convention riots
