Unit 11: 1960-1980 JFK-Carter

Politics

● The Warren Court 1953-1969

○ Earl Warren

■ Supreme Court Chief Justice

■ More politician than Jurist

■ Pushing the envelope too much

○ Brown v Board of Education of Topeka 1954

○ Miranda Rights

■ Gideon v Wainwright 1963

● Requires the courts to provide an attorney to people who can’t

afford one

■ Escobedo v Illinois

● Right to remain silent

■ Miranda v Arizona

● Right to a lawyer to be present during questioning

○ Engel v Vitale

■ State laws requiring prayer and bible readings in school violate 1st

Amendment

○ Griswold v Connecticut

■ Right to privacy involving contraceptives

■ Is the foundation for Roe v Wade

○ Decisions are still being debated today

● Election of 1960

○ Nixon

■ 47

■ Ike’s VP

■ “Kitchen Debate”

● Debates the Soviet Premier in a model kitchen

■ Seen as tough on Communism

● Alger Hiss case

○ Kennedy

■ 43

■ Catholic

● Al Smith was the first catholic to run

■ “Missile Gap”

● The Russians were getting more missiles than we were

○ The narrowest election since 1880

■ James Garfield

■ Nixon could have forced a recount but decided it was better for the

country

● Four Televised Debates

○ 8 minute speeches at the beginning and end

○ Reporters ask questions in the middle

○ Gave a need to have a clever answer quickly

■ Not the best person, the one who looks the best

○ Kennedy came across as confident, Nixon came across as tired

○ People who listened to the radio thought Nixon won, People who watched TV

thought JFK won

● “Camelot”- JFK & Jackie

○ Idyllic situation

■ Young Vibrant President

■ Beautiful First Lady

■ Children in the White House since Abe Lincoln

○ Teddy was the youngest to hold office but JFK is the youngest to be elected

○ JFK had won medals in WWII

○ Wrote Profiles and Courage

○ Legendary speedreader

● “New Frontier”

○ Education

○ Health Care

○ Urban Renewal

○ Civil Rights

○ Peace Corps

○ Space Program

■ Gives a famous speech at Rice University Football Stadium

● “I will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade”

● “But why does Rice play Texas”

● Creates a culture of shooting for the stars

■ He does not get to witness it

○ “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your

country”

○ Very optimistic President

■ Torch being passed to a new generation

● November 22, 1963 - Dallas, TX

○ JFK is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald

■ Taken into police custody

○ Jack Ruby

■ Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald while he’s in custody on Television

○ Conspiracy Theories

■ People think Cubans had something to do with it

■ People think they heard more than one shot

■ Think it was a more than one man job

■ Think Lyndon B Johnson was involved

○ Chief Justice Earl Warren - Warren Commission

■ They determined he worked alone

■ The evidence was sealed and has not been released

○ Government credibility

■ Takes a huge hit

■ People don’t believe the official report

○ Defining moment of the generation

■ Pearl Harbor, 9/11

● Lincoln and Kennedy

○ Names are 7 letters

○ Vowel to consonants the same

○ Elected into Congress and Presidency 100 years apart

○ Loved by common people hated by established

○ Followed by a VP with the last name Johnson

○ 1808 to 1908

○ Both shot next to their wives and was held in their lap

○ Both shot on Friday

■ Model Ford Lincoln, Ford Theater

○ John Wilkes Booth Lee Harvey Oswald

■ 15 letters

○ Both shot and killed in police custody

○ Andrew Johnson had a drinking problem so did Lyndon Johnson

○ The Johnson’s knew about the assassination

○ Telegram system went down, telephone system went down

○ Both wives spent a ton of money redecorating the White House

○ Had their children at the White House

○ Lincoln's sons match Kennedy’s brothers

● Lyndon Baines Johnson - 36th President

○ From JC Texas

○ Was a teacher then principal then politician

○ Pushes through a lot of the things Kennedy couldn’t get

■ He became a martyr

● War on Poverty

○ The Other America 1962 M. Harrington

■ Very rich and very poor America

○ OEO

■ Office of Economic Opportunity

○ Head Start

■ Program still around today

○ Job Corps

● Election of 1964

○ LBJ Democrat

■ Very liberal

■ Paint Goldwater as a crazy cowboy who would start WWIII

● “The Daisy Ad”

○ Barry Goldwater Republican

■ Very conservative

○ Absolute landslide for LBJ

● The Great Society

○ Medicare

■ For the elderly

○ Medicaid

■ For the poor

○ Immigration Laws

■ Throws Quotas out the window

○ National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities

○ DOT

■ Department of Transportation

○ HUD

■ Housing and Urban Development

○ Public Housing

○ Funneled towards trying to alleviate poverty

○ LBJ wants to be remembered for this but instead is remembered for Vietnam

○ He had been in Congress for 30 years and knows how to get things done

● The “Johnson Treatment”

○ He is 6’4”

○ Stood over other politicians

■ “Only one way to get cattle out of the swamp, grab a horn and pull them

the right direction”

○ When he shakes hands he pulls them in and leans over them

Civil Rights Movement

● Protests

○ Sit ins

■ Go to white restaurants as a black man and sit there until they were served

○ February 1, 1960

■ Students began to participate in sit ins in Greensboro, NC

■ Got up to 50,000 participants

○ There was not a large violent public outrage

● Freedom Rides

○ Bus loads of activists that traveled the nation preaching doctrine, civil rights,

equality

○ Traveled everywhere but focused in the South

● Anniston, AL

○ William Chapel, KKK leader

○ Led a group of about 50 men to rob and throw things at the buses

○ Trying to stop the Civil Rights Movement

■ Only made it stronger

○ Responded by sending more buses to the area

● 1962 - Ole Miss

○ James Meredith

■ US air force veteran

■ Attempted to enroll at Ole Miss in 1961, was denied for being black

○ He attempted to sue in 1962 and lost

○ On September 30, he reapplied to Ole Miss

○ Several people were hurt or killed for one man’s schooling

○ He was enrolled and the first African American Graduate from Ole Miss

● Birmingham - “Bull” Connor

○ Birmingham is a hot spot for Civil Rights

■ Large Black and White population

● The White population sees them as competition

○ Commissioner of public safety for Birmingham

■ Ordered police and fire departments to control the Civil Rights Movement

by any means necessary

● Brutality, water cannons, tear gas, dogs

● 1963 - George Wallace

○ “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”

■ Said in his inaugural address

○ Governor of Alabama

■ Mainly operated in Birmingham

■ Served 4 terms

○ Ran for President 3 times

■ On the 3rd he was paralyzed by an assassination attempt

○ Ended up changing his platform later on to be elected

■ Unknown if he genuinely believed his position later on

● Martin Luther King Jr

○ “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail” - 1963

○ Leading civil rights activist

○ Ran peaceful protests

○ Inspired by

■ Gandhi

■ Henry David Thoreau

■ Rosa Parks

■ The lack of equality

○ March on Washington - 1963 - “I Have a Dream”

■ Very passionate speaker

■ Referenced the Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address,

Declaration of Independence, Abe Lincoln

■ Televised to reach the nation

● 1963 - Birmingham

○ 16th Street Baptist Church

○ KKK planted bomb went off just before Sunday School

■ 4 killed, 22 wounded

○ Public outrage

■ Caused some to take a more violent approach

● Civil Rights Act - 1964

○ Declares that you cannot discriminate in the workplace on anybody based on race,

color, origin, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sex, etc.

○ Some cities like Birmingham still fought to keep segregation

● Selma to Montgomery - 1965

○ Planned march through Alabama

○ Shows they aren’t afraid

○ Led by John Lewis

■ Well known Civil Rights Activist

■ “We need to be getting in good trouble”

● “Bloody Sunday”

○ Segregationists fought back

○ Sent out police in riot gear to fight these marches

■ Waited until the activists were on the bridge

■ Used Tear Gas, fought

○ Edmunds Bettus Bridge

● 24th Amendment and Voting Rights Act of 1965

○ Removed the Poll Tax

○ The Poll Tax was a disenfranchisement method that kept poorer blacks from

voting

○ Also banned Literacy Tests and other methods of disenfranchisement and

discrimination in the polls

Black Muslim Movement

○ Islamic and Black movement beginning in Detroit

○ Nation of Islam

■ Unification of the Black communities in disenfranchised areas

○ Elijah Muhammed

■ Took over the Nation of Islam after Fard disappeared under mysterious

circumstances

■ Wanted to fight fire with fire to react heavily to any armed resistance from

segregationists

■ Claimed to be a prophet of Muhammed

○ Malcolm X

■ More violent methods were the best way to fuel the cause

■ Grew up in the foster system after his father passed away and his mother

was hospitalized

■ He became known for smaller crimes and in 1946 ended up in prison

● While in prison he joined the Nation of Islam

■ He develops his own way of thinking

● Fight fire with fire

■ Once he is out of prison he becomes the figurehead of this movement

■ He is assassinated in 1965

● “Black Power” - Stokely Carmichael

○ SNCC and CORE become more radical

■ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

■ Congress On Racial Equality

○ Movement similar to Malcolm X’s

■ Unity in black owned businesses

■ Support African Americans

○ Instead of equal rights he fought for unity in African Americans and is more apt

to the separation

○ Segregation vs Separation

■ Forced to be separate vs Voluntarily being separate

● Black Panthers

○ 1965 Watts section of LA

■ Bloods and Crips

● Blood is family relation

● Community Resistance in Progress

○ Left leaning militant movement

○ Primarily known in cities

○ Began in Oakland, CA

■ More impoverished than San Francisco

■ Similar to Hitler’s rise to power because of the rise out of poverty and

necessity of hope

● April 4, 1968 - Memphis

○ MLK is shot at the Lorraine motel

○ The motel is now a museum with everything the way it was

● 1968 Civil Rights Act (Fair Housing Act)

○ Equal housing opportunities

○ Does not allow any discrimination when it comes to rent and loans

● Students for a Democratic Society - New Left

○ SDS

○ Student led from colleges formed to fuel the Civil Rights Movement and protest

against Vietnam

■ Participated in protests and activist activities

○ Tom Hayden

■ Led riots at the Democratic National Convention

■ Led the movement

○ Free Speech Movement Berkeley

■ Centered around UC Berkeley

● Hot spot for students to lead activist programs

● Students were banned from participating

■ Was to get students the right to participate

○ People’s Park

■ Before this movement it was just an old parking lot

■ Made for an easy place to speak out and protest

■ They planted a tree in the middle of the park and guarded it

Counterculture

● Culture outside the norm

○ Goes against societal norms

○ Conformity

■ Very modest

■ Shirt, tie, pants

■ Long skirts

○ They wore bright colors, jeans

● Hippies

○ Peace and love

○ Drugs

■ Acid and Marijuana

○ Rainbows, tie dye

● Woodstock

○ The Largest Music Festival

○ Lots of scandalous activities in the crowd

○ Protested the war

● Hippie Hotspot in San Francisco

○ Heights and Ashbury

● Weathermen

○ Far Left, Marxist, Domestic Terrorist Organization

■ Communist

■ Carl Marx

○ Organized under the SDS

○ Part of the groups that caused riots at the DNC

○ Attacked civilians and hosted bombings

■ Influence by fear

● Kent State

○ In Ohio 1970

○ Large riot and protest broke out against the war

○ The National Guard was called in

■ They shot 9 unarmed people who died

○ This was televised

● AIM

○ American Indian Movement

○ Get Native Americans the same liberties as everyone else

○ Started in Minneapolis

○ Centered on ones outside of reservations

● Cesar Chavez

○ Leader of the AFL CIO

■ Largest labor union

○ Wanted to improve the work force conditions

○ He worked in farming

■ He wanted to make farming safer, profitable, supplied

○ Also a Civil Rights Activist

● The Feminine Mystique

○ Written by Betty Friedan

○ She is arguing that women are more than what people perceive them as

○ Women’s roles are changing

■ From housewives to capable workers

● NOW

○ National Organization of Women

○ Women’s rights

■ Equal rights, equal pay

○ Form peaceful protests

○ Still around today

■ Wage gap

● Roe v Wade 1973

○ Ruled that Abortion is protected by Federal Law

■ Could not be restricted by the states

○ The ruling has since been overturned

■ The states control Abortion

○ Brought about by Jane Roe

■ She felt it was legally protected by the Federal Government to have an

abortion, took it to court and won

● Earth Day

○ Plant trees, clean up parks, take care of the planet

○ Celebration of Earth

○ Silent Spring

■ Book about preserving the Earth

Cold War

● “Flexible Response”

○ America could respond to attacks of diplomatic changes in a variety of ways

○ Opposite of Eisenhower

■ Not responding by destruction

○ “Brushfire Wars”

■ Any battle that is not considered a part of a war

● Congo

● Laos

● Vietnam

○ Turned into a larger war

○ Green Berets

■ Fancy hat for soldiers

■ Special forces

● Takes 4 years to get through training to become one

■ Covert operations

○ We can bomb these countries all we want but won’t be able to effectively know

what’s going on

● Bay of Pigs

○ 1961

○ CIA trained Cuban exiles

■ In small tactics in order to have them invade Cuba

■ Want to stage a coup

○ Rebellion against Fidel Castro

○ It fails

■ Kennedy pulls out

■ He never sent aerial and naval support as planned

● Berlin Wall

○ Kennedy

■ “Hell of a lot better than war”

○ Nikita Kruschev

■ Leader of the Soviet Union

■ Encouraged the Berlin Wall

○ Separates Democracy and Communism in Berlin

○ Outlash in America

■ Kennedy condemns the building of the wall

○ 12 ft tall

■ The Soviets would shoot you if you tried to sneak over

● “Ich bin ein Berliner”

○ I am a Berliner (Jelly Donut)

■ He wants a unification of Berlin (Under West Berlin Policy)

● Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962

○ Kruschev vs Kennedy

○ USSR gave missiles to Cuba (to store) and that puts a major threat to several US

cities

■ Response to the Bay of Pigs

○ Lasted 13 days

■ Could have led to WWIII

○ Kennedy threatens an attack and Kruschev says we’ll take ours out of Cuba if you

promise not to invade and take your missiles out of Turkey

■ He sends RFK to tell some Soviet electives that we promise that we agree

with your terms

○ An American Naval ship finds a russian submarine the same day both sides pull

out

■ They drop 3 bombs to signal the submarine to rise

● Soviet signal was 4 bombs

■ A nuclear bomb was almost launched

● 2⁄3 officers turned their key

● Vasilii Arkhipov

Vietnam

● Domino effect

○ Vietcong

■ South Vietnamese rebels

■ Taking over Vietnam

○ Communism in Vietnam will lead to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India,

Bangladesh

■ Vietcong wants to spread its influence

● Vietnam - The 10,000 Day War

○ 1945-1975

■ We were involved until 1973

○ Phase 1

■ French phase

■ French Indochina decolonized

■ Vietnam implements a communist government

○ Phase 2

■ 1964-1973

■ American Phase

● LBJ to Nixon

○ Phase 3

■ Civil War

■ Two powers within one country fighting for control of the government

■ Nixon and Ford

● Wanted to get US soldiers home and supply aid and diplomatic

officials

■ The North takes over the South and they become one communist nation

○ A Television War

■ People get to see what is actually happening

■ Changes Public Opinion on the war

○ A Proxy War

■ War fought in another country through ideas

■ Is not directly between US and Soviets

● Is over Democracy and Communism

■ Vietcong rebels in South Vietnam

● Vietnamese vs Vietnamese

● Makes it hard to differentiate friend and foe

○ A Limited War

■ The US will not use nuclear weaponry in this fight

■ Could not use a nuke on Soviet influence without starting WWIII

○ Buildup under Kennedy “Advisors”

○ “Strategic Hamlets”

■ Plan by the US and South Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism by

protecting the rural areas of South Vietnam

■ The Vietcong lived in South Vietnam

■ Helped play it safe to determine friend and foe

○ Ngo Dinh Diem

■ Prime minister for Vietnam from 1954-1963

■ Was a Communist

● Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

○ A “Blank check” to protect US interests in Vietnam

○ He can spend as much money as he wants

○ Received the check after American ships were attacked over international waters

near Vietnam

○ He is able to do whatever it takes to stop Communism in Vietnam

■ He cannot use nukes

● Who did we fight?

○ North Vietnamese Army- Vietminh (NVA)

■ Led by Ho Chi Minh

○ Vietcong (VC or NLF)

■ South Vietnamese peasant farmers/guerillas

■ Guerilla Warfare

● Take to the hills, win by all means

■ “Charlie”

● Phonetic for C

● Vector Charlie is signal for Vietcong

● Ho Chi Minh Trail

○ Comes from North Vietnam and goes all the way down to Saigon the capital of

South Vietnam

○ There leader was Ho Chi Minh and they used this trail to attack South Vietnam

● Operation Rolling Thunder

○ Agent Orange

■ Pesticide they used to gas out the Vietnamese

■ The US soldiers would spray it all over and some ended up ingesting it

■ Very covert and flexible

○ Napalm

■ Flammable gel

■ Started forest fires to interrupt guerilla warfare

● Can’t hide in a forest without a forest

○ Once the Vietcong is dealt with you can march right back up the trail and fight

North Vietnam

● Tet Offensive - January 1968

○ An attack by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong on South Vietnam

○ Surprise attack along the Ho Chi Minh Trail

○ By the end of this offensive it was clear that American Victory was not imminent

■ The Public saw the offensive and became against the war

● My Lai Massacre 1968

○ Innocent civilians of South Vietnam were killed by Americans

○ A group of Americans troops were told to go into a village and kill everyone

■ They were told all civilians were evacuated and all that was left was

Vietcong

○ They killed men women and children

○ A man in a helicopter saw a group of civilians and signaled to the Americans to

help them evacuate, goes back to base to refuel, comes back to find those civilians

killed

○ The American government claimed that the victims were Vietcong and anyone

who says otherwise is lying

■ Proven to be civilian casualties in 1975

○ Massive bombings of North Vietnam

■ Henry Kissinger and Nixon bombed everything Communist

○ Paris Accords 1973

■ Like a peace treaty

■ We say we are removing our troops but will send advisors, diplomacy, and

come about a solution through peace

● Fall of Saigon - April 1975

○ Saigon is the Capital of South VIetnam

○ Winning over the capital makes the rest of the country crumble

● Khmer Rouge - Pol Pot - Cambodia

○ Pol Pot was a communist political leader of Cambodia

○ Instructed mass murders of Christians and intellectuals

Nixon

● Election of 1968

○ Democrats - Hubert Humphrey

■ VP to LBJ

● LBJ wasn’t liked so why should we like this guy

■ Liberal

■ Democratic Convention in Chicago

● People are upset about LBJ

● There are too many new ideas at once so there is a lot of fighting

since they can’t agree on one idea

● They are televised

● Lots of public outcry

○ American Independent Party - George Wallace

■ Segregationist

■ Resentment against DC “pointy headed liberals”

● Saying they’re not smart based on the last 4 years

○ Republicans - Richard Nixon

■ “Peace with honor”

● He wants to end the war, but not in defeat

● We will get American troops out of Vietnam with our honor

■ “Law and order”

● Civil Rights Movement is getting violent

● Wants to control the violent protests

○ Nixon won the smaller states with lower votes in the electoral college

■ Appealed to states that opposed to the war and segregation

● “Hawks” vs “Doves”

○ War vs Peace

○ Segregationists vs Hippies

○ Stay in Vietnam and stop Communism vs bring the soldiers home

● Richard Nixon

○ 37th President

○ Secretive and suspicious

● Henry Kissinger

○ He is responsible to the bombing of Cambodia

■ He has the right to do whatever he can in order to defend Democracy

■ Even bombing Communist states

■ He won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize

○ He was accused of war crimes

○ Worked under the Nixon administration

■ Scandals and Watergate

■ Speculated he rigged the Nobel Peace Prize

○ Realpolitik

■ There is a real to politics

■ You have to enact your political regime according to what is going on

around you

○ National Security Advisor (1st term)

○ Secretary of State (2nd term)

● Detente

○ Nixon travels to China and meets with Mao Zedong

○ Helped strengthen relations with China and other Communist nations

○ Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT 1)

● Nixon’s Domestic Policy

○ 1970 recession stagflation

■ The inflation rate is high but the economic rate slows

■ Revenue sharing with our allies and trade

■ Made sure that if America was involved with the revenue making process

they were compensated

○ Southern Strategy

■ Nixon appeals to the “silent majority”

■ Tries to delay integration

● Gets a bigger vote in the Southern States

■ Authorizes VP Spiro Agnew

● Election of 1972

○ Nixon wins everything but Massachusetts, DC, and a little bit of Kentucky

● Watergate

○ Headquarters of the Democratic Party

○ Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP)

○ “Plumbers”

■ The people Nixon sent in to steal documents from the headquarters

■ Secret service special investigations unit

■ Stole all the Democratic plans for their campaign

○ “Enemies list”

■ Nixon kept a list of all the people he did not like

○ June 1972

■ The whole scheme comes to light

○ Judge John Sirica

■ Forces Nixon to turnover any audio recordings of him talking to

investigators

■ He basically confesses in these audios

○ Washington Post - Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein

■ They accused Nixon of lying about the Cover ups

■ They ended up on the enemies list

○ Senator Howard Baker - (R) TN

■ “The primary thesis is this, what did the President know and when did he

know it?”

■ Arguing for Nixon by questioning his involvement in the scandal

○ Nixon Tapes

○ Saturday Night Massacre

■ Political suicide

■ Nixon fired the attorney general and deputy attorney general because they

would not fire the special investigator investigating him

■ You can’t fire the people investigating you

○ United States v. Nixon (1974)

■ The President does not receive special treatment when taken to court

○ House begins Impeachment hearings

■ August 9, 1974

● Nixon resigns