u.s. history the new frontier and the great society · john f. kennedy is elected president. 1960...

U.S . History – B Chapter 20

The New Frontier and the

Great Society

668 CHAPTER 20

John F.Kennedy iselected president.

1960 President Kennedyis assassinated; LyndonB. Johnson becomespresident.

1963

SeventeenAfrican countriesgain independence.

1960 The drug thalidomideis pulled from the marketafter it is found responsiblefor thousands of birthdefects in Europe.

1962Soviet cosmonautYuri Gagarin becomesthe first human in outerspace.

1961

U.S.launches theBay of Pigsinvasion.

1961

Scientific and technological advances in the early 1960s made possible the firstAmerican spacewalk during the Gemini 6mission on June 3, 1965.

John Glenn becomesthe first American to orbitthe earth.

1962

U.S. and USSRface off in the Cubanmissile crisis.

1962

USAWORLD 1960 1961 1962 19631960 1961 1962 1963

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The New Frontier and the Great Society 669

Lyndon B. Johnsonis elected president.1964

Congress passesthe Economic OpportunityAct and Civil Rights Act.

1964Richard M.Nixon iselectedpresident.

1968

Indira Gandhi becomesprime minister of India.

1966

I N T E R A C TI N T E R A C TW I T H H I S T O R YW I T H H I S T O R Y

Against the backdrop of an intensespace race between America and theSoviet Union, the 1960 presidentialelection approaches. The leading candi-dates are a young, charismatic senatorand the ambitious, experienced vice-president. The new president will facetremendous responsibilities. Abroad,the Soviet Union is stockpiling nuclearweapons. At home, millions sufferfrom poverty and discrimination.

What are thequalities of effective leaders?Examine the Issues

• How can a leader motivate andinfluence the public?

• What skills are needed to persuadelegislators?

• What enables a leader to respondto crises?

FerdinandMarcos becomespresident of thePhilippines.

1965

ThurgoodMarshall becomesthe first African-American justiceof the SupremeCourt.

1967

Israel winsArab territories inthe Six Day War.

1967 WarsawPact troopsinvadeCzechoslovakia.

1968

Visit the Chapter 20 links for more informationabout The New Frontier and the Great Society.

RESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

1964 1965 1966 19671964 1965 1966 1967

U.S. troopsenter Vietnam.1965

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One American's Story

John F. Kennedy became the 35th president of the UnitedStates on a crisp and sparkling day in January 1961. Appearingwithout a coat in freezing weather, he issued a challenge to theAmerican people. He said that the world was in “its hour ofmaximum danger,” as Cold War tensions ran high. Rather thanshrinking from the danger, the United States should confrontthe “iron tyranny” of communism.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN F. KENNEDY

“ Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend andfoe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation ofAmericans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined bya hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, andunwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those humanrights to which this nation has always been committed. . . .

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, thatwe shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, sup-port any friend, oppose any . . . foe, in order to assure . . . thesurvival and the success of liberty.”

—Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

The young president won praise for his well-crafted speech.However, his words were put to the test when several Cold Warcrises tried his leadership.

The Election of 1960In 1960, as President Eisenhower’s second term drew to a close, a mood of rest-lessness arose among voters. The economy was in a recession. The USSR’s launch of Sputnik I in 1957 and its development of long-range missiles had sparkedfears that the American military was falling behind that of the Soviets. Further set-backs including the U-2 incident and the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Unionhad Americans questioning whether the United States was losing the Cold War.

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Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

Kennedy and the Cold War

•John F. Kennedy•flexible response•Fidel Castro•Berlin Wall

•hot line•Limited Test BanTreaty

The Kennedy administrationfaced some of the mostdangerous Soviet confronta-tions in American history.

America’s response to Sovietthreats developed the UnitedStates as a military superpower.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

▼

John F. Kennedy delivers his inauguraladdress on January 20, 1961.

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A

The Democratic nominee for president, Massachusetts senator John Kennedy,promised active leadership “to get America moving again.” His Republican oppo-nent, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, hoped to win by riding on the coattails ofEisenhower’s popularity. Both candidates had similar positions on policy issues.Two factors helped put Kennedy over the top: television and the civil rights issue.

THE TELEVISED DEBATE AFFECTS VOTES Kennedy had a well-organizedcampaign and the backing of his wealthy family, and was handsome and charismatic. Yet many felt that, at 43, he was too inexperienced. If elected, he wouldbe the second-youngest president in the nation’s history.

Americans also worried that having a Roman Catholic in the White Housewould lead either to influence of the pope on American policies or to closer tiesbetween church and state. Kennedy was able to allay worries by discussing theissue openly.

One event in the fall determined the course of the election. Kennedyand Nixon took part in the first televised debate between presidentialcandidates. On September 26, 1960, 70 million TV viewers watched thetwo articulate and knowledgeable candidates debating issues. Nixon, anexpert on foreign policy, had agreed to the forum in hopes of exposingKennedy’s inexperience. However, Kennedy had been coached by televi-sion producers, and he looked and spoke better than Nixon.

Kennedy’s success in the debate launched a new era in American politics: thetelevision age. As journalist Russell Baker, who covered the Nixon campaign, said,“That night, image replaced the printed word as the natural language of politics.”

KENNEDY AND CIVIL RIGHTS A second major event of the campaign took placein October. Police in Atlanta, Georgia, arrested the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,and 33 other African-American demonstrators for sitting at a segregated lunchcounter. Although the other demonstrators were released, King was sentenced tomonths of hard labor—officially for a minor traffic violation. The Eisenhoweradministration refused to intervene, and Nixon took no public position.

When Kennedy heard of the arrest and sentencing, he telephoned King’s wife,Coretta Scott King, to express his sympathy. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy, his broth-er and campaign manager, persuaded the judge who had sentenced King to releasethe civil rights leader on bail, pending appeal. News of the incident captured theimmediate attention of the African-American community, whose votes would helpKennedy carry key states in the Midwest and South.


“ That night, image replaced theprinted word asthe natural lan-guage of politics.”RUSSELL BAKER

John F. Kennedy(right) appearedconfident and atease during atelevised debatewith his opponentRichard M. Nixon.

▼

Vocabulary charismatic: possessing personal charmthat attracts devoted followers

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

PredictingEffects

What effectdo you think thetelevised debatewould have onAmerican politics?

A. PossibleAnswerVoters wouldbegin makingdecisions basedon a candidate’sperceived imagerather than onhis or her standon the issues.

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The Camelot Years The election in November 1960 was the closest since 1884; Kennedy won by fewerthan 119,000 votes. His inauguration set the tone for a new era at the WhiteHouse: one of grace, elegance, and wit. On the podium sat over 100 writers,artists, and scientists that the Kennedys had invited, including opera singerMarian Anderson, who had once been barred from singing at Constitution Hallbecause she was African American. Kennedy’s inspiring speech called for hope,commitment, and sacrifice. “And so, my fellow Americans,” he proclaimed, “asknot what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

During his term, the presidentand his beautiful young wife,Jacqueline, invited many artists andcelebrities to the White House. Inaddition, Kennedy often appearedon television. The press loved hischarm and wit and helped to bolsterhis image.

THE KENNEDY MYSTIQUE Criticsof Kennedy’s presidency argued thathis smooth style lacked substance.But the new first family fascinatedthe public. For example, after learn-ing that JFK could read 1,600 wordsa minute, thousands of peopleenrolled in speed-reading courses.The first lady, too, captivated thenation with her eye for fashion andculture. It seemed the nation couldnot get enough of the first family.Newspapers and magazines filledtheir pages with pictures and storiesabout the president’s young daugh-ter Caroline and his infant son John.

With JFK’s youthful glamour and his talented advisers, the Kennedy WhiteHouse reminded many of a modern-day Camelot, the mythical court of KingArthur. Coincidentally, the musical Camelot had opened on Broadway in 1960.Years later, Jackie recalled her husband and the vision of Camelot.

A PERSONAL VOICE JACQUELINE KENNEDY

“ At night, before we’d go to sleep, Jack liked to play some records and the songhe loved most came at the very end of [the Camelot] record. The lines he loved tohear were: ‘Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shiningmoment that was known as Camelot.’ There’ll be great presidents again . . . butthere’ll never be another Camelot again.”

—quoted in Life magazine, John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST Kennedy surrounded himself with a team ofadvisers that one journalist called “the best and the brightest.” They includedMcGeorge Bundy, a Harvard University dean, as national security adviser; RobertMcNamara, president of Ford Motor Company, as secretary of defense; and DeanRusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, as secretary of state. Of all theadvisers who filled Kennedy’s inner circle, he relied most heavily on his 35-year-old brother Robert, whom he appointed attorney general.

672 CHAPTER 20

President andMrs. Kennedyenjoy time withtheir children,Caroline and John,Jr., whilevacationing inHyannis Port,Massachusetts.▼

BackgroundThe fictional KingArthur was basedon a real fifth- orsixth-century Celt.In literature,Arthur’s romanticworld is marked bychivalry andmagic.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

DevelopingHistoricalPerspective

What factorshelp explain thepublic’s fascin-ation with theKennedys?

B. AnswersThe press por-trayed theKennedys as ayoung, attrac-tive, energetic,and stylish cou-ple; attention toarts and culture;young children;Kennedy’s elo-quence; televi-sion; an admir-ing press.

B

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A New Military Policy From the beginning, Kennedy focused on the Cold War. Hethought the Eisenhower administration had not doneenough about the Soviet threat. The Soviets, he concluded,were gaining loyalties in the economically less-developedthird-world countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Heblasted the Republicans for allowing communism to developin Cuba, at America’s doorstep.

DEFINING A MILITARY STRATEGY Kennedy believed hismost urgent task was to redefine the nation’s nuclear strategy.The Eisenhower administration had relied on the policy ofmassive retaliation to deter Soviet aggression and imperialism.However, threatening to use nuclear arms over a minor con-flict was not a risk Kennedy wished to take. Instead, his teamdeveloped a policy of flexible response. Kennedy’s secretaryof defense, Robert McNamara, explained the policy.

A PERSONAL VOICE ROBERT S. MCNAMARA

“ The Kennedy administration worried that [the] reliance onnuclear weapons gave us no way to respond to large non-nuclear attacks without committing suicide. . . . We decidedto broaden the range of options by strengthening and mod-ernizing the military’s ability to fight a nonnuclear war.”

—In Retrospect

Kennedy increased defense spending in order to boostconventional military forces—nonnuclear forces such astroops, ships, and artillery—and to create an elite branch ofthe army called the Special Forces, or Green Berets. He alsotripled the overall nuclear capabilities of the United States. These changes enabledthe United States to fight limited wars around the world while maintaining a balance of nuclear power with the Soviet Union. However, even as Kennedyhoped to reduce the risk of nuclear war, the world came perilously close to nuclearwar under his command as a crisis arose over the island of Cuba.

Crises over CubaThe first test of Kennedy’s foreign policy came in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coastof Florida. About two weeks before Kennedy took office, on January 3, 1961,President Eisenhower had cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba because of a rev-olutionary leader named Fidel Castro. Castro openly declared himself a com-munist and welcomed aid from the Soviet Union.

THE CUBAN DILEMMA Castro gained power with the promise of democracy.From 1956 to 1959, he led a guerrilla movement to topple dictator FulgencioBatista. He won control in 1959 and later told reporters, “Revolutionaries are notborn, they are made by poverty, inequality, and dictatorship.” He then promisedto eliminate these conditions from Cuba.

The United States was suspicious of Castro’s intentions but neverthelessrecognized the new government. However, when Castro seized threeAmerican and British oil refineries, relations between the United States andCuba worsened. Castro also broke up commercial farms into communes thatwould be worked by formerly landless peasants. American sugar companies,


C

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEEISENHOWER’S WARNING

The increase in defense spendingin the 1960s continued the trendin which Defense Departmentsuppliers were becoming moredominant in the American econo-my. Before leaving office,President Eisenhower warnedagainst the dangers of what hecalled the “military-industrial com-plex.” He included in his partingspeech the following comments:

“This conjunction of animmense military establishmentand a large arms industry isnew in the American experience.The total influence—economic,political, even spiritual—is felt inevery city, every statehouse,every office of the federal gov-ernment. We recognize theimperative need for this develop-ment. Yet we must not fail tocomprehend its grave implica-tions. . . . The potential for thedisastrous rise of misplacedpower exists and will persist.”

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

What was thegoal of thedoctrine of flexibleresponse?

Vocabulary guerrilla: a soldierwho travels in asmall group,harassing andundermining theenemy

Vocabularythird world: during the ColdWar, thedeveloping nationsnot allied witheither the UnitedStates or theSoviet Union

C. AnswerTo allow the U.S.to fight limitedwars around theworld whilemaintaining anuclear balanceof power withthe Soviets.

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D

674 CHAPTER 20

Vocabulary politicalrepression:governmentintimidation ofthose withdifferent politicalviews

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingEffects

What were theconsequences ofthe failed invasionfor the UnitedStates?

which controlled 75 percent of the crop landin Cuba, appealed to the U.S. government forhelp. In response, Congress erected trade barri-ers against Cuban sugar.

Castro relied increasingly on Soviet aid—and on the political repression of those who didnot agree with him. While some Cubans weretaken by his charisma and his willingness tostand up to the United States, others saw Castroas a tyrant who had replaced one dictatorshipwith another. About 10 percent of Cuba’s popu-lation went into exile, mostly to the UnitedStates. Within the large exile community ofMiami, Florida, a counterrevolutionary move-ment took shape.

THE BAY OF PIGS In March 1960, PresidentEisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretlytrain Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. TheCIA and the exiles hoped it would trigger a massuprising that would overthrow Castro. Kennedylearned of the plan only nine days after his elec-tion. Although he had doubts, he approved it.

On the night of April 17, 1961, some 1,300 to 1,500Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. military landed on theisland’s southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs.Nothing went as planned. An air strike had failed to knock outthe Cuban air force, although the CIA reported that it had suc-ceeded. A small advance group sent to distract Castro’s forcesnever reached shore. When the main commando unit landed,it faced 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet tanks and jetaircraft. Some of the invading exiles were killed, others impris-oned.

The Cuban media sensationalized the defeat of “NorthAmerican mercenaries.” One United States commentator

observed that Americans “look like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies,and incompetents to the rest.” The disaster left Kennedy embarrassed. Publicly, heaccepted blame for the fiasco. Privately, he asked, “How could that crowd at theCIA and the Pentagon be this wrong.”

Kennedy negotiated with Castro for the release of surviving commandos andpaid a ransom of $53 million in food and medical supplies. In a speech in Miami,he promised exiles that they would one day return to a “free Havana.” AlthoughKennedy warned that he would resist further Communist expansion in theWestern Hemisphere, Castro defiantly welcomed further Soviet aid.

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow: SovietPremier Nikita Khrushchev, who promised to defend Cuba with Soviet arms.During the summer of 1962, the flow to Cuba of Soviet weapons—includingnuclear missiles—increased greatly. President Kennedy responded with a warningthat America would not tolerate offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. Then, onOctober 14, photographs taken by American planes revealed Soviet missile basesin Cuba—and some contained missiles ready to launch. They could reach U.S.cities in minutes.

On October 22, Kennedy informed an anxious nation of the existence ofSoviet missile sites in Cuba and of his plans to remove them. He made it clear thatany missile attack from Cuba would trigger an all-out attack on the Soviet Union.

(top) Castrocelebrates aftergaining power inCuba.(above) The Bayof Pigs missionwas said to haveblown up inKennedy’s face.

Image not availablefor use on this CD-ROM. Please referto the image in thetextbook.

837M

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1,898 MILES

1,020 MILES

1,432M

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1,259M

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2,000

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INUTES)

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UTES)

1,554 MILES

Guantanamo

New York

Washington, D.C.

Denver

Houston

Atlanta

Chicago

Havana

U N I T E D S T A T E S

CUBA

Gulfof

Mexico

Caribbean Sea

PACIFICOCEAN

ATLANTICOCEAN

40°N

30°N

110°W 80°W90°W

Tropic of Cancer

Missile complex

Possible missile path

Range of quarantine

U.S. military installation

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0 200 400 kilometers

200 400 miles

N

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OCT. 22 OCT. 24 OCT. 25 OCT. 28OCT. 14 OCT. 22 OCT. 24 OCT. 25 OCT. 28OCT. 14

U.S. spy planes reveal nuclearmissile sites in Cuba.

Kennedy tells the nationof his intention to haltthe missile buildup.

Soviet shipsapproaching Cubacome to a halt.

Khrushchev announcesplan to remove missilesfrom Cuba.


GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Movement About how long would it have

taken for a missile launched from Cuba toreach New York?

2. Human-Environment InteractionWhy do you think it may have been importantfor Soviet missiles to reach the U.S. citiesshown above?

Kennedy implements a naval “quarantine” of Cuba, blockingSoviet ships from reaching theisland. (below) A U.S. patrol planeflies over a Soviet freighter.

Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962*

*Missile path times and distancesare approximate.

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For the next six days, the worldfaced the terrifying possibility ofnuclear war. In the Atlantic Ocean,Soviet ships—presumably carryingmore missiles—headed towardCuba, while the U.S. Navy pre-pared to quarantine Cuba and pre-vent the ships from coming within500 miles of it. In Florida, 100,000troops waited—the largest inva-sion force ever assembled in theUnited States. C. Douglas Dillon,Kennedy’s secretary of the treasuryand a veteran of nuclear diploma-cy, recalled those tension-filleddays of October.

A PERSONAL VOICEC. DOUGLAS DILLON

“ The only time I felt a fear ofnuclear war or a use of nuclearweapons was on the very first day,when we’d decided that we had todo whatever was necessary to getthe missiles out. There wasalways some background fear ofwhat would eventually happen,and I think this is what wasexpressed when people said theyfeared they would never seeanother Saturday.”

—quoted in On the Brink

The first break in the crisisoccurred when the Soviet shipsstopped suddenly to avoid a con-frontation at sea. Secretary of StateDean Rusk said, “We are eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow justblinked.” A few days later,Khrushchev offered to remove the

missiles in return for an American pledge not to invade Cuba. The United States alsosecretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. The leaders agreed, and the crisisended. “For a moment, the world had stood still,” Robert Kennedy wrote years later,“and now it was going around again.”

KENNEDY AND KHRUSHCHEV TAKE THE HEAT The crisis severely damagedKhrushchev’s prestige in the Soviet Union and the world. Kennedy did not escapecriticism either. Some people criticized Kennedy for practicing brinkmanshipwhen private talks might have resolved the crisis without the threat of nuclearwar. Others believed he had passed up an ideal chance to invade Cuba and oustCastro. (It was learned in the 1990s that the CIA had underestimated the num-bers of Soviet troops and nuclear weapons on the island.)

The effects of the crisis lasted long after the missiles had been removed. ManyCuban exiles blamed the Democrats for “losing Cuba” (a charge that Kennedyhad earlier leveled at the Republicans) and switched their allegiance to the GOP.

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KEY PLAYERSKEY PLAYERS

JOHN F. KENNEDY 1917–1963

John F. “Jack” Kennedy grewup in a politically powerfulfamily that helped make hisdreams possible. His parentsinstilled in him the drive toaccomplish great things.

During World War II heenlisted in the navy and wasdecorated for heroism. In1946, he won his first seat inCongress from a Boston dis-trict where he had neverlived. While a senator, he wona Pulitzer Prize for his bookProfiles in Courage.

Although he radiated self-confidence, Kennedy sufferedmany ailments, includingAddison’s disease—a debili-tating condition that he treated with daily injections of cortisone. “At least onehalf of the days that he spenton this earth were days ofintense physical pain,”recalled his brother Robert.

NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV 1894–1971

“No matter how humble aman’s beginnings,” boastedNikita Khrushchev, “heachieves the stature of theoffice to which he is elected.”Khrushchev, the son of aminer, became a CommunistParty organizer in the 1920s.Within four years of Stalin’sdeath in 1953, Khrushchevhad consolidated his power inthe Soviet Union.

During his regime, whichended in 1964, Khrushchevkept American nerves onedge with alternately concilia-tory and aggressive behavior.During a 1959 trip to theUnited States, he met forfriendly talks with PresidentEisenhower. The next year, infront of the UN GeneralAssembly, he took off hisshoe and angrily pounded it on a desk to protest the U-2incident.

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Meanwhile, Castro closed Cuba’s doors to the exiles in November 1962 by ban-ning all flights to and from Miami. Three years later, hundreds of thousands ofpeople took advantage of an agreement that allowed Cubans to join relatives inthe United States. By the time Castro sharply cut down on exit permits in 1973,the Cuban population in Miami had increased to about 300,000.

Crisis over BerlinOne goal that had guided Kennedy through the Cuban missile crisis was that ofproving to Khruschev his determination to contain communism. All the while,Kennedy was thinking of their recent confrontation over Berlin, which had led tothe construction of the Berlin Wall, a concrete wall topped with barbed wirethat severed the city in two.

THE BERLIN CRISIS In 1961, Berlin was a city in great tur-moil. In the 11 years since the Berlin Airlift, almost 3 millionEast Germans—20 percent of that country’s population—hadfled into West Berlin because it was free from Communistrule. These refugees advertised the failure of East Germany’sCommunist government. Their departure also dangerouslyweakened that country’s economy.

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

AnalyzingEffects

What were theresults of theCuban missilecrisis?E. AnswersKennedy stavedoff war;Khrushchev’sprestige tar-nished; manyCuban exilesblamedDemocrats for“losing Cuba”and switchedallegiance toGOP; Castro limit-ed exiles’ accessto Cuba.

The “death strip” stretched like a barrenmoat around West Berlin, with patrols,floodlights, electric fences, and vehicletraps between the inner and outer walls.

Walls and other barriers 10–15 feethigh surrounded West Berlin. Thelength of the barriers around the citytotaled about 110 miles.

Guard dogs and machine guns dis-uaded most people from crossingover illegally, yet some still dared.


WORLD STAGEWORLD STAGE

EastBerlin

WestBerlin

FrenchZone

BritishZone

AmericanZone

CheckpointCharlie

BrandenburgGate

0 4 kilometers

0 4 miles

THE BERLIN WALL, 1961In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, theSoviet premier, ordered the BerlinWall built to stop the flow ofrefugees from East to West Berlin.Most were seeking freedom fromCommunist rule.

The wall isolated West Berlinfrom a hostile German DemocraticRepublic (GDR). Passing from Eastto West was almost impossiblewithout the Communist govern-ment's permission.

During the 28 years the wall wasstanding, approximately 5,000 peo-ple succeeded in fleeing. Almost200 people died in the attempt;most were shot by the GDR borderguards. In 1989, East Germanyopened the Berlin Wall to cheeringcrowds. Today the rubbled concreteis a reminder of the Cold War ten-sions between East and West.

The Berlin Wall was first made of brick and barbed wire,but was later erected in cement and steel.

Bonn

EastBerlinWest Berlin

NORTHSEA

BALTIC SEA

FED. REP.OF GERMANY GER. DEM.

REPUBLIC

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678 CHAPTER 20

•John F. Kennedy•flexible response

•Fidel Castro•Berlin Wall

•hot line•Limited Test Ban Treaty

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining itssignificance.

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

Using diagrams such as the onebelow, list two outcomes for each ofthese events: first Kennedy-Nixondebate, Bay of Pigs invasion, Cubanmissile crisis, and construction ofthe Berlin Wall.

Which of these outcomes leddirectly to other events listed hereor described in this section?

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

How well do you think PresidentKennedy handled the Cuban missilecrisis? Justify your opinion with spe-cific examples from the text. Think About:

• Kennedy’s decision to impose anaval “quarantine” of Cuba

• the nuclear showdown betweenthe superpowers

• Kennedy’s decision not to invadeCuba

4. ANALYZING VISUAL SOURCESExamine the cartoon above ofKennedy (left) facing off withKhrushchev and Castro. What doyou think the cartoonist was tryingto convey?

5. DRAWING CONCLUSIONSWhat kind of political statement wasmade by the United States’ supportof West Berlin?

OutcomeEvent

Outcome

F

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

AnalyzingMotives

What ledKhrushchev toerect the BerlinWall?

F. AnswerCommunistswanted to stopthe flow of EastGermanrefugees intoWest Berlin andfurther isolatethe thriving city.

Khrushchev realized that this problem had to besolved. At a summit meeting in Vienna, Austria, inJune 1961, he threatened to sign a treaty with EastGermany that would enable that country to close allthe access roads to West Berlin. When Kennedy refusedto give up U.S. access to West Berlin, Khrushchev furi-ously declared, “I want peace. But, if you want war,that is your problem.”

After returning home, Kennedy told the nation in a tele-vised address that Berlin was “the great testing place ofWestern courage and will.” He pledged “[W]e cannot and willnot permit the Communists to drive us out of Berlin.”

Kennedy’s determination and America’s superior nuclearstriking power prevented Khrushchev from closing the air andland routes between West Berlin and West Germany. Instead, the Soviet premier sur-prised the world with a shocking decision. Just after midnight on August 13, 1961,East German troops began to unload concrete posts and rolls of barbed wire alongthe border. Within days, the Berlin Wall was erected, separating East Germany fromWest Germany.

The construction of the Berlin Wall ended the Berlin crisis but further aggra-vated Cold War tensions. The wall and its armed guards successfully reduced theflow of East German refugees to a tiny trickle, thus solving Khrushchev’s mainproblem. At the same time, however, the wall became an ugly symbol ofCommunist oppression.

SEARCHING FOR WAYS TO EASE TENSIONS Showdowns between Kennedy andKhrushchev made both leaders aware of the gravity of split-second decisions thatseparated Cold War peace from nuclear disaster. Kennedy, in particular, searched forways to tone down his hard-line stance. In 1963, he announced that the two nationshad established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin. This dedi-cated phone enabled the leaders of the two countries to communicate at once shouldanother crisis arise. Later that year, the United States and Soviet Union also agreedto a Limited Test Ban Treaty that barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

“ I want peace. But, if you wantwar, that is yourproblem.”SOVIET PREMIER NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

▼

Reading from this note card during aspeech in West Berlin, Kennedyproclaimed “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I ama Berliner”).

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•New Frontier•mandate•Peace Corps

•Alliance forProgress

•Warren Commission

While Kennedy had troublegetting his ideas for a NewFrontier passed, several goalswere achieved.

Kennedy’s space programcontinues to generate scientificand engineering advances thatbenefit Americans.




The New Frontier

On May 5, 1961, American astronaut Alan Shepard climbedinto Freedom 7, a tiny capsule on top of a huge rocket boost-er. The capsule left the earth’s atmosphere in a ball of fire andreturned the same way, and Shepard became the firstAmerican to travel into space. Years later, he recalled hisemotions when a naval crew fished him out of the Atlantic.

A PERSONAL VOICE ALAN SHEPARD

“ Until the moment I stepped out of the flight deck . . .I hadn’t realized the intensity of the emotions and feel-ings that so many people had for me, for the other astronauts, and for the whole manned space program.. . . I was very close to tears as I thought, it’s no longer just our fight to get ‘out there.’ The strugglebelongs to everyone in America. . . . From now on there was no turning back.”

—Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon

The entire trip—which took only 15 minutes fromliftoff to splashdown—reaffirmed the belief in American ingenuity. John F. Kennedy inspired many Americans with the same kind of belief.

The Promise of ProgressKennedy set out to transform his broad vision of progress into what he called theNew Frontier. “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier,” Kennedy hadannounced upon accepting the nomination for president. He called on Americansto be “new pioneers” and explore “uncharted areas of science and space, . . .unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions ofpoverty and surplus.”

Kennedy had difficulty turning his vision into reality, however. He offeredCongress proposals to provide medical care for the aged, rebuild blighted urbanareas, and aid education, but he couldn’t gather enough votes. Kennedy faced thesame conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats that had

▼

Astronaut Alan Shepard(inset) prepares to enterthe space capsule for hisMercury flight.

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A

blocked Truman’s Fair Deal, and he showed little skill in pushinghis domestic reform measures through Congress. Since Kennedyhad been elected by the slimmest of margins, he lacked a popularmandate—a clear indication that voters approved of his plans.As a result, he often tried to play it safe politically. Nevertheless,Kennedy did persuade Congress to enact measures to boost theeconomy, build the national defense, provide international aid,and fund a massive space program.

STIMULATING THE ECONOMY One domestic problem theKennedy team tackled was the economy. By 1960 America wasin a recession. Unemployment hovered around 6 percent, oneof the highest levels since World War II. During the campaign,Kennedy had criticized the Eisenhower administration for fail-ing to stimulate growth. The American economy, he said, was lagging behind those of other Western democracies andthe Soviet Union.

Kennedy’s advisers pushed for the use of deficit spend-ing, which had been the basis for Roosevelt’s New Deal. Theysaid that stimulating economic growth depended on increasedgovernment spending and lower taxes, even if it meant thatthe government spent more than it took in.

Accordingly, the proposals Kennedy sent to Congress in1961 called for increased spending. The Department ofDefense received a nearly 20 percent budget increase for newnuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, and an expansion of thearmed services. Congress also approved a package thatincreased the minimum wage to $1.25 an hour, extendedunemployment insurance, and provided assistance to citieswith high unemployment.

ADDRESSING POVERTY ABROAD One of the first campaign promisesKennedy fulfilled was the creation of the Peace Corps, a program of volunteerassistance to the developing nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Critics inthe United States called the program “Kennedy’s Kiddie Korps” because many vol-unteers were just out of college. Some foreign observers questioned whether

Americans could understandother cultures.

Despite these reservations,the Peace Corps became a hugesuccess. People of all ages andbackgrounds signed up to workas agricultural advisers, teach-ers, or health aides or to dowhatever work the host coun-try needed. By 1968, morethan 35,000 volunteers hadserved in 60 nations aroundthe world.

A second foreign aid program, the Alliance forProgress, offered economicand technical assistance toLatin American countries.Between 1961 and 1969, theUnited States invested almost

680 CHAPTER 20

ECONOMICECONOMIC

WHAT IS A RECESSION?A recession is, in a general sense,a moderate slowdown of the econ-omy marked by increased unem-ployment and reduced personalconsumption. In 1961, thenation's jobless rate climbed fromjust under 6 percent to nearly 7percent. Personal consumption ofseveral major items declined thatyear, as people worried about jobsecurity and spent less money.

Car sales, for example, droppedby more than $1 billion from theprevious year, while fewer peopletook overseas vacations. Perhapsthe surest sign that the countryhad entered a recession was theadmission by government officialsof how bleak things were. “We arein a full-fledged recession,” LaborSecretary Arthur Goldberg declaredin February of 1961. (See reces-sion on page R44 in theEconomics Handbook.)

A Peace Corpsvolunteer gives aride to a Nigeriangirl.

Background See deficitspending on pageR39 in theEconomicsHandbook.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

IdentifyingProblems

Why didKennedy havedifficulty achievingmany of his NewFrontier goals?

A. AnswerHe lacked thevotes inCongress and apopular mandate.

▼

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B

U.S. Space Race Expenditures, 1959–1975

Source: NASA

Government Expendituresfor Space Activities

Geographical Distribution ofNASA Contracts (1961–1975)

Spen

ding

(in

billi

ons

of d

olla

rs)

OtherStates 39%$15.6 billion

New York 9%$3.4 billion

Florida 7%$2.8 billion

California 39%$15.4 billion

Texas 6%$2.5 billion

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0’59 ’61 ’63 ’65 ’67 ’69 ’71 ’73 ’75

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs and Charts1. In which year did the federal government spend the most money on the space race?2. What state benefited the most?

$12 billion in Latin America, in part to deter these countriesfrom picking up Fidel Castro’s revolutionary ideas. While themoney brought some development to the region, it didn’tbring fundamental reforms.

RACE TO THE MOON On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonautYuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space. Kennedy sawthis as a challenge and decided that America would surpass theSoviets by sending a man to the moon.

In less than a month the United States had duplicated theSoviet feat. Later that year, a communications satellite calledTelstar relayed live television pictures across the Atlantic Oceanfrom Maine to Europe. Meanwhile, America’s NationalAeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had begun toconstruct new launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and amission control center in Houston, Texas. America’s pride andprestige were restored. Speaking before a crowd at Houston’s RiceUniversity, Kennedy expressed the spirit of “the space race.”

A PERSONAL VOICE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

“ We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do theother things, not because they are easy, but because they arehard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure thebest of our energies and skills, because that challenge is onethat we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to post-pone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

—Address on the Nation’s Space Effort, September 12, 1962

Seven years later, on July 20, 1969, the U.S. would achieveits goal. An excited nation watched with bated breath as U.S.astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.

As a result of the space program, universities expanded their science pro-grams. The huge federal funding for research and development gave rise to newindustries and new technologies, many of which could be used in business andindustry and also in new consumer goods. Space- and defense-related industriessprang up in the Southern and Western states, which grew rapidly.


SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

JOHNSON AND MISSION CONTROL

President Kennedy appointedVice President Johnson as chair-man of the National Aeronauticsand Space Council shortly afterthey assumed office in 1961. Thechairman’s duties were vague,but Johnson spelled them out:“He is to advise the president ofwhat this nation’s space policyought to be.” And Johnson’sadvice was to land a man on themoon.

A new home for the moon pro-gram’s Manned SpacecraftCenter was created. Some NASAadministrators had wanted toconsolidate the center and thelaunch site in Florida. However,when Johnson’s friends atHumble Oil donated land to RiceUniversity, which sold 600 acresto NASA and donated the rest,the debate was over. Houstonbecame the center of the newspace program.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingMotives

Why didKennedy want toinvest in foreignaid?B. AnswerTo help develop-ing countriesand to create astrong U.S.presence tocounter commu-nist influence.

C. AnswerIt improved edu-cation, particu-larly in scienceand math, andspurred manybusinesses and industries.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. 19652. California

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingEffects

What effectdid the spaceprogram have onother areas ofAmerican life? C

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D

ADDRESSING DOMESTIC PROBLEMS While progress was being made on thenew frontiers of space exploration and international aid, many Americans suffered at home. In 1962, the problem of poverty in America was brought tonational attention in Michael Harrington’s book The Other America. Harringtonprofiled the 50 million people in America who scraped by each year on less than$1,000 per person. The number of poor shocked many Americans.

While Harrington awakened the nation to the nightmare of poverty, the fightagainst segregation took hold. Throughout the South, demonstrators raised theirvoices in what would become some of the most controversial civil rights battles ofthe 1960s. (See Chapter 21.) Kennedy had not pushed aggressively for legislationon the issues of poverty and civil rights, although he effected changes by execu-tive action. However, now he felt that it was time to live up to a campaign promise.

In 1963, Kennedy began to focus more closely on the issues at home. He calledfor a “national assault on the causes of poverty.” He also ordered Robert Kennedy’sJustice Department to investigate racial injustices in the South. Finally, he present-ed Congress with a sweeping civil rights bill and a proposal to cut taxes by over $10 billion.

Tragedy in DallasIn the fall of 1963, public opinion polls showed that Kennedy was losing popu-larity because of his advocacy of civil rights. Yet most still supported their belovedpresident. No one could foresee the terrible national tragedy just ahead.

FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER On the sunny morning of November 22, 1963, AirForce One, the presidential aircraft, landed in Dallas, Texas. President and Mrs.Kennedy had come to Texas to mend political fences with members of the state’sDemocratic Party. Kennedy had expected a cool reception from the conservativestate, but he basked instead in warm waves of applause from crowds that lined thestreets of downtown Dallas.

Jacqueline and her husband sat in the back seat of an open-air limousine. Infront of them sat Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. As the carapproached a state building known as the Texas School Book Depository, NellieConnally turned to Kennedy and said, “You can’t say that Dallas isn’t friendly to youtoday.” A few seconds later, rifle shotsrang out, and Kennedy was shot in thehead. His car raced to a nearby hospital,where doctors frantically tried to revivehim, but it was too late. PresidentKennedy was dead.

As the tragic news spread throughAmerica’s schools, offices, and homes,people reacted with disbelief. Questionswere on everyone’s lips: Who had killedthe president, and why? What wouldhappen next?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

MakingInferences

In whatdirections didPresident Kennedyseem to be takinghis administrationin 1963?

D. AnswerToward takingmore action ondomestic prob-lems, includingpoverty, civilrights, and theeconomy.

Image not availablefor use on CD-ROM.Please refer to theimage in the textbook.

679-683-Chapter 20 10/28/02 3:14 PM Page 682

During the next four days, television became “the windowof the world.” A photograph of a somber Lyndon Johnson tak-ing the oath of office aboard the presidential airplane wasbroadcast. Soon, audiences watched as Dallas police chargedLee Harvey Oswald with the murder. His palm print had beenfound on the rifle used to kill John F. Kennedy.

The 24-year-old Marine had a suspicious past. After receiv-ing a dishonorable discharge, Oswald had briefly lived in theSoviet Union, and he supported Castro. On Sunday, November24, as millions watched live television coverage of Oswaldbeing transferred between jails, a nightclub owner named JackRuby broke through the crowd and shot and killed Oswald.

The next day, all work stopped for Kennedy’s funeral asAmerica mourned its fallen leader. The assassination andtelevised funeral became a historic event. Americans whowere alive then can still recall what they were doing whenthey first heard about the shooting of their president.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS The bizarre chain of eventsmade some people wonder if Oswald was part of a conspiracy.In 1963, the Warren Commission investigated and con-cluded that Oswald had shot the president while acting on hisown. Later, in 1979, a reinvestigation concluded that Oswaldwas part of a conspiracy. Investigators also said that two per-sons may have fired at the president. Numerous other peoplehave made investigations. Their explanations have rangedfrom a plot by anti-Castro Cubans, to a Communist-spon-sored attack, to a conspiracy by the CIA.

What Americans did learn from the Kennedy assassina-tion was that their system of government is remarkably stur-dy. A crisis that would have crippled a dictatorship did not prevent a smooth tran-sition to the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. In a speech to Congress, Johnsonexpressed his hope that “from the brutal loss of our leader we will derive notweakness but strength.” Not long after, Johnson drove through Congress themost ambitious domestic legislative package since the New Deal.


NOWNOW THENTHEN

KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATIONFrom the beginning, people havequestioned the Warren Commis-sion report. Amateur investiga-tors have led to increasing publicpressure on the government totell all it knows about the assas-sination.

In response, Congress passedthe JFK Records Act in 1992,which created a panel to reviewgovernment and private files anddecide which should be part ofthe public record.

Since the law was enacted,newly declassified information hasadded some weight to a body ofevidence that JFK was shot fromthe front (the Warren Commissionhad concluded that a single bulletstruck the president from behind)and that Oswald, thus, could nothave acted alone. While such evi-dence challenges the WarrenCommission’s report, no informa-tion has yet surfaced that conclu-sively disproves its findings.

•New Frontier•mandate

•Peace Corps•Alliance for Progress

•Warren Commission1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Re-create the web shown and fill it inwith programs of the New Frontier.

Which do you think was mostsuccessful? Why?

CRITICAL THINKING3. ANALYZING MOTIVES

Why do you think Congress was soenthusiastic about allocating fundsfor the space program but rejectedspending in education, socialservices, and other pressing needs?

4. MAKING INFERENCESWhy do you think Kennedy lostpopularity for supporting civil rights?

5. EVALUATING LEADERSHIPDo you think President Kennedy wasa successful leader? Explain yourviewpoint. Think About:

• the reasons for his popularity• the goals he expressed• his foreign policy• his legislative record

The New Frontier

Vocabulary conspiracy: anagreement by two or more personsto take illegalpolitical action

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

EContrasting

How did the WarrenCommission’sfindings differ fromother theories?

E. AnswerIt declared thatOswald actedalone, while oth-ers claimed aconspiracy.

E

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686 CHAPTER 20



The Great Society

•Lyndon BainesJohnson

•EconomicOpportunity Act

•Great Society

•Medicare andMedicaid

•Immigration Actof 1965

•Warren Court•reapportionment

The demand for reform helpedcreate a new awareness ofsocial problems, especially onmatters of civil rights and theeffects of poverty.

Reforms made in the 1960shave had a lasting effect on the American justice system by increasing the rights ofminorities.


In 1966, family finances forced Larry Alfred to drop out of highschool in Mobile, Alabama. He turned to the Job Corps, a federalprogram that trained young people from poor backgrounds. Helearned to operate construction equipment, but his dream was tohelp people. On the advice of his Job Corps counselor, he joinedVISTA—Volunteers in Service to America—often called the “domes-tic Peace Corps.”

Both the Job Corps and VISTA sprang into being in 1964, whenPresident Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act.This law was the main offensive of Johnson’s “war on poverty” anda cornerstone of the Great Society.

VISTA assigned Alfred to work with a community of poor farmlaborers in Robstown, Texas, near the Mexican border. There he founda number of children with mental and physical disabilities who hadno special assistance, education, or training. So he established theRobstown Association for Retarded People, started a parents educa-tion program, sought state funds, and created a rehabilitation center.At age 20, Larry Alfred was a high school dropout, Job Corps graduate, VISTAvolunteer, and in Robstown, an authority on people with disabilities. Alfredembodied Johnson’s Great Society in two ways: its programs helped him turn hislife around, and he made a difference in people’s lives.

LBJ’s Path to PowerBy the time Lyndon Baines Johnson, or LBJ, as he was called, succeeded to thepresidency, his ambition and drive had become legendary. In explaining his fre-netic energy, Johnson once remarked, “That’s the way I’ve been all my life. Mydaddy used to wake me up at dawn and shake my leg and say, ‘Lyndon, every boyin town’s got an hour’s head start on you.’”

FROM THE TEXAS HILLS TO CAPITOL HILL A fourth-generation Texan,Johnson grew up in the dry Texas hill country of Blanco County. The Johnsonsnever knew great wealth, but they also never missed a meal.

▼

VISTA volunteersworked in a variety ofcapacities. Thiswoman is teachingart to young pupils.

686-693-Chapter 20 10/21/02 5:48 PM Page 686

LBJ entered politics in 1937 when he won a special elec-tion to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.Johnson styled himself as a “New Dealer” and spokespersonfor the small ranchers and struggling farmers of his district.He caught the eye of President Franklin Roosevelt, who tookJohnson under his wing. Roosevelt helped him secure keycommittee assignments in Congress and steer much-neededelectrification and water projects to his Texas district. Johnson,in turn, idolized FDR and imitated his leadership style.

Once in the House, Johnson eagerly eyed a seat in theSenate. In 1948, after an exhausting, bitterly fought cam-paign, he won the Democratic primary election for theSenate by a margin of only 87 votes out of 988,000.

A MASTER POLITICIAN Johnson proved himself a masterof party politics and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, andhe rose to the position of Senate majority leader in 1955.People called his legendary ability to persuade senators tosupport his bills the “LBJ treatment.” As a reporter for theSaturday Evening Post explained, Johnson also used thistreatment to win over reporters.

A PERSONAL VOICE STEWART ALSOP

“ The Majority Leader [Johnson] was, it seemed, in arelaxed, friendly, reminiscent mood. But by gradual stagesthis mood gave way to something rather like a human hurri-cane. Johnson was up, striding about his office, talking with-out pause, occasionally leaning over, his nose almost touch-ing the reporter’s, to shake the reporter’s shoulder or grabhis knee. . . . Appeals were made, to the Almighty, to theshades of the departed great, to the reporter’s finerinstincts and better nature, while the reporter, unable to geta word in edgewise, sat collapsed upon a leather sofa, eyesglazed, mouth half open.”

—“The New President,” Saturday Evening Post, December 14, 1963

Johnson’s deft handling of Congress led to the passageof the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a voting rights measure thatwas the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.Johnson’s knack for achieving legislative results had cap-tured John F. Kennedy’s attention, too, during Kennedy’srun for the White House. To Kennedy, Johnson’s congres-sional connections and his Southern Protestant background compensated for hisown drawbacks as a candidate, so he asked Johnson to be his running mate.Johnson’s presence on the ticket helped Kennedy win key states in the South,especially Texas, which went Democratic by just a few thousand votes.

Johnson’s Domestic AgendaIn the wake of Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson addressed a joint ses-sion of Congress. It was the fifth day of his administration. “All I have I wouldhave given gladly not to be standing here today,” he began. Kennedy had inspiredAmericans to begin to solve national and world problems. Johnson urged Congressto pass the civil rights and tax-cut bills that Kennedy had sent to Capitol Hill.


A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingMotives

Why didKennedy chooseJohnson to be hisrunning mate?

A. AnswerJohnsonbrought balanceto the ticketbecause of hisexperience andinfluence inCongress andhis SouthernProtestant back-ground.

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

LYNDON B. JOHNSON 1908–1973

LBJ received his teaching degreefrom Southwest Texas StateTeachers College in 1930. To fi-nance his own education, Johnsontook a year off from college towork at a Mexican-Americanschool in Cotulla, Texas. He latertaught public speaking anddebate at the Sam Houston HighSchool in Houston. At age 26, hebecame the state director of theNational Youth Administration, aNew Deal agency.

As president, Johnson pushedhard for the passage of theElementary and SecondaryEducation Act. In 1965, hesigned the act at the one-roomschoolhouse near Stonewall,Texas, where his own educationhad begun. Johnson later wrote,

“My education had begun withwhat I learned in that school-room. Now what I had learnedand experienced since that timehad brought me back to fulfill adream.”

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B

In February 1964 Congress passed a tax reduction ofover $10 billion into law. As the Democrats had hoped, thetax cut spurred economic growth. People spent more,which meant profits for businesses, which increased taxrevenues and lowered the federal budget deficit from $6 bil-lion in 1964 to $4 billion in 1966.

Then in July, Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of1964 through Congress, persuading Southern senators tostop blocking its passage. It prohibited discrimination basedon race, religion, national origin, and sex and granted thefederal government new powers to enforce its provisions.

THE WAR ON POVERTY Following these successes, LBJpressed on with his own agenda—to alleviate poverty. Earlyin 1964, he had declared “unconditional war on poverty inAmerica” and proposed sweeping legislation designed tohelp Americans “on the outskirts of hope.”

In August 1964, Congress enacted the EconomicOpportunity Act (EOA), approving nearly $1 billion for youth programs, antipoverty measures, small-businessloans, and job training. The EOA legislation created:

• the Job Corps Youth Training Program• VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)• Project Head Start, an education program for underpriv-

ileged preschoolers• the Community Action Program, which encouraged

poor people to participate in public-works programs.

THE 1964 ELECTION In 1964, the Republicans nominat-ed conservative senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona tooppose Johnson. Goldwater believed the federal govern-ment had no business trying to right social and economicwrongs such as poverty, discrimination, and lack of oppor-tunity. He attacked such long-established federal programsas Social Security, which he wanted to make voluntary, andthe Tennessee Valley Authority, which he wanted to sell.

In 1964, most American people were in tune withJohnson—they believed that government could and shouldhelp solve the nation’s problems. Moreover, Goldwater had

frightened many Americans by suggesting that he might use nuclear weapons onCuba and North Vietnam. Johnson’s campaign capitalized on this fear. It produceda chilling television commercial in which a picture of a little girl counting the petals

on a daisy dissolved into a mushroom cloud created by anatomic bomb. Where Goldwater advocated interven-

tion in Vietnam, Johnson assured the American peo-ple that sending U.S. troops there “would offer no

solution at all to the real problem of Vietnam.”LBJ won the election by a landslide, win-

ning 61 percent of the popular vote and 486electoral votes, while Senator Goldwater wononly 52. The Democrats also increased theirmajority in Congress. For the first time since

1938, a Democratic president did not need thevotes of conservative Southern Democrats in order

to get laws passed. Now Johnson could launch hisreform program in earnest.

688 CHAPTER 20

WORLD STAGEWORLD STAGE

THE WAR IN VIETNAMAs LBJ pushed through hisdomestic programs, the U.S. grewmore interested in halting thespread of communism around theworld. In Vietnam, anti-Communist nationalists controlledSouth Vietnam while Communistleader Ho Chi Minh had takenover North Vietnam. The GenevaAccords had temporarily providedpeace, dividing Vietnam along the17th parallel into two distinctpolitical regions. Despite thistreaty, the North was supportingCommunist rebels who were try-ing to take over the South.

Though Presidents Eisenhowerand Kennedy had provided eco-nomic and military aid to SouthVietnam, soon the U.S. would bedirectly involved in fighting the war.

17th Parallel

Gulf of Tonkin

SouthChina Sea

Gulfof

Thailand

Hanoi

Saigon

LAOS

CHINA

THAILAND

NORTH VIETNAM

CAMBODIA SOUTHVIETNAM

BackgroundSee poverty onpage R43 in theEconomicsHandbook.

Campaign buttons like thisone capitalized onthe nation’sgrowing liberaldemocraticsentiments.

▼

B. AnswerPoverty and lackof opportunity.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

IdentifyingProblems

Whatproblems inAmerican societydid the EconomicOpportunity Actseek to address?

686-693-Chapter 20 10/21/02 5:48 PM Page 688

Building the Great Society In May 1964, Johnson had summed up his vision for America in a phrase: theGreat Society. In a speech at the University of Michigan, Johnson outlined alegislative program that would end poverty and racial injustice. But, he told anenthusiastic crowd, that was “just the beginning.” Johnson envisioned a legisla-tive program that would create not only a higher standard of living and equalopportunity, but also promote a richer quality of life for all.

A PERSONAL VOICE LYNDON B. JOHNSON

“ The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich hismind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance tobuild and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a placewhere the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands ofcommerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a placewhere man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors creation forits own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race.”

—“The Great Society,” May 22, 1964

Like his idol FDR, LBJ wanted to change America. By the time Johnson leftthe White House in 1969, Congress had passed 206 of his measures. The presidentpersonally led the battle to get most of them passed.

EDUCATION During 1965 and 1966, the LBJ administration introduced a flurryof bills to Congress. Johnson considered education “the key which can unlockthe door to the Great Society.” The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of1965 provided more than $1 billion in federal aid to help public and parochialschools purchase textbooks and new library materials. This was the first majorfederal aid package for education in the nation’s history.


Thesepreschoolers in a Head Startclassroom areamong themillions ofAmericans whosedaily lives havebeen affected byGreat Societyprograms.

▼

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Great Society Programs, 1964–1967

HEALTHCARE LBJ and Congress changed Social Security by establishingMedicare and Medicaid. Medicare provided hospital insurance and low-costmedical insurance for almost every American age 65 or older. Medicaid extend-ed health insurance to welfare recipients.

HOUSING Congress also made several important decisions that shifted thenation’s political power from rural to urban areas. These decisions included:appropriating money to build some 240,000 units of low-rent public housing andhelping low- and moderate-income families pay for better private housing; estab-lishing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and appoint-ing Robert Weaver, the first African-American cabinet member in American his-tory, as Secretary of HUD.

690 CHAPTER 20

POVERTY1964 Tax Reduction Act cut corporate and

individual taxes to stimulate growth. 1964 Economic Opportunity Act created Job

Corps, VISTA, Project Head Start, and otherprograms to fight the “war on poverty.”

1965 Medicare Act established Medicare andMedicaid programs.

1965 Appalachian Regional Development Act targeted aid for highways, health centers,and resource development in that economically depressed area.

CITIES1965 Omnibus Housing Act provided money

for low-income housing.1965 Department of Housing and Urban

Development was formed to administer federal housing programs.

1966 Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Area Redevelopment Act funded slum rebuilding, mass transit, and other improvements for selected “model cities.”

EDUCATION1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act

directed money to schools for textbooks,library materials, and special education.

1965 Higher Education Act funded scholarships and low-interest loans for college students.

1965 National Foundation on the Arts and theHumanities was created to financially assistpainters, musicians, actors, and other artists.

1967 Corporation for Public Broadcasting wasformed to fund educational TV and radio broadcasting.

ENVIRONMENT1965 Wilderness Preservation Act set aside over

9 million acres for national forest lands.1965 Water Quality Act required states to clean

up their rivers.

1965 Clean Air Act Amendment directed the federal government to establish emission standards for new motor vehicles.

1967 Air Quality Act set federal air pollution guide-lines and extended federal enforcement power.

DISCRIMINATION1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination in

public accommodations, housing, and jobs;increased federal power to prosecute civilrights abuses.

1964 Twenty-Fourth Amendment abolished the poll tax in federal elections.

1965 Voting Rights Act ended the practice of requiring voters to pass literacy tests and permitted the federal government to monitorvoter registration.

1965 Immigration Act ended national-origins quotas established in 1924.

CONSUMER ADVOCACY 1966 Truth in Packaging Act set standards for

labeling consumer products.1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety

Act set federal safety standards for the auto and tire industries.

1966 Highway Safety Act required states to set up highway safety programs.

1966 Department of Transportation was created to deal with national air, rail, and highwaytransportation.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting ChartsWhat did the Great Society programs indicate about the federal government’s changing role?

C

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CComparing

How areMedicare andMedicaid similar?

C. AnswerBoth providegovernment-sponsoredhealth insur-ance.

SkillbuilderAnswerThe programswere wide-rang-ing, whichreflected anexpanding rolefor the federalgovernment inaddressing certain problems of Americansociety.

686-693-Chapter 20 10/21/02 5:48 PM Page 690


IMMIGRATION The Great Society also brought profoundchanges to the nation’s immigration laws. The ImmigrationAct of 1924 and the National Origins Act of 1924 had estab-lished immigration quotas that discriminated strongly againstpeople from outside Western Europe. The Act set a quota ofabout 150,000 people annually. It discriminated againstsouthern and eastern Europeans and barred Asians complete-ly. The Immigration Act of 1965 opened the door formany non-European immigrants to settle in the United Statesby ending quotas based on nationality.

THE ENVIRONMENT In 1962, Silent Spring, a book by RachelCarson, had exposed a hidden danger: the effects of pesti-cides on the environment. Carson’s book and the public’soutcry resulted in the Water Quality Act of 1965, whichrequired states to clean up rivers. Johnson also ordered thegovernment to search out the worst chemical polluters.“There is no excuse . . . for chemical companies and oilrefineries using our major rivers as pipelines for toxic wastes.”Such words and actions helped trigger the environmentalmovement in the United States. (See Chapter 24.)

CONSUMER PROTECTION Consumer advocates also madeheadway. They convinced Congress to pass major safety laws,including a truth-in-packaging law that set standards for label-ing consumer goods. Ralph Nader, a young lawyer, wrote abook, Unsafe at Any Speed, that sharply criticized the U.S. auto-mobile industry for ignoring safety concerns. His testimonyhelped persuade Congress to establish safety standards for automobiles and tires.Precautions extended to food, too. Congress passed the Wholesome Meat Act of1967. “Americans can feel a little safer now in their homes, on the road, at thesupermarket, and in the department store,” said Johnson.

Reforms of the Warren CourtThe wave of liberal reform that characterized the Great Society alsoswept through the Supreme Court of the 1960s. Beginning with the1954 landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled schoolsegregation unconstitutional, the Court under Chief Justice Earl Warrentook an activist stance on the leading issues of the day.

Several major court decisions in the 1960s affected American soci-ety. The Warren Court banned prayer in public schools and declaredstate-required loyalty oaths unconstitutional. It limited the power ofcommunities to censor books and films and said that free speechincluded the wearing of black armbands to school by antiwar students.Furthermore, the Court brought about change in federal and state reap-portionment and the criminal justice system.

CONGRESSIONAL REAPPORTIONMENT In a key series of decisions,the Warren Court addressed the issue of reapportionment, or the wayin which states redraw election districts based on the changing number of peoplein them. By 1960, about 80 percent of Americans lived in cities and suburbs.However, many states had failed to change their congressional districts to reflectthis development; instead, rural districts might have fewer than 200,000 people,while some urban districts had more than 600,000. Thus the voters in rural areashad more representation—and also more power—than those in urban areas.

D

Chief Justice Earl Warren

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingEffects

How did theImmigration Act of1965 change thenation’simmigrationsystem?

D. AnswerIt replaced thenation originssystem, whichdiscriminatedagainst peoplefrom outsideWestern Europe.

NOWNOW THENTHEN

MEDICARE ON THE LINEWhen President Johnson signedthe Medicare bill in 1965, only halfof the nation’s elderly had healthinsurance. Today, thanks largely toMedicare, nearly all persons 65years or older are eligible.

In 1998, federal spending onMedicare was about $160 billion.In recent years, experts havedebated over whether Medicarecan be sustained in the face ofchanging trends: (1) people areliving longer, (2) health care con-tinues to become more expen-sive, and (3) the large babyboomer generation is movingtoward retirement age. Thoughmost Americans are not in favorof cutbacks to Medicare, theBalanced Budget Act of 1997reduced federal spending onMedicare from 1998 through2002 by $112 billion.

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Baker v. Carr (1962) was the first of several decisions that established the prin-ciple of “one person, one vote.” The Court asserted that the federal courts had theright to tell states to reapportion—redivide—their districts for more equal repre-sentation. In later decisions, the Court ruled that congressional district bound-aries should be redrawn so that districts would be equal in population, and inReynolds v. Sims (1964), it extended the principle of “one person, one vote” tostate legislative districts. (See Reynolds v. Sims, page 774.) These decisions led to ashift of political power throughout the nation from rural to urban areas.

RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED Other Warren Court decisions greatly expandedthe rights of people accused of crimes. In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Court ruledthat evidence seized illegally could not be used in state courts. This is called theexclusionary rule. In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the justices required criminalcourts to provide free legal counsel to those who could not afford it. In Escobedov. Illinois (1964), the justices ruled that an accused person has a right to have alawyer present during police questioning. In 1966, the Court went one step fur-ther in Miranda v. Arizona, where it ruled that all suspects must be read their rightsbefore questioning. (See Miranda v. Arizona, page 694.)

These rulings greatly divided public opinion. Liberals praised the decisions,arguing that they placed necessary limits on police power and protected the rightof all citizens to a fair trial. Conservatives, however, bitterly criticized the Court.They claimed that Mapp and Miranda benefited criminal suspects and severely lim-ited the power of the police to investigate crimes. During the late 1960s and 1970s,Republican candidates for office seized on the “crime issue,” portraying liberals andDemocrats as being soft on crime and citing the decisions of the Warren Court asmajor obstacles to fighting crime. E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

EContrasting

What were thediffering reactionsto the WarrenCourt decisions onthe rights of theaccused?

E. AnswerLiberals sup-ported the deci-sions for pro-tecting individ-ual rights, whileconservativescriticized theCourt for pro-tecting criminalsuspects andlimiting policepower.

“Failures of the Great Societyprove that government-sponsored

programs do not work.”The major attack on the Great Society is that it created“big government”: an oversized bureaucracy,too many regulations, waste and fraud, and rising bud-get deficits. As journalist David Alpern writes, thiscomes from the notion that government could solve allthe nation’s problems: “The Great Society createdunwieldy new mechanisms like the Office of EconomicOpportunity and began ‘throwing dollars at problems. . . .’Spawned in the process were vast new constituenciesof government bureaucrats and beneficiaries whosepolitical clout made it difficult to kill programs off.”

Conservatives say the Great Society’s social wel-fare programs created aculture of dependency.Economist Paul CraigRoberts argues that “TheGreat Society . . . reflectedour lack of confidence inthe institutions of a freesociety. We came to theview that it is governmentspending and not businessinnovation that createsjobs and that it is society’sfault if anyone is poor.”

“The Great Society succeededin prompting far-reaching

social change.”Defenders of the Great Society contend that it betteredthe lives of millions of Americans. Historian JohnMorton Blum notes, “The Great Society initiated poli-cies that by 1985 had had profound consequences:Blacks now voted at about the same rate as whites,and nearly 6,000 blacks held public offices; almostevery elderly citizen had medical insurance, and theaged were no poorer than Americans as a whole; alarge majority of small children attended preschool programs.”

Attorney Margaret Burnham argues that the civilrights gains alone justify the Great Society: “For tens of thousands of humanbeings . . . giving promiseof a better life was signifi-cant . . . . What the GreatSociety affirmed was theresponsibility of the federalgovernment to take mea-sures necessary to bringinto the social and eco-nomic mainstream any seg-ment of the people [whohad been] historicallyexcluded.”

C O U N T E R P O I N TC O U N T E R P O I N TP O I N TP O I N T

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

CONNECT TO HISTORY1. Evaluating Do you think the Great Society was a

success or a failure? Explain.

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R17.

CONNECT TO TODAY2. Analyzing Social Problems Research the most press-

ing problems in your own neighborhood or precinct.Then propose a social program you think wouldaddress at least one of those problems while avoidingthe pitfalls of the Great Society programs.

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Impact of the Great Society The Great Society and the Warren Court changed the United States. People dis-agree on whether these changes left the nation better or worse, but most agree onone point: no president in the post–World War II era extended the power andreach of the federal government more than Lyndon Johnson. The optimism ofthe Johnson presidency fueled an activist era in all three branches of government,for at least the first few years.

The “war on poverty” did help. The number of poor people fell from 21 per-cent of the population in 1962 to 11 percent in 1973. However, many ofJohnson’s proposals, though well intended, were hastily conceived and proveddifficult to accomplish.

Johnson’s massive tax cut spurred the economy. But funding the Great Societycontributed to a growing budget deficit—a problem that continued for decades.Questions about government finances, as well as debates over the effectiveness ofthese programs and the role of the federal government, left a number of people dis-illusioned. A conservative backlash beganto take shape as a new group of Republicanleaders rose to power. In 1966, for example,a conservative Hollywood actor namedRonald Reagan swept to victory in the racefor governor of California over theDemocratic incumbent.

Thousands of miles away, the increaseof Communist forces in Vietnam alsobegan to overshadow the goals of theGreat Society. The fear of communism wasdeeply rooted in the minds of Americansfrom the Cold War era. Four years after ini-tiating the Great Society, Johnson, a peacecandidate in 1964, would be labeled a“hawk”—a supporter of one of the mostdivisive wars in recent U.S. history.


•Lyndon Baines Johnson•Economic Opportunity Act

•Great Society•Medicare and Medicaid

•Immigration Act of 1965•Warren Court

•reapportionment1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

List four or more Great Societyprograms and Warren Court rulings.

Choose one item and describe itslasting effects.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

Explain how Lyndon Johnson’spersonal and political experiencesmight have influenced his actions aspresident. Think About:

• his family’s background and edu-cation

• his relationship with FranklinRoosevelt

• his powers of persuasion

4. ANALYZING VISUAL SOURCESLook at the political cartoon above.What do you think the artist wastrying to convey about the Johnsonadministration?Great Society Warren Court

Programs Rulings

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

IdentifyingProblems

What eventsand problems mayhave affected thesuccess of theGreat Society?

F. PossibleAnswersSome programscontributed tothe budgetdeficit; federalspending,deficits, andinterventionsparked conserv-ative backlash;the Vietnam Wardrew away fundsand attention.

F

Image not availablefor use on CD-ROM.Please refer to theimage in the textbook.

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u.s. history the new frontier and the great society · john f. kennedy is elected president. 1960...

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