CHAPTER 24

CAMELOT TO WATERGATE

1960-1976

FOCUS

-During the brief administration of JFK his leadership and the American people were repeatedly tested by staggering challenges at home and abroad.

- During LBJ’s administration federal spending for social programs, along with the cost of the war in Vietnam strained the government’s budget.

-The Nixon administration was troubled by questions about illegal activities that led to Nixon’s resignation and left the nation with deep wounds.

CHAPTER 24-1

KENNEDY’S NEW FRONTIER

THE ELECTION OF 1960

-Republican candidate

  • Richard Nixon – CA
  • VP candidate – Henry Cabot Lodge
  • UN Ambassador
  • Quaker raised by his struggling mother
  • 47 years old
  • served in the US House
  • Served for 8 years as Ike’s vice president

-Democratic candidate

  • John F. Kennedy – MASS
  • VP candidate – Lyndon B Johnson
  • Texas senator
  • Catholic
  • Second oldest of a wealthy family
  • 43 years old
  • Served in the US Senate

The Impact of Television

-JFK and Nixon were both “cold warriors”

-Both believed that communism was the chief threat to the way of life of people of the US

-Kennedy challenged Nixon to a debate

  • Both televised and radio broadcast
  • Those listening on radio gave Nixon the victory
  • Those watching on tv gave Kennedy the victory
  • “It was television that more than anything else that turned the tide.”

Issue of Religion

-No Catholic had ever been president

-Claimed that a catholic president could not make any decision independent from Rome

-Kennedy answers by stressing his belief in separation of church and state

  • Declared he would resign rather than violate either his conscience or the interest of the nation

Kennedy Wins

-Carries the win with the smallest margin of victory in American History

  • Wins popular vote by 120,000
  • Wins electoral vote 303-219
  • Many states had only a few thousand “swing votes”
  • Kennedy did not enter the White House without a mandate
  • An endorsement of his ideas from the American people

THE NEW FRONTIER

-Kennedy’s inaugural address

  • Defined the role of the US in the world
  • “The torch had been passed to a new generation”
  • Committed to the rights for which the US had stood for since the Revolutionary War
  • Warned Communist countries US would remain strong
  • Urged both sides to search for a lasting peace
  • Hoped to join forces to fight
  • “tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself”
  • Quote pg 724
  • Kennedy’s administration was known as “New Freedom”
  • Future of US in the hands those born in the 20th century
  • JFK and his advisors were intelligent and tough minded
  • Sure that they had the ability to make the country and the world a better place to live

KENNEDY’S ECONOMIC PROGRAM

-New Freedom was a continuation of the “New Deal” and the “Fair Deal”

-JFK promises to stimulate the economy

  • Tax cuts
  • Increased federal spending

Promoting Economic Growth

-1960

-Economy was slowing down

-Growth rate only 3% a year

-Kennedy tries to stimulate the economy and increase jobs

  • Kennedy chose not to rely on federal spending
  • Thought it would cause inflation
  • Tries to increase business production
  • Asked businessmen to hold down prices
  • Asked labor leaders to hold down requests for pay increases

Conflict With Steel Companies

-Sec of Labor

  • Arthur Goldberg
  • Was able to get labor unions in the steel industry to reduce their demands for higher wages
  • Steel companies still raised their prices
  • Kennedy is outraged
  • Threatened to have the Defense Dept. buy cheaper steel from foreign countries
  • Also instructed the Justice Dept to investigate possible “price fixing”
  • Steel companies back down and lower prices
  • JFK had strained relations with the nation’s business leaders through this move
  • JFK was able to raise the growth rate of the economy, doubling it during his administration

Legislative Victories

-Won some victories on his domestic programs

  • Got a bill passed for federal aid to education
  • Attempted to get a bill passed to wipe out poverty
  • Especially in
  • Appalachian Mountain region
  • Most of the south
  • Inner cities
  • JFK supported the Area Redevelopment Act
  • Designed to encourage industry to relocate in economically depressed areas
  • Housing Act Bill of 1961
  • $5 billion
  • for urban renewal
  • Program to improve homes and neighborhoods in the inner city
  • JFK gained increased funding for NASA
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Challenged NASA with putting a man on the moon by 1970
  • $20 billion for the space program
  • JFK justifies it by calling it a challenge to the nation’s prestige and a symbol of the cold war rivalry with USSR

Conflict With Congress

-Accounted for much of JFK’s domesticate programs not being passed

-Democrats enjoyed a large majority in both houses

-Southern Democrats and conservatives rejected many of the New Frontier measures

  • Voted down JFK’s proposal for a new cabinet for urban affairs
  • Voted down a proposal for national health insurance (Medicare) to help elderly pay medical bills
  • JFK called the Senate action “a serious defeat for every American family”

TRAGEDY IN DALLAS

-JFK stumping for reelection and his programs of 1964

-Traveled to Dallas Texas

  • Trying to smooth over differences and gather support

-November 22, 1963

  • JFK is assassinated
  • Columnists Mary McGrory to Daniel Moynihan a member of JFK’s staff – “We’ll never laugh again”
  • Moynihan’s response
  • “Heavens, Mary we’ll laugh again. It’s just that we’ll never be young again.
  • Indicated the death of JFK ‘snuffed out’ the feeling of youth
  • JFK’s death saddened people world wide
  • Italy
  • India
  • Africa
  • President of Guinea
  • “I have lost my only true friend in the outside world”

The Warren Commission

-Lee Harvey Oswald

  • Assumed assassin
  • Shot to death by Jack Ruby
  • Some speculate Ruby shot Oswald to keep him from talking about others involved in the assassination

-1964

  • Chief Justice Earl Warren heads a committee to investigate
  • Concludes Oswald acted alone
  • Many questions unanswered
  • Conspiracy theory still accepted today by many

Johnson Takes Over

-Lyndon Baines Johnson

-Takes the oath of office in the plane that will return JFK’s body to Washington

  • Jackie Kennedy stands by his side during swearing in

-LBJ inherits unsolved problems and unfulfilled promises of JFK

-Many of JFK’s domestic programs become law only 2 years after his death

  • Johnson and public opinion over JFK’s death made possible sweeping social reform

DID YOU KNOW? PG 723

VISUALIZING HISTORY PG 723

USING MAPS PG 724

SIDELIGHT: KENNEDY’S WIT PG 724

SIDELIGHT: THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT PG 725

VISUALIZING HISTORY PG 725

DID YOU KNOW? PG 725

SECTION 1 ASSESSMENT PG 726

HISTORY AND SCIENCE PG 727

THE SPACE RACE