James A.

Henretta David Brody

America: A Concise History

Fourth Edition
CHAPTER 28 The Liberal Consensus: Flaming Out 19601968

Copyright 2010 by Bedford/St. Martins

Introduction
1961, John Kennedy was sworn-in as president. This represented a generational shift in power. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Kennedys politics of idealism built into the greatest burst of liberal reform since the New Deal.
19611968: 2 Kennedys, dead. Dr. King, dead.

(p.823)

1961-1968, Liberal Reform:

Civil Rights Medicare, War on Poverty 1968, the Democratic National Convention, The young idealists who believed in Kennedy now detested Kennedys liberalism. The convention was a disaster. How did the stirring Kennedy dream metamorphose into the DNC of 68?
(p.823)

John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Expectation The New Politics The Kennedy Administration The Civil Rights Movement Stirs Kennedy, Cold Warrior The Vietnam Puzzle Assassination

Kennedy and the Politics of Expectation

Beginning with FDR, Americans increasingly looked to Washington for answers to problems. Kennedy willingly stepped into that role. He promised a New Frontier. Henry Fairly, Politics of Expectation. The politics of expectation quickly ran into unyielding reality.
(p.824)

The New Politics

Charisma, style and personality were more important than platforms and issues in the new politics. The power of media. Television and commercials. Kennedy was comfortable with media and new politics. Harvard, money, Boston. Normal Mailer called him our leading man.
(p.824)

The New Politics

A major innovation in the 1960 presidential campaign was a series of televised debates between the candidates. Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, was a more experienced politician but was awkard with the new media. In the debates, Nixon looked less photogenic under studio lights. Television (and Chicago) decided the election. (on radio, Nixon won). 120,000 votes.
(p.824)

The Kennedy Administration

Kennedy recruited unusually able and ambitious people, such as Richard McNamara. Former head of Ford Motor Co. who became secretary of defense. Robert Kennedy, became a trusted advisor and Attorney General.
(p.825)

Wars of Liberation
Jan. 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced support for wars of liberation wherever they would occur.

Cuba Vietnam
April 17, 1961, a force of 1400 troops trained by the CIA were defeated and apprehended in the Bay of Pigs on Cubas southern coast.
(p.826)

Bold Initiatives
Peace Corps. Agency for International Development Food for Peace The Alliance for Progress a 10 year plan for the Americas. $20 billion partnership. NASA: May 5, 1961, Alan Shephard first American in space. John Glenn 1st to orbit.

(p.826)

The Kennedy Administration

Kennedys most striking achievement was the application of modern economic theory to government fiscal policy. The Keynesian approach of deliberate deficit spending to stimulate economic growth was already well known. Kennedys economic advisors proposed sharp tax cuts, to generate more consumer spending, more jobs and ultimately higher tax revenues.
(p.827)

The Civil Rights Movement Stirs

Kennedy was cautious There was stiff opposition in congress by southern Democrats. Sit-in by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Freedom rides in 1961. Birmingham, AL in April 1963.
(p.827)

The Civil Rights Movement Stirs

Martin Luther King, Jr. called for demonstrations in the most segregated city in the United States: Birmingham, Alabama. April 1963, thousands of black marchers tried to picket Birminghams department stores. Police used dogs, electric cattle prods, and high pressure fire hoses to break up the crowds. June 11, 1963, Kennedy was outraged and decided to intervene. Kennedy denounced racism on television, that night Medgar Evers was shot.
(p.827)

 Medgar Evers, (1925 63) was a civil rights activist from Mississippi. He became active in the civil rights movement after returning from overseas service in World War II and completing secondary education.

Malcolm X, (1925 65) Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans.

(p.828)

I HAVE A DREAM

Kennedy, Cold Warrior

Kennedy was a resolute cold warrior who took a hard line against Communism. Eisenhower emphasized the nuclear arsenal Kennedy emphasized a new policy of flexible response which increased conventional forces. Kennedys defense budget reached the highest level since the advent of the Cold War. June, 1961, Khrushchev isolated East Berlin from Berlins western sector. Kennedy sent 40,000 troops.
(p.829)

Berlin Wall/Cuba
The Soviets responded with construction of the Berlin Wall. The climax came in October 1962. Kennedy announced that the Soviets had placed ballistic missiles in Cuba. Kennedy announced imposition of a quarantine on all offensive military equipment. The world held its breath for one week. Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba and Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles.
(p.829)

Kennedy, Cold Warrior

The risk of nuclear war, greater during the Cuban missile crisis than at any other time, prompted a small thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations. The ultimate effect of the Cuban missile crisis was a reduction in cold war tensions. Kennedy softened his Cold War rhetoric and chastened Soviet leaders agreed to talk. August 1963, the three principle nuclear powersthe U.S., Great Britain and the Soviet Unionannounced a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. (p.829)

The Vietnam Puzzle

Kennedy inherited involvement in Vietnam. He decided to try out new counter insurgency methods of his flexible response doctrine. The army developed the Green Berets and tried them out in the Vietnamese jungle. The corrupt/repressive Diem regime was installed by Eisenhower in 1954. 1963, Buddhists accused Diem of persecution. The Vietcong arose in response to Diems repressive tactics.
(p.829)

The Vietnam Puzzle

May 1963, militant Buddhists staged dramatic demonstrations, including self Immolations. Kennedy let it be known to Saigon that the U.S. would support a military coup. Nov. 1, 1963, Diem was overthrown and assassinated, something not foreseen. At that point there were only 16,000 U.S. advisors in Vietnam.
(p.830)

Assassination
November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Texas, allegedly by 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald. Walter Cronkite Oswald was also assassinated a few days later. Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as Jacqueline Kennedy looked on. The aura of the Kennedy mystique was fed by his traumatic death, his youth, marriage and charisma. He actually had Addisons disease.
(p.831)

Camelot
No presidency ever matched the Kennedy aura of Camelot in the tradition of the mythical King Arthur. Every president after Kennedy embraced the idea of trying to create an image through carefully managed exposure to media. Kennedys image of a martyred leader ironically produce more legislative results than if he had lived.
(p.831)

Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society The Momentum for Civil Rights Enacting the Liberal Agenda

Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society

Lyndon Johnson was a seasoned Texas politician, a longtime Senate leader. Johnson was a rough-edged character who scrambled his way up. Johnson lacked the Kennedy aura, but he capitalized on Kennedys assassination in order to bring to fruition many of Kennedys ideals and programs. He called his ambitious agenda the Great Society
(p.831)

The Momentum for Civil Rights

Johnson quickly pushed for civil rights as a memorial to Kennedy. His motives were both political and personal. He wanted to show that he was president of all the people, and not just the south. Congress approved the most far reaching civil rights law since Reconstruction. Discrimination in employment was prohibited.
(p.831)

The Momentum for Civil Rights

The keystone for the Civil Rights movement was Title VII, outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex. Another section guaranteed access to public accommodations and schools. The law established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to implement the provisions.
(p.832)

The Momentum for Civil Rights

In 1964, civil rights organizations mounted a major campaign in Mississippi, known as Freedom summer the effort drew several thousand volunteers from across the country. 15 civil rights workers were murdered. March 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a march from Selma, AL to the State capital. State troopers attacked the marchers with tear gas and clubs. Edmund Pettus Bridge
(p.832)

The Momentum for Civil Rights

August 1965, The Voting Rights Act passed without outlawed literacy tests to prevent blacks from registering to vote. The Twenty-Fourth amendment (1964) outlawed the poll tax in federal elections. The Voting Rights Act allowed millions of blacks to vote for the first time. In 1960 only 20% of blacks were registered. By 1971 registration exceeded 62%.
(p.832)

Enacting the Liberal Agenda

Johnsons success stemmed in part from the 1964 election in which he defeated Barry Goldwater. Goldwater ran on an anti-communist, antigovernment platform. Johnson and Humphrey won in a landslide. Goldwaters candidacy marked the beginning of a grass roots conservative movement.
(p.832)

Enacting the Liberal Agenda

Johnson was a New Deal liberal and held an expansive view of the role of government. Now he had a popular mandate and a filibuster proof majority in Congress. April 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Johnson also passed Medicare and Medicaid. Lady Bird and the Highway Beautification Act of 1965.
(p.833)

Enacting the Liberal Agenda

1965, the National Endowments for the Art and the Humanities supported the work of artists, writers and scholars. The Immigration Act of 1965 abandoned the quota system that had favored Europeans. The law also allowed close family members to immigrate outside the quota system. This especially benefited Latin Americans and Asians and encouraged diversity.
(p.833)

The End of Poverty

Johnson called poverty a national disgrace. He sought to end poverty in our time through his Great Society plan The Great Society policies sought to reduce poverty by:
expanding Social Security coverage to more workers. expanding public-housing and rent-subsidy programs. expanding the food stamp program.

(p.834)

Economic Opportunity Act.

Enacted in 1964, led to a number of programs. Head Start, free nursery schools. Job Corp, and Upward Bound. Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) The Community Action Program.
(p.834)

Strains on the liberal coalition

The enactment of Great Society programs inevitably led to competition and strains among liberal constituencies. The Vietnam War began to siphon off funding. 1966, $22 Billion went to Vietnam compared to $1.2 Billion on the War on Poverty. Martin Luther King, Jr. said the Great Society was shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam.
(p.835)

Accomplishments
How much was achieved is in dispute. 1963-68, The proportion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 20% to 13. 1960s, the black poverty line feel by half, millions of blacks moved into the middle class. Conservatives credited the decades booming economy rather than government programs. Johnsons lofty rhetoric raised expectation and Americans were disillusioned with the War on Poverty.
(p.835)

Into the Quagmire, 19601968

Escalation Public Opinion on Vietnam Student Activism

Into the Quagmire, 19601968

Kennedy inherited Vietnam from Eisenhower and Johnson inherited it from Kennedy. Only a massive intervention could prevent the collapse of South Vietnam. Johnson believed in the Cold War policy of containment. Although Kennedy might have had second thoughts, Johnson had no such qualms. He was determined not to lose SE Asia to communism.
(p.835)

Escalation
Johnson was unwilling to level with the American people. He did not want to endanger his domestic agenda. He ran in 1964 on a pledge not to escalate the war, although he fully intended to do so. 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired at the destroyer Maddax. Total damage = only a single bullet hole. In the entire Congress, only two senators voted against the resolution.
(p.835)

Gulf of Tonkin resolution

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution formally declared that U.S. forces in Vietnam had been authorized to repel any hostile action taken by the North Vietnamese against them.

(p.835)

American Invervention
After the 1964 election, Johnson began an American takeover of the war in Vietnam.
Deployment of ground troops Intensification of bombing against the North.

March 8, 1965, the first Marines waded ashore at Da Nang. By 1966, 380,000 soldiers in Vietnam. 1967, 485,000 1968, 536,000.
(p.836)

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Rolling Thunder was a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. One target was the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was an elaborate network of trails, bridges that stretch from No Vietnam through Cambodia and Laos into So. Vietnam. By 1968, a million tons of bombs had fallen on No. Vietnam 800 tons a day for three and a half years.
(p.837)

Bombing and Agent Orange

The bombing a little effect on the Vietcongs ability to wage war. Instead of destroying morale the bombing hardened their will to fight. The massive commitment of troops and air power devastated Vietnams countryside. Defoliation with Agent Orange was intended to remove cover but undercut the economic base and had highly toxic effects.
(p.837)

Reasons for failure

American soldiers and dollars distorted the econ and triggered inflation and black market activity. Johnsons advisors debated about why American arms were failing to turn the war around. Ultimately, Americas failure to subdue North Vietnam was due to:
A lack of stability in and popular support for the South Vietnamese government Lack of complete commitment to victory. Overconfidence in U.S. firepower and technology (p.837)

Public Opinion
Johnson was confident of the broad Cold War consensus. Both Democrats and Republicans approved Johnsons escalation in Vietnam, and so did public opinion polls in 1965 and 1966. Public opinion began to shift as night after night Americans saw the carnage of war on their television screens. Born On The Fourth Of July: Part-8 Part-9 Kent State 1971
(p.837)

 1966, television coverage of hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations committee were chaired by Sen J. William Fulbright, a critic. Economic problems put Johnson on the defensive. The war cost $27 bill in 1967. Johnson asked for a 10% surcharge on income taxes. An inflationary spiral began that continued throughout the 1970s. Born On The Fourth Of July: Part-13 7 min Part-14 Miami Beach Repub convention
(p.839)

SANE
An antiwar movement began to crystalize. There was a new generation of peace activists such as SANE (the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy). After 1965, they were joined by student groups, clergy, civil rights advocates. The Antiwar movement was soon capable of mass demonstrations in Washington.
(p.839)

The Anti-War movement

A strong anti-war movement emerged that mobilized demonstrations in Washington. This was a diverse popular movement with people from numerous backgrounds. They claimed that the intervention in Vietnam was against American values. That an independent South Vietnam was unsustainable. The no national interest justified so much suffering.

(p.839)

Student Activism
Inspired by the black students of Greensboro, NC, who had sparked a wave of sit-ins in the South, college students became active in the antiwar movement. June 1962, forty students from Big Ten and Ivy League schools formed the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Tom Hayden wrote the Port Huron Statement, expressing disillusionment with consumer culture and growing inequality.
(p.839)

Student Activism
Fall 1964, Student groups at the University of California at Berkeley organized the Free Speech Movement. The founders of the SDS referred to themselves as the New Left to distinguish themselves from the Old Left Communists and Socialists of the1930s and 40s.

(p.839)

Coming Apart
The Counterculture Beyond Civil Rights

Coming Apart
In the student demonstrations, the SDS and the Berkley Free Speech Movement were interested in more than just the antiwar movement. It was a broad based attack on the status-quo. Not only challenging the Cold War assumptions, but blasting Americas liberal consensus. The roots went back to the 1950s, to the Beats who criticized capitalism.
(p.841)

The Counterculture
The New Left plotted against the political and economic system. There was also a general revolt against authority and middle class respectability. Hippies dressed in ragged jeans, tie-dyed shirts, beads, and army fatigues with long hair. These were the symbols of a new counterculture. 1960-The Hippies

(p.841)

The Counterculture

(p.842)

The Counterculture

(p.842)

The Counterculture

(p.843)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.843)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.843)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.844)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.845)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.845)

Beyond Civil Rights

(p.845)

1968: A Year of Shocks

The Politics of Vietnam Backlash

1968: A Year of Shocks

(p.847)

The Politics of Vietnam

(p.847)

The Tet Offensive

The Tet offensive of 1968 demonstrated that the American public was being misled about the progress of the war.

(p.847)

The Politics of Vietnam

President Johnson reacted to the Tet Offensive and divisions in the Democratic Party in 1968 by deciding not to seek a second term as president.

(p.847)

Backlash

(p.847)

Chapter 28 The Liberal Consensus: Flaming Out 19601968

Map 28.1 Black Voter Registration in the South, 1964 and 1975 (p. 833) Map 28.2 The Vietnam War, 1968 (p. 836) Map 28.3 Racial Unrest in Americas Cities, 19651968 (p. 844)