Chapter 39 Reading Guide

The Stormy Sixties 1960-1968

Terms: RFK, JFK, LBJ, Robert McNamara, Space Program, Berlin wall, Flexible Response, Alliance for Progress, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Misssile Crisis, Détente, Medgar Evers, Freedom Riders, James Meredeth, Voter’s Education Project, Bombingham (Birmingham), March on Washington 1963, Tonkin Gulf Resolution, HIP Pocket Congress, Robert C. Weaver, Civil Rights Act 1964, 24th Amendment, Voting Rights Act 1965, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Black Power, Operation Rolling Thunder, Domino Theory, Tet Offensive, Eugene McCarthy, SDS, Counterculture.

  1. Kennedy in Office
  1. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit
  2. Who is the youngest president? Who is the youngest elected president?
  3. How did RFK try to change the priorities of the FBI? Why was this difficult?
  1. The New Frontier at Home
  2. Why did JFK negotiate a wage agreement with the steel industry? How did JFK respond when the steel industry broke its pledge?
  3. How did JFK stimulate the economy?

II.Foreign Problems

A. Rumblings in Europe

  1. What effect did Khruschev’s bullying have on the U.S. in 1966?
  2. What was the purpose of the Berlin Wall?
  3. Describe JFK’s tariff policy in regards to Europe?
  4. Why did De Gualle block the U.S. policy in Europe?

B. Foreign Flare-ups and “Flexible Response”

  1. Why did JFK replace “massive retaliation” with “flexible response”? What is it?
  1. Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire

1. What were the flaws of “flexible response”?

2. Explain the drawbacks to the “flexible response” policy?

3. How was U.S. military presence in Vietnam escalated?

4. Why did JFK encourage a coup against Diem?

  1. Cuban Confrontations
  2. What was the purpose of the Alliance for Progress?
  3. Under whose administration was the Bay of Pigs Plan formulated?
  4. Why did the U.S. fail at the Bay of Pigs?
  5. How did Cuba respond to U.S. policy?
  6. What was the purpose of Khruschev’s placing nuclear missiles in

Cuba?

6. How did JFK respond to the Cuban Missile Crisis? What were his options?

7. How was the Cuban Missile Crisis affect U.S.-Soviet relations in the long run?

III. Trouble for Kennedy

A. The Struggle for Civil Rights

  1. Why did JFK not move quicker in regards to Civil Rights?
  1. Why did RFK wiretap MLK?
  2. Describe how “Ole Miss” was integrated?
  3. How did JFK respond ot the events in Birmingham 1963?

B.The Killing of Kennedy

  1. How was JFK killed?
  2. Assess the success of the Kennedy administration?

IV. Johnson and the Great Society

A. The LBJ Brand on the Presidency

1. Describe LBJ’s political background?

2. How did LBJ use JFK’s death to enact Civil Rights Legislation

  1. What was LBJ’s vision of the Great Society?
  2. What did Michael Harrington’s book The Other America reveal about American poverty?

B.Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964

  1. Who were the candidates? What were the issues?
  2. Why did Goldwater lose?
  3. How did the events in the Tonkin Gulf help LBJ?
  1. The Great Society Congress

1. Why was LBJ able to accomplish much of his Great Society?

2. What did the Great Society consist of? Explain in detail each provision.

3. What effect did the Great Society have on poverty in the U.S.?

V. Battling for Civil Rights

A. Battling for Black Rights

  1. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplish?
  2. How were blacks in the deep South (Miss.) denied their voting rights?
  3. What happened to the 3 Civil Rights workers in Miss. the summer of 1964? Why was no one convicted of crime?
  4. How did LBJ react to the violence against the voter registration drives and marches?
  5. What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provide for?
  6. What was the significance of the Voting Rights Act?

B. Black Power

1. How did the Civil Rights Movement change in 1965?

2. What happened across the U.S. when MLK was assassinated?

3. In the late 60s why and how did the Civil Rights Movement move North?

VI. LBJ in the Cold War and Vietnam

A. Combating Communism in Two Hemispheres

1. Explain the consequences of U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965?

2. How did LBJ escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam?

3. How did LBJ over estimate air power in regards to Vietnam?

B.Vietnam Vexations

  1. How did the anti-war movement begin?
  2. How did opposition to the draft manifest itself?
  3. What effect did the Vietnam have on the American economy?
  4. How did the public come to perceive the information about the war released by the President?
  5. What was LBJ’s basic strategy in Vietnam?
  6. How had public support of the war changed form 1965-70?
  1. Vietnam Topples Johnson
  2. Assess the Tet offensive militarily and politically.
  3. How was LBJ vulnerable politically in 1968? Who took advantage by running for the Democratic nomination?
  4. Why did LBJ abdicate in 1968?

VII. Nixon and Cultural Change

A. The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968

1. Who was LBJ’s apparent heir?

2. What happened to RFK?

3. How did events at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 hurt the

Democrats?

  1. What was the Democratic Platform? What was the Republican Platform?
  2. Who led the 3rd party? Who was hurt politically by Wallace’s campaign?

B.Victory for Nixon

  1. What were the results? Who controlled Congress?
  2. Why was Wallace’s electoral result significant?

C.The Obituary of Lyndon Johnson

  1. What were the accomplishments of LBJ?
  2. What effect did Vietnam have on the Great Society?
  1. The Cultural Upheaval of the 1960’s
  2. What prompted the changes in youth culture in the 1960’s?
  3. How did sexual attitudes and morals change in the 1960’s? Why?
  4. What was the impact of the birth control pill?
  5. What was the sexual revolution?
  6. What could the upheaval of the 1960s be attributed to according to the author (three P’s)?

6. Why did the Counterculture weaken by the 1970s?

II. Varying Veiwpoints

The Sixties: Constructive or Destructive?

  1. What four issues dominate historical discussion of the 1960s?
  2. Why were flank civil rights movements important according to Van Deburg?
  3. How is the War on Poverty defended? Criticized?
  4. How is the Counter Culture movement defended? Criticized?