1960’s Notes Part 1
Questions:
1.What was Kennedy’s New Frontier? How was that philosophy played out, both domestically and internationally, within the first few years of Kennedy’s administration?
2.What was flexible response and how was that different from the foreign policy philosophy of the previous administrations (Massive Retaliaton)?
3.Explain the Kennedy administration’s vigorous activism in the Cold War, both against the Russians and against Third World communists. The emphasis might be on the contrast between relative success dealing with the Russians (for example, the Cuban missile crisis) versus frustration in the Third World (for example, the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam).
4. How did Kennedy deal with the civil rights issue?
5.How did President Johnson deal with the civil rights issue? What were his goals and were these goals actualized by the end of the decade?
6.What role did President Johnson have in the Vietnam conflict?
7.What were the major goals of Johnson’s Great Society? How successful were they?
8. How did Nixon’s foreign policy of détente differ from previous administrations? How did détente help or hurt relations with China and the Soviet Union?
9.Consider the domestic political and social turmoil of the sixties, brought on by social and cultural upheavals as well as Vietnam. Point out the deep polarization of American society, as evidenced by the turbulent events of 1968.
10. How did the Vietnam conflict escalate under the Nixon administration?
Themes:
Kennedy’s New Frontier initiatives bogged down in congressional stalemate. The Kennedy administration’s domestic stalemate ended in the mid-1960s, as Johnson’s Great Society and the black civil rights movement brought a tide of liberal social reform. But the diversion of resources and the social upheavals caused by the Vietnam War wrecked the Great Society.
Cold War confrontations, during JFK’s Administration, over Berlin and Russian missiles in Cuba created threats of war. Countering Third World communism through flexible response led the administration into dangerous involvement in Vietnam and elsewhere. The Kennedy administration’s flexible response doctrine to combat Third World communism bore ill fruit in Cuba and especially Vietnam.
Johnson’s massive escalation of the war in Vietnam failed to defeat the Communist Vietnamese forces, while growing domestic opposition finally forced him from power.
Johnson succeeded Kennedy and overwhelmingly defeated Goldwater. The black movement for integration and voting rights won great victories. Johnson used his huge congressional majorities to push through a mass of liberal Great Society legislation. Northern black ghettos erupted in violence amid calls for black power.
Johnson escalated military involvement in Vietnam. As the number of troops and casualties grew without producing military success, dovish protests against the war gained strength. Political opposition forced Johnson not to seek reelection, and the deep Democratic divisions over the war allowed Nixon to win the White House.
Nixon’s Vietnamization policy reduced American ground participation in the war, but his Cambodia invasion sparked massive protest.
Quotes:
“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and throughout the world.” (JFK - Inaugural address, 1961)
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!’” (MLK- “I Have a Dream” speech, 1963)
“I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I loved—the Great Society—in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs, all my dreams. But if I left that war and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would find it impossible to accomplish anything for anyone anywhere on the entire globe.” (LBJ - Conversation, 1970)
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” (RFK - To Seek a Newer World, 1967)
“You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” (“Tricky Dick” (Nixon -Press conference after election loss, 1962)
“Say what we will about the Sixties’ failures, limits, disasters, America’s political and cultural space would probably not have opened up as much as it did without the movement’s divine delirium.… This side of an ever-receding millennium, the changes wrought by the Sixties, however beleaguered, averted some of the worst abuses of power, and made life more decent for millions. The movement in its best moments and broadest definition made philosophical breakthroughs which are still working themselves out.”{Todd Gitlin, “The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, 1987}
“The counter-culture flourished in cities and on campuses. Elsewhere, in Middle America, it was hated and feared. The result was a national division between the counter-culture and those adults who admired or tolerated it, and the silent majority of workers and Middle Americans who didn’t. The tensions between these groups made solving social and political problems all the more difficult and were, indeed, part of the problem.” [William O’Neill, Coming Apart, 1971]
The Stormy Sixties
“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” JFK Inaugural Address, 1961
Intro
In 1960 the country elected a young, vigorous President -JFK- Many today call his time as President, “Camelot.” After his assassination – the decade began its perilous revolutionary spiral—The 1960’s would bring a Sexual Revolution, a Civil Rights Revolution, the emergence of a “youth culture,” a devastating and escalating WAR in Vietnam, a Feminist Revolution, a Chicano Revolution, the American Indian Movement, and began an Environmental Movement.
Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit
January 20, 1961 a tall, elegantly handsome, YOUNG President gave one of the greatest inaugural speeches in our history---
“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
“For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of humanlife.”
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
“Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.”
“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”
At the outset JFK inspired high expectations—especially among the young—
The New Frontier at Home
JFK though had to deal with the damnable Southern Democrats--- Southern Democrats threatened to team up with conservative Republicans and ax all of his proposed programs.
JFK works to tame inflation---by negotiating a non-inflationary wage agreement with the Steelworkers in 1962---the agreement with the owners was that they would keep prices fixed—down—BUT—immediately the owners raise prices—and so he brought them into the White House and forced them to hold prices--- and called them S.O.B.s for lying to him---his threat to take the mills over worked.
JFK cuts taxes—to stimulate the economy—“The Trickle-Down Theory,” unusual for such a liberal---some called the action, “the most Republican since McKinley.”
JFK BEGINS THE PEACE CORP –sending an army of idealistic and Youthful volunteers to underdeveloped nations around the world to bring knowledge and understanding to improve the lives of thousands—ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF OUR POSTITIVE INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD.
JFK begins Project Apollo--- to put a MAN ON THE MOON (23 BILLION LATER, IN 1969 IT IS DONE ] @ a famous speech at Rice University, “But why, some say, the moon? And they well may ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, thirty-five years ago fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win…”
Rumblings in Europe—BERLIN WALL IS BUILT***
In June 1961 JFK meets Nikita Khrushchev at the Vienna Summit –Khrushchev when 1st meeting JFK must sense WEAKNESS—because he becomes bellicose (warlike) in his manner towards the USA and JFK---he threatens to cut Berlin off completely---from the WEST---THE “BRAIN DRAIN” –Comparing life in East Germany and West Germany (economically the East Germans were struggling and in the West they were thriving) it became an embarrassment for the Communists---so much so that it was clear that if they did not stop people from leaving Eastern Europe through Berlin---that they would have to continue to deal with uprisings in each of their “Satellite” nations in Europe. From the beginning of JFKs Presidency the USSR took a “Hard Line” towards the USA ---and a WAR seemed imminent---and due to the USAs lack of assistance for Hungary ---the people of Western Europe were concerned that if the USSR wanted to take the rest of Europe the USA MIGHT JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH---PARALYZED BY THE THREAT OF WAR***SO JFK and his advisors HAD to in this case be tough too and follow through on their promises*** or would risk losing what they had spent so much time and $$$ re-building since the end of WW2.
****June 26, 1963 JFK Travels to West Berlin***
The USSR and East Germany have completed the WALL – on TV, shown around the World people see the valiant attempts to escape---horrible really--- JFK comes to show that the USA WILL NOT ABANDON THEM--- IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE OF CLOSE TO ½ A MILLION PEOPLE JFK GIVES ONE OF HIS MOST MEMORABLE SPEECHES:
JFK IN WEST BERLIN
“Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civisromanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!" [I am a Berliner]
He also states:
“To those who say we can work with the communists… Lass’ sienach Berlin kommen..[“let them come to Berlin”] (a threat )
The Wall stands as a symbol of shame*** and a symbol of the difference between communism and a free world*** for 30 years this is the COLD WAR—One society has to wall in its people and in the other they are FREE.
Foreign Flare-ups and “FLEXIBLE RESPONSE”
The World after WW2 became a very different place. Decolonization and nation building dramatically changes the nature of relationships between countries--- especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America –where a thousand years of European dominance came to end quickly and abruptly. This caused many problems for the USA due to their close relationship with their European allies---and the USAs desire to win over the hearts and minds of the peoples in these regions---to continue our international trade and compete with communism for influence*** these twin desires of the USA influence our governments actions at home supporting the civil rights movement and our actions abroad—in some ways very generous and in others (to be honest) very ruthless and thoughtless towards certain peoples---almost ignoring their desires or ideas---copy us, be friends with us, OR ELSE*** THE USA HAD MANY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER—AND NONE OF THE CHOICES WERE EASY---SOME TURN OUT WELL ----SOME NOT SO WELL.
It was obvious that IKE’s policy of “MASSIVE RETALIATON” was not EFFECTIVE in most cases when dealing with small conflicts that were popping up across the globe--- Hungary, is just one example of this failure—So JFK and his team of young ivy league educated advisors had to CHANGE OUR STRATEGY; “Flexible Response”-becomes our philosophy**************
In essence this policy becomes the USAs main policy for the rest of the Cold War---with few exceptions.
The events in the Congo and in Laos, vicious and murderous slaughter of innocent people, brings the failure of IKEs policy to a head---Kennedy felt that “massive retaliation” only gave him two choices of how to respond to these crises---1- Nuclear weapons ( and possibly begin WWIII) 2 – Do nothing (and be embarrassed)
Flexible Response was created to give JFK and the USA a variety ofMilitary options that would precisely match the gravity of the particular crisis at hand---
SPECIAL FORCES: small elite units like: The Green Berets, Delta Force, and JFK, himself a Navy veteran of WWII (a hero on PT-109) CREATES THE NAVY SEALS.
These “special” forces would be and are trained scientifically and specifically to be a force that can defeat these “insurgents” and restore peace and stability to areas around the world---
********THIS[FLEXIBLE RESPONSE] SEEMS LOGICAL AND THOUGHTFUL***** YET—IT ALSO LOWERED THE LEVEL AT WHICH DIPLOMACY –non-military solutions—WOULD BECOME WARS FOR THE USA---MORE US TROOPS WOULD BE PUT INTO COMBAT---AND THEREFORE POSSIBLY DIE***and once you start fighting ---using US troops –where does it end---if we leave, will the problem just return? Or WILL WE HAVE TO STAY IN THESE PLACES FIGHTING ---CONTINUING TO PUT MORE AND MORE TROOPS IN HARMS WAY---
There is no good answer*** the Question: What should or How should America respond to these global crises---is a tough one---what are our interests in a particular region of the World? What of our promises, Truman & Eisenhower Doctrines---that state “WE WILL GO ANYWHERE TO DEFEND FREE PEOPLE FROM SUBJUGATION?” WHAT OF OUR GROWING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INTERESTS??? TO THIS DAY---WE STILL BATTLE WITH THESE QUESTIONS!!!!JFK’S ANSWER AND OURS TODAY ARE SIMILAR: A “Flexible Response.”*********************************************************
Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire –Our Role in Vietnam is still***a very controversial issue among historians*** with a great divide among them as to our role and the legacy****
The 1954s Geneva Summit split French Indochina into 4 countries: North Vietnam (communist - ruled by Ho Chi Minh) South Vietnam (Democratic – President Ngo Dinh Diem) –Laos and Cambodia.
Truman and Eisenhower supported the French during their war for Independence. Billions of $$$ and some “MILITARY ADVISORS,” especially after 1954—specifically to train South Vietnam’s Army---to be able to resist the communist guerillas who hoped to overthrow Diem and cause havoc in the non-communist South.
Although Free Nationwide elections were proposed at Geneva---by 1956 Diem did not believe that there could be “free and open” elections—he believed that the communists could not be trusted—so he (the South) does not participate--- THIS ACTION is seen by some as hypocritical---especially due to the USAs support for Diem’s position of no nationwide elections---due to our criticism of the Soviets in Eastern Europe—which in essence causes the beginning of the Cold War*****