Chapter Study Outline

  • I. Kennedy’s rise
    • A. The election of 1960
      • 1. Backgrounds of the candidates
      • 2. The campaign
        • a. Kennedy’s Catholicism not a problem
        • b. Televised debates favor Kennedy
        • c. The civil rights issue
      • 3. Results
    • B. Kennedy’s administration
      • 1. Cabinet appointments emphasize youth
      • 2. The “Kennedy style“ displayed at the inauguration
  • II. The Kennedy record
    • A. Congress Democratic but conservative
    • B. Legislative successes
      • 1. The Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress
      • 2. Trade Expansion Act
      • 3. Domestic social legislation
    • C. The Warren Court on civil liberties
    • D. Civil rights under Kennedy
      • 1. Kennedy at first hesitant to act
      • 2. Greensboro sit-ins
        • a. Based on King’s “militant nonviolence“ philosophy
        • b. Creation of SNCC
      • 3. Freedom riders
      • 4. Integration of the University of Mississippi
      • 5. King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail
      • 6. Kennedy endorses civil rights
      • 7. Wallace’s defiant gesture
      • 8. March on Washington
        • a. High point of movement
        • b. King’s “I Have a Dream“ speech
      • 9. Modest progress in cities such as Atlanta
  • III. Foreign frontiers
    • A. Bay of Pigs disaster
      • 1. 1,500 anti-Castro Cubans prepared by CIA
      • 2. Failure of invasion
    • B. Berlin Wall
      • 1. Khrushchev threatens to limit access to Berlin
      • 2. Kennedy calls up Reserve and Guard units
      • 3. Soviets construct Berlin Wall
    • C. Cuban missile crisis
      • 1. Discovery of missiles in Cuba
      • 2. Kennedy imposes naval quarantine
      • 3. Khrushchev blinks
      • 4. Aftereffects
        • a. Lowered tensions
        • b. Sale of wheat
        • c. Washington-Moscow “hot line“
        • d. Removal of obsolete missiles
        • e. Nuclear test ban treaty
    • D. Vietnam
      • 1. Neutrality for Laos
      • 2. Premier Ngo Dinh Diem
        • a. Lack of economic and social reform
        • b. Opposition to Diem
        • c. Overthrow of Diem and later military regimes
  • IV. The end of Kennedy’s administration
    • A. Assassination in Dallas
    • B. Lee Harvey Oswald
    • C. Jack Ruby
    • D. Chief Justice Earl Warren
  • V. Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
    • A. Johnson’s background and style
    • B. Passing Kennedy’s legislative program
      • 1. A major tax cut
      • 2. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
    • C. Declaring war on poverty
      • 1. Michael Harrington’s The Other America
      • 2. An economic-opportunity bill
      • 3. The Great Society
    • D. The election of 1964
      • 1. Republicans
        • a. Sought “a choice, not an echo“
        • b. Nominated Barry Goldwater
        • c. Goldwater’s weaknesses
      • 2. Johnson’s appeal for consensus
      • 3. Landslide victory for Johnson
    • E. Landmark legislation
      • 1. Medicare
      • 2. Federal aid to education
      • 3. Appalachian Regional Development Act
      • 4. Housing and Urban Development Act
      • 5. Immigration and Nationality Services Act
    • F. Assessing the Great Society
  • VI. From civil rights to black power
    • A. Voting Rights Act of 1965
    • B. Rise of the black power movement
      • 1. Riots in 1965 and 1966
      • 2. Condition of urban blacks
      • 3. Philosophy of the black power movement
      • 4. Malcolm X and other leaders
      • 5. Positive effects of the black power movement
        • a. Helped African Americans take pride in their racial heritage
        • b. Forced King and others to focus attention on plight of inner-city blacks
  • VII. The tragedy of Vietnam
    • A. Efforts to avoid defeat
      • 1. Escalation
      • 2. The cost of the war
    • B. The Tonkin Gulf resolution
      • 1. Response to attack on American destroyers
      • 2. Johnson interprets as congressional approval for war
    • C. Escalation in 1965
      • 1. Attack at Pleiku
      • 2. Operation Rolling Thunder
      • 3. Combat troops to Vietnam
    • D. The context for policy
      • 1. Consistent with containment
      • 2. Goal of American involvement
      • 3. Erosion of support
    • E. The turning point
      • 1. The Tet offensive
      • 2. Further erosion of support
      • 3. Presidential primaries become referendums on Johnson’s Vietnam policy
      • 4. Johnson announces that he will not seek another term
  • VIII. Sixties crescendo
    • A. Tragedies of 1968
      • 1. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
      • 2. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
    • B. The election of 1968
      • 1. Democrats
        • a. Nominate Hubert Humphrey
        • b. The disastrous Chicago convention
      • 2. Republicans
        • a. Nominate Richard Nixon
        • b. Represent stability and order
      • 3. George Wallace
        • a. Candidate of the American Independent party
        • b. Appeal to social conservatives
      • 4. Narrow victory for Nixon