Unit 23: 1960s

• Domestic Policies


  • End to racial discrimination
  • Tax reform and reduction in tax rate
• Tax reform and reduction in tax rate

  Current range 20-90% to proposed range of 14-65%; proposed reduction in the corporate tax rates from 52 to 47%
• Foreign Policies


  • JFK and Khrushchev
  • Less of Eisenhower's "brinksmanship" and more "flexible response" and easing of tensions
  • Support of Special Forces "Green Berets"
  • Peace Corps
  • Marshall Plan for Latin America?
  • Poverty and corruption in Latin America
  • Support efforts to improve employment equality in Latin America
• Use fiscal policy and minor deficit spending to stimulate the economy


  1. Commit country to expanding its space program

  2. Apollo program and moon
• Strengthen the executive branch
• Proposed a liberal agenda but conservatives prevented much of it from passing
• Alliance for Progress


  • $800 billion aid for better schools, housing and healthcare
  • Designed to counter leftist movement
  • Produced less democracy and economic development than promised
• Bay of Pigs - US organized 1961 invasion force of 1400 Cuban exiles defeated by Castro government
• Soviets mad at Turkey

  They give missile to Cuba
• After U-2 incident Kennedy ordered naval blockade on 10/22


  1. Until Soviet missiles removed

  2. 10/28 - Soviets agree to remove and US agree to remove
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty's importance
• Lyndon Johnson met with South Vietnam's President
• Generals are turning from you, Diem
• Cuban exiles did not rise up in support of invasion
• Invasion landed on Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in ships and planes provided by the US, the invaders surrendered in 4 days
• Kennedy takes personal responsibility for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion
• Lyndon B. Johnson


  36th President of the United States
• Lyndon B. Johnson became President


  1963
• Lyndon B. Johnson left Presidency


  1969
• Lyndon B. Johnson's Domestic Policies

  • The Great Society
  • Poverty
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Housing
  • Immigration
  • Civil Rights Movement
• The Great Society was Lyndon B. Johnson's domestic policy program
• Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty"
• Lyndon B. Johnson's Domestic Policy Initiatives

  • Low income housing projects
  • Urban renewal
  • Head Start
  • Pre-k for low-income children
  • Food Stamps
  • VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
• Medicare


  Health insurance for older people
• Medicaid


  Health care for poor people
• The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended the national origin quota system and created a new policy based on skills and family ties
• Lyndon B. Johnson's Civil Rights Legislation


  • Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation in businesses such as banks, restaurants, and hotels, and banned discriminatory practices in employment
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting
• Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court
• Background to the Vietnam War

  • French decolonization after WWII
  • Division of Vietnam at 17th parallel
  • North controlled by Ho Chi Minh's communist regime
  • South controlled by Ngo Dinh Diem's pro-Western regime
• JFK supported a military coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem's regime in South Vietnam
• Lyndon B. Johnson increased US ground forces in Vietnam, remembering the "domino theory"
• Strategies of North Vietnam and Viet Cong

  • Defensive guerilla war of attrition
• The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, where US ships were allegedly attacked, was used by Lyndon B. Johnson to increase US involvement in the Vietnam War
• The Tet Offensive in 1968 was a major turning point, where the Viet Cong staged attacks across South Vietnam
• Impacts of the Vietnam War on the US Homefront

  • LBJ not running for re-election
  • Draft resistance and student protests
  • Revelations from the Pentagon Papers
  • 26th Amendment lowering voting age to 18
  • Shift to an all-volunteer military
  • War Powers Act limiting presidential power over war
  • Disillusionment with the war and government
• The Vietnam War ended in 1973 with a ceasefire agreement, but North Vietnam eventually conquered South Vietnam in 1975
• The fall of Saigon led to many Vietnamese refugees fleeing the country, and a loss of trust in the US government
• Vietnam War


  1954 - 1975