12 The Turbulent YearsHulton ArchiveGetty ImagesThe M.docx

12 The Turbulent Years
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom still
stands as one of the largest political gatherings in
U.S. history. At this August 27, 1963, event, Martin
Luther King Jr. delivered the iconic “I Have a Dream”
speech. The event gave extra momentum to passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 371 1/9/15 9:35 AM
American Lives: Ron Kovic
Pre-Test
1. The government created NASA in 1958 as a response to the
Soviet launch of the orbiting
Sputnik satellite. T/F
2. President John F. Kennedy successfully managed important
foreign affairs crises in Cuba,
such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. T/F
3. President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society can be described
as using a “curative strategy”
in the War on Poverty. T/F

4. President Lyndon Johnson’s approach to the Vietnam War
after 1964 was called
“Americanization.” T/F
5. The 1968 presidential election demonstrated the harmony of
political and social
consensus in the United States. T/F
Answers can be found at the end of the chapter.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the aims of Kennedy’s New Frontier.
• Discuss the major international crises of the early 1960s Cold
War.
• Explain the ways that Johnson’s Great Society differed from
Kennedy’s New Frontier.
• Discuss the major achievements of the civil rights movement
in the 1960s.
• Describe the tactics of the civil rights movement and explain
how different groups
used them.
• Explain how and why the Cold War consensus shifted to
oppose the Vietnam War.
Ronald Lawrence Kovic, peace activist and author of the
memoir Born on the Fourth of July, was
among the first wave of baby boomers, who came of age in the
turbulent 1960s. Born in 1946,
Kovic grew up in Massapequa, New York, and joined the U.S.

Marine Corps as soon as he gradu-
ated high school in 1964. He remembered drawing inspiration
from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural
address, in which the new president charged Americans to “ask
not what your country can do for
you—ask what you can do for your country”(as cited in
Waldman, 2010, p. 165).
On August 7, 1964, 3 weeks before Kovic reported for duty at
the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot
at Parris Island, South Carolina, Congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, authorizing
the president to use all necessary measures in defense of its
allies in Southeast Asia. Although not
a formal declaration of war, the resolution marked the
escalation of the Vietnam War. Kovic
volunteered for his first 13-month tour of duty in December
1965, then returned for a second
tour 2 years later.
© Bettmann/Corbis
Ron Kovic became one of the most visible Vietnam
veterans to speak out against the war, and especially
about the poor treatment veterans received through
the Veteran’s Administration medical system.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 372 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Pre-Test
1. The government created NASA in 1958 as a response to the
Soviet launch of the orbiting
Sputnik satellite. T/F

2. President John F. Kennedy successfully managed important
foreign affairs crises in Cuba,
such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. T/F
3. President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society can be described
as using a “curative strategy”
in the War on Poverty. T/F
4. President Lyndon Johnson’s approach to the Vietnam War
after 1964 was called
“Americanization.” T/F
5. The 1968 presidential election demonstrated the harmony of
political and social
consensus in the United States. T/F
Answers can be found at the end of the chapter.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the aims of Kennedy’s New Frontier.
• Discuss the major international crises of the early 1960s Cold
War.
• Explain the ways that Johnson’s Great Society differed from
Kennedy’s New Frontier.
• Discuss the major achievements of the civil rights movement
in the 1960s.
• Describe the tactics of the civil rights movement and explain
how different groups
used them.
• Explain how and why the Cold War consensus shifted to
oppose the Vietnam War.

Ronald Lawrence Kovic, peace activist and author of the
memoir Born on the Fourth of July, was
among the first wave of baby boomers, who came of age in the
turbulent 1960s. Born in 1946,
Kovic grew up in Massapequa, New York, and joined the U.S.
Marine Corps as soon as he gradu-
ated high school in 1964. He remembered drawing inspiration
from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural
address, in which the new president charged Americans to “ask
not what your country can do for
you—ask what you can do for your country”(as cited in
Waldman, 2010, p. 165).
On August 7, 1964, 3 weeks before Kovic reported for duty at
the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot
at Parris Island, South Carolina, Congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, authorizing
the president to use all necessary measures in defense of its
allies in Southeast Asia. Although not
a formal declaration of war, the resolution marked the
escalation of the Vietnam War. Kovic
volunteered for his first 13-month tour of duty in December
1965, then returned for a second
tour 2 years later.
© Bettmann/Corbis
Ron Kovic became one of the most visible Vietnam
veterans to speak out against the war, and especially
about the poor treatment veterans received through
the Veteran’s Administration medical system.
His second Vietnam experience changed

his life forever and led Kovic to become
a peace activist and an outspoken critic
of U.S. foreign policy. During a confusing
ambush in October 1967, he acciden-
tally shot and killed another American
soldier. The incident left him emotion-
ally devastated. Three months later,
while leading a squad of soldiers across
a field, Kovic was seriously wounded
by enemy fire. Two Marines who came
to his aid were killed. As a result of his
wounds, Kovic was paralyzed from the
chest down.
Like many of his generation, Kovic
began to question the Cold War consen-
sus that led the United States to inter-
vene in Vietnam and other conflicts. He
saw the war as unwinnable and grew frustrated at the disrespect
accorded to the veterans of the
conflict, especially the poor conditions in veterans’ hospitals.
Kovic joined with other Vietnam veterans and civilian activists
at multiple protests against the
still-raging war and became a member of a growing
organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the
War. He delivered his first major speech at a high school in the
middle-class suburb of Levittown,
New York, and was later arrested several times as he continued
his antiwar activities.
At first some war supporters derided him as a Communist or as
un-American, but public opinion
gradually changed, and many other voices joined his in speaking
out against the Vietnam War.
In an interview on CBS television, Kovic proclaimed:

I’m a Vietnam veteran, I gave America my all and the leaders of
the government
threw me and the others away to rot in their V.A. hospitals.
What’s happening in
Vietnam is a crime against humanity, and I want the American
people to know
that. (Kovic, 2005, p. 15)
In 1974 Kovic penned his memoir, and in 1989 Oliver Stone
directed a motion picture based on
the book, for which he won that year’s Academy Award for Best
Director. Kovic’s story reflected
many Americans’ growing dissent and discontent with the status
quo and growing skepticism
of the U.S. government and national leaders. Kovic published a
second edition of Born on the
Fourth of July in 2005, and he continues to actively protest U.S.
involvement in foreign conflicts,
most recently the Iraq War (Kovic, 2005).
For further thought:
1. How does Kovic’s experience reflect a change in attitudes
toward U.S. Cold War policy?
2. Besides his personal injury, what may have influenced
Kovic’s peace activism?
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 373 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Section 12.1 The Kennedy Years
12.1 The Kennedy Years

Beginning with Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the federal
government expanded its influ-
ence over Americans’ daily lives. The expansion continued
during World War II, when
the government controlled numerous industries in support of the
war effort. While these
returned to private hands after the war, increased spending on
social welfare programs and
national defense continued. The Democrats wanted to continue
the growth of the welfare
state and sought to achieve initiatives such as federal health
insurance and more sweeping
social benefits.
Though Republicans limited several of these attempts, the
political landscape was changing.
Even the presidential campaigns themselves reflected a
significant difference from the recent
past, especially with the prevalence of television requiring
candidates to become much more
media savvy. The 1960 election exemplified all of these
political trends. It was a campaign
that set the stage for three future presidents, and it was one of
the closest elections in Ameri-
can history.
Kennedy and Nixon
By 1960 Eisenhower had reached the end of his term limit; he
was the first president to be
affected by the 22nd Amendment, which stated that presidents
could only run for two terms.
With Eisenhower unable to run for reelection, the Republicans
nominated Vice President
Richard Nixon to run, and John F. Kennedy and his vice
presidential nominee, Lyndon John-

son, headed the Democratic ticket. Kennedy was a young
Massachusetts senator and just the
second Catholic ever nominated to run for president. He came
from a wealthy family with
several generations of political connections. His grandfather
had served as the mayor of Bos-
ton and a three-term congressman. His father, Joseph P.
Kennedy, made a huge fortune in
the stock market and later became the U.S. ambassador to the
United Kingdom. Johnson, a
senator from Texas with a long-standing political record,
balanced the ticket by attracting
southern Democrats.
The Republican strategy was to contrast Nixon’s experience
with Kennedy’s youth. The elec-
tion introduced many of the features that currently dominate
political campaigns, such as
massive advertising on radio and television, wealthy donors
making contributions, and the
voters making decisions based more on the candidate than the
party.
It also demonstrated how a single misstep with the press could
negatively affect an entire
campaign. When a reporter asked Eisenhower if Nixon
contributed anything important to his
presidency, Eisenhower quipped, “If you give me a week, I
might think of one. I don’t remem-
ber” (as cited in Jamieson, 1996, p. 146). Although he later
indicated the remark was in jest,
the Kennedy campaign highlighted the remark in a political ad
that succeeded in calling Nix-
on’s credibility into question.
Another key moment in the election was the first Kennedy–

Nixon debate, the first presiden-
tial debate to be televised. Kennedy’s smooth and charismatic
style appealed to television
audiences better than Nixon’s stiff formality. Nixon was also
recovering from a knee injury
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 374 1/9/15 9:35 AM
that required a 2-week hospital stay,
had a five-o’clock shadow, and sweated
profusely under the lights. It was the
first time that most Americans had
seen the candidates together; 70 mil-
lion people watched the debate and
focused more on what they saw than
what they heard.
Kennedy won the Electoral College by
303 to 219, but his margin of victory
in the popular election was just one
tenth of 1%. His campaign raised con-
cerns over the Soviet Union’s success
in launching Sputnik, the first satel-
lite, into orbit in 1957. The satellite’s
launch surprised the American public
and raised fears that the Soviets were
eclipsing the United States in the race
for space technology. Kennedy also
emphasized the so-called missile gap
created when the Soviets tested the first intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM). Although

American technology far surpassed that of the Soviets, Kennedy
argued that under the Repub-
licans’ watch, the United States had lost its focus and direction
in fighting the Cold War.
Embarking on the New Frontier
In keeping with presidents assigning names to their domestic
programs, Kennedy called his
the New Frontier. The name invoked the daring, adventure, and
hope symbolized by the
physical frontiers in American history, and the program called
for the largest set of domestic
legislation since the New Deal. Kennedy told the American
people:
Today, some would say that . . . all the horizons have been
explored, that all
the battles have been won, that there is no longer an American
frontier. We
stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of the
1960s—a fron-
tier of unknown opportunities and perils—a frontier of
unfulfilled hopes and
threats. (as cited in Limerick, White, & Grossman, 1994, p. 81)
Kennedy was president for fewer than 3 years, but his image
stands larger than life in Ameri-
can culture. A young man when he entered the White House—he
was elected at 43—Kenne-
dy’s style and manner was a marked contrast to that of the
fatherly Eisenhower. He appeared
frequently on television and was the first president to conduct
televised press conferences.
His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, became a fashion icon and, after
overseeing a massive redecora-

tion project, led the nation on a televised tour of the White
House. The first family included
two young children, Caroline and John Jr. (a third child died a
few days after being born in
Associated Press
During the 1960 presidential election, televised
debates brought Democrat John F. Kennedy and
Republican Richard Nixon into American homes.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 375 1/9/15 9:35 AM
August 1963). The nation looked on as famous writers, artists,
and entertainers visited the
White House, revealing the family’s commitment to high culture
(Patterson, 1996).
The conditions Kennedy encountered on the cam-
paign trail in rural West Virginia turned poverty
relief into one of his top policy goals. While seek-
ing the votes of rural Americans, he witnessed
firsthand the abysmal circumstances that pushed
many Appalachians to leave their homes for indus-
trial jobs outside the region (see Chapter 11). In
1962 Kennedy secured more than $2 billion from
Congress for his urban renewal plan. The measure
established job-training programs for the unem-
ployed and economic incentives for businesses to
relocate to economically depressed areas. The fol-
lowing year he formed a joint federal and state com-
mittee to develop a regional approach to solving

poverty issues in Appalachia (Duncan, 2013).
Kennedy’s agenda extended to other measures
that pushed the nation toward economic and social
justice. Promising economic growth, he convinced
Congress to increase the social welfare safety net
by raising the minimum wage, expanding unem-
ployment benefits, and enhancing Social Security.
He also initiated a large series of tax cuts that were
opposed by conservative Republicans, who argued
for the necessity of maintaining a balanced budget.
In contrast, Kennedy embraced Keynesian economics, the notion
that government spending,
strategic tax cuts, and other policies could stimulate the
economy, especially in times of eco-
nomic slowdown, as the best way to ensure the nation’s
economic health. At the time he pro-
posed tax cuts, the top income tax rate, for those with incomes
over $3 million, stood at 91%,
and the lowest marginal rate, for incomes up to $30,000, was
20%.
Finally passed in February 1964, 3 months after Kennedy’s
death, the tax cuts helped spur an
economic boom and contributed to the creation of thousands of
jobs. Tax rates for the nation’s
top earners dropped to 77%, and those in the lower income
brackets also benefited substan-
tially. The average worker, who earned about $6,500 in 1965
(about $48,000 in today’s dol-
lars), paid only 16% in federal taxes under the new measure.
Kennedy and the World
Although he made some important efforts on the domestic front,
it was foreign affairs, and

especially the tension between the United States and the Soviet
Union, that occupied most of
Courtesy Everett Collection
President John F. Kennedy, First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy, and children
Caroline and John represented the
model American family.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 376 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Kennedy’s attention. In one of his first acts as president, he
issued an executive order creat-
ing the Peace Corps, which sent American men and women
abroad to aid developing nations
in establishing educational and economic institutions that would
promote prosperity and
reduce poverty. Kennedy also hoped the young Americans
would improve the image of the
United States abroad and adhere developing countries to
America. The men and women of
the Peace Corps also supported the national Cold War agenda by
sharing America’s demo-
cratic values abroad.
In a speech before potential Peace Corps recruits at the
University of Michigan in October
1960, Kennedy warned that the Soviet Union “had hundreds of
men and women, scientists,
physicists, teachers, engineers, doctors, and nurses . . . prepared
to spend their lives abroad in

the service of world communism” (as cited in Crotty, 2010).
The Peace Corps was Kennedy’s
parallel plan for actively supporting the development of
democracy and freedom in the
world community.
Kennedy’s plans for volunteers to
serve abroad struck home with thou-
sands who, like Ron Kovic, responded
to the president’s call to do something
for their country. Enthusiastic and
confident, it is not surprising that Ken-
nedy moved thousands of young men
and women to serve their country,
whether in the U.S. military, the Peace
Corps, or in domestic programs. One
early volunteer recalled, “I’d never
done anything political, patriotic or
unselfish because nobody ever asked
me to. Kennedy asked” (Wilson &
Wilson, 2011, p. 7).
Most Peace Corps volunteers were
young, but not all. Bill Bridges was
nearly 50 when he left his job processing disability applications
for the state of Kentucky
to serve 2 years in Bangladesh. Nancy Dare and her husband,
Phil, volunteered together for
service in Malaysia educating local children, especially
teaching English. Nancy remembered,
“We were answering the call, thinking that maybe we could do
something to help” (as cited in
Wilson & Wilson, 2011, p. 8).
Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis

While American volunteers spread the message of U.S. goodwill
in the developing world,
Kennedy faced concerns closer to home. Nations in the Western
Hemisphere historically
fell under the influence of the United States, but Cuba had
slipped from American influ-
ence following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the last year of
Eisenhower’s presidency.
© Bettmann/Corbis
President Kennedy speaks to Peace Corps volunteers
on August 28, 1961, and assigns them their first
overseas mission.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 377 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Latin American nations, including Guatemala and Cuba, grew
increasingly unhappy with
American political intervention and the economic dominance of
U.S. corporations such as
the United Fruit Company. In 1954 Eisenhower had approved a
covert CIA operation that
overthrew Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz, and following
his ouster that nation was
ruled by U.S.-backed military regimes.
Eisenhower planned a similar intervention in Cuba after Fidel
Castro, a Marxist rebel leader,
ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and began nationalizing the
Cuban property of American
businessmen. Shunning American influence, Castro allied with

the Communist Soviet Union.
Eisenhower suspended trade with the island nation and
authorized CIA training of anti-Castro
exiles for an invasion to retake the country. Kennedy inherited
this crisis when he took office.
When the CIA-trained insurgents landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs
in April 1961, they expected
American air and ground support. However, fearing an
escalation in the conflict with the
Soviet Union, Kennedy canceled American reinforcement. The
invasion collapsed, with 300
of the insurgents killed by Castro’s tanks and guns and 1,100
captured by his army. Kennedy
accepted blame for the humiliating and tragic fiasco. In a
conversation with White House spe-
cial counsel Ted Sorensen, he said, “How could I have been so
stupid, to let them go ahead?”
(as cited in Jones, 2009, p. 110). A New York Times reporter
editorialized that the United
States “looked like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies,
and incompetents to the rest”
(Woods, 2005, p. 213).
America’s weakness at the Bay of Pigs gave Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev incentive to fur-
ther test Kennedy’s resolve and courage. Another factor was a
series of provocative military
exercises Kennedy initiated on islands in close proximity to
Cuba. Khrushchev thus saw Cuba
(just 90 miles south of Florida) as the perfect place to establish
an offensive show of power,
and he authorized the construction of missile sites there.
Flying over the region in October 1962, American spy planes
uncovered the installation of

missiles capable of reaching the United States (see Figure 12.1).
In the ensuing 13 days, the
Cuban Missile Crisis brought the nations to the brink of nuclear
war. Kennedy’s military
advisors urged an attack on Cuba that would surely provoke a
Soviet response, but instead
Kennedy ordered a blockade of the island that prevented Soviet
access by air and sea and
demanded the removal of the installations.
Figure 12.1: The Cuban conflict, 1961–1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world close to the brink
of nuclear war but ended in the removal of
Soviet missiles in Cuba and U.S. missiles in Turkey.
G o l fo d e
Ba ta b a n ó
G o l fo d e
G u a c a n aya b o
G u l f o f
M e x i c o
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
C a r i b b e a n
S e a
Ba h í a d e
C o c h i n o s

( Bay o f P i g s )
G u a n tá n a m o
Bay
Havana
Andros
Island
Guantánamo Bay
U.S. Naval
Station
Guanajay
IRBM Site
Sagua La Grande
MRBM Site
Remedios
IRBM Site
San Cristobal
MRBM Site
B A H A M A S
C U B A
F LO R I DA
( U S A )
Miami

F l o r i d a
K ey
s
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 378 1/9/15 9:35 AM
G o l fo d e
Ba ta b a n ó
G o l fo d e
G u a c a n aya b o
G u l f o f
M e x i c o
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
C a r i b b e a n
S e a
Ba h í a d e
C o c h i n o s
( Bay o f P i g s )
G u a n tá n a m o
Bay

Havana
Andros
Island
Guantánamo Bay
U.S. Naval
Station
Guanajay
IRBM Site
Sagua La Grande
MRBM Site
Remedios
IRBM Site
San Cristobal
MRBM Site
B A H A M A S
C U B A
F LO R I DA
( U S A )
Miami
F l o r i d a
K ey
s

In a series of tense negotiations that occurred largely behind the
scenes, Khrushchev agreed
to dismantle the missile installments in exchange for an
American agreement not to invade
Cuba. In addition, Kennedy pledged to remove American
missiles located in Turkey and Italy,
where they could easily be launched into the Soviet Union.
The resolution of the crisis marked a temporary improvement in
relations between the two
nations, and for the first time, the Kremlin and the White House
established a permanent
hotline for direct communication. Kennedy himself described
calling the Soviets’ bluff as “one
hell of a gamble” (as cited in Fursenko & Naftali, 1997, p. ix).
It represented the most danger-
ous moment of the Cold War, when any misstep on either side
could have resulted in nuclear
war (Fursenko & Naftali, 1997).
Latin American nations, including Guatemala and Cuba, grew
increasingly unhappy with
American political intervention and the economic dominance of
U.S. corporations such as
the United Fruit Company. In 1954 Eisenhower had approved a
covert CIA operation that
overthrew Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz, and following
his ouster that nation was
ruled by U.S.-backed military regimes.
Eisenhower planned a similar intervention in Cuba after Fidel
Castro, a Marxist rebel leader,
ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and began nationalizing the
Cuban property of American

businessmen. Shunning American influence, Castro allied with
the Communist Soviet Union.
Eisenhower suspended trade with the island nation and
authorized CIA training of anti-Castro
exiles for an invasion to retake the country. Kennedy inherited
this crisis when he took office.
When the CIA-trained insurgents landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs
in April 1961, they expected
American air and ground support. However, fearing an
escalation in the conflict with the
Soviet Union, Kennedy canceled American reinforcement. The
invasion collapsed, with 300
of the insurgents killed by Castro’s tanks and guns and 1,100
captured by his army. Kennedy
accepted blame for the humiliating and tragic fiasco. In a
conversation with White House spe-
cial counsel Ted Sorensen, he said, “How could I have been so
stupid, to let them go ahead?”
(as cited in Jones, 2009, p. 110). A New York Times reporter
editorialized that the United
States “looked like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies,
and incompetents to the rest”
(Woods, 2005, p. 213).
America’s weakness at the Bay of Pigs gave Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev incentive to fur-
ther test Kennedy’s resolve and courage. Another factor was a
series of provocative military
exercises Kennedy initiated on islands in close proximity to
Cuba. Khrushchev thus saw Cuba
(just 90 miles south of Florida) as the perfect place to establish
an offensive show of power,
and he authorized the construction of missile sites there.
Flying over the region in October 1962, American spy planes

uncovered the installation of
missiles capable of reaching the United States (see Figure 12.1).
In the ensuing 13 days, the
Cuban Missile Crisis brought the nations to the brink of nuclear
war. Kennedy’s military
advisors urged an attack on Cuba that would surely provoke a
Soviet response, but instead
Kennedy ordered a blockade of the island that prevented Soviet
access by air and sea and
demanded the removal of the installations.
Figure 12.1: The Cuban conflict, 1961–1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world close to the brink
of nuclear war but ended in the removal of
Soviet missiles in Cuba and U.S. missiles in Turkey.
G o l fo d e
Ba ta b a n ó
G o l fo d e
G u a c a n aya b o
G u l f o f
M e x i c o
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
C a r i b b e a n
S e a
Ba h í a d e

C o c h i n o s
( Bay o f P i g s )
G u a n tá n a m o
Bay
Havana
Andros
Island
Guantánamo Bay
U.S. Naval
Station
Guanajay
IRBM Site
Sagua La Grande
MRBM Site
Remedios
IRBM Site
San Cristobal
MRBM Site
B A H A M A S
C U B A
F LO R I DA
( U S A )

Miami
F l o r i d a
K ey
s
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 379 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Technology in America: Birth of the Space Age
After launching the world’s first orbiting satellite in 1957, the
Soviet Union temporarily
enjoyed technological superiority over the United States in the
realm of space exploration.
Established as a new federal agency in 1958, at the height of the
Cold War, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aimed to
perform basic research and
develop military and civil space exploration programs (Eastman,
1958). NASA’s task was
not to bring U.S. space capabilities in line with the Soviet
Union, but to ensure that the U.S.
space program left the Soviets far behind in technology and
implementation.
Thus began the so-called space race of the 1960s, when the
Soviets and Americans
raced to place the first man in space and to reach the moon.
Although the Soviet cosmo-
naut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth in
1961, only Americans made

a moon landing.
In the 1960s Americans believed reaching the moon offered the
ultimate prize and sym-
bol of scientific and national superiority. In May 1961 Kennedy
delivered the now famous
NASA/Associated Press
Seen here in his Mercury space
suit, John Glenn was the first
American to orbit the Earth, on
February 20, 1962.
Berlin
Two months after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy traveled to Vienna,
Austria, to meet with Khrush-
chev. The meeting accomplished little except for some
antagonistic exchanges between them,
along with a threat from Khrushchev insinuating that he would
begin restricting American
access to West Berlin. A dispute over the Berlin Wall quickly
became Kennedy’s most per-
plexing international concern. Built in 1961 to divide East
Berlin (controlled by the Soviet
Union) and West Berlin (under Western European and U.S.
influence), it was one of the only
places in the world where Cold War participants confronted
each other eye to eye.
In June 1963 Kennedy flew to West Berlin to personally address
the people of the city. Though
he knew no German, he wanted to include a phrase in the native
language that would resonate
with his audience. He recalled from his history classes that
Roman citizens proudly said Civis

romanium sum, which meant “I am a citizen of Rome” in Latin.
Kennedy thought that a similar
sentiment in German, Ich bin ein Berliner, meaning “I am a
Berliner,” would inspire his Ger-
man audience.
The speech, well received among West Berliners, formed an
iconic moment in the Cold War,
expressing America’s strength and commitment to its partners
and allies in the fight against
communism (Smyser, 2009). Khrushchev derided Kennedy’s
determined tone but agreed to
continue seeking a middle ground. Following the close call of
the Cuban Missile Crisis, both
world leaders recognized the real danger nuclear attacks posed
for both Americans and
Soviets.
Kennedy used this change in momentum to achieve some
positive gains in the United States’
relationship with the Soviet Union. Among his important
accomplishments was the Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty, which the United States, Great Britain, and the
Soviet Union signed on
August 5, 1963. It banned all nuclear tests except those
conducted underground. The treaty
was an important step in soothing fears of nuclear
contamination but did not stop the produc-
tion and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, which continued
throughout the Cold War.
(continued)
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 380 1/9/15 9:35 AM

“Urgent National Needs” speech before a joint ses-
sion of Congress. He predicted that the United States
would land a man on the moon before the decade’s end,
declaring:
Now it is time to take longer strides—time for
a great new American enterprise—time for this
nation to take a clearly leading role in space
achievement, which in many ways may hold
the key to our future on Earth. (Launius, 2004,
pp. 127–128)
Kennedy asked the entire nation to commit itself to
achieving this goal quickly and efficiently—and before
the Soviet Union. This component of the Cold War
required a boost in education, especially in science
and math. Arguing that such education was important
to national security, Kennedy funneled federal funds
to both government research and science and math
education.
NASA entered the space race behind the Soviets and
did everything in its power to win, not just techni-
cally but also with publicity. The agency impressed
the nation with quick and dramatic accomplishments,
including John Glenn’s first manned space orbit of the
earth on February 20, 1962.
The early astronauts like Glenn were daring test pilots willing
to risk their lives f lying
experimental aircraft on a daily basis. However, this was not the
image that NASA wanted
for the space program. In place of the daredevil image, NASA

“wished to portray this
unprecedented, dangerous, high-risk endeavor as something
precise, careful, moderate,
reliable, technically sound, and unfailingly cautious” (Allen,
2009, p. 163).
NASA achieved its goals when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the
surface of the moon on July
20, 1969. At the moment his foot touched the surface, he spoke
the famous words: “That’s
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (as cited in
Hansen, 2005, p. 493).
Eventually, the United States and Soviet Union curtailed some
of the competition in the
space race and collaborated on several space programs,
beginning with a joint docking
mission in 1975.
Space technology created many products and technologies that
still benefit consumers
today. Among these are airplane deicing systems, freeze-dried
food, cordless hand vacuum
cleaners, and memory foam.
For further reading, see:
Anderson, C. V. (2002). National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA): Background, issues, bibliography.
Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
Kay, W. D. (2005). Defining NASA: The historical debate over
the agency’s mission. Albany: State University of New
York Press.
Technology in America: Birth of the Space Age
After launching the world’s first orbiting satellite in 1957, the

Soviet Union temporarily
enjoyed technological superiority over the United States in the
realm of space exploration.
Established as a new federal agency in 1958, at the height of the
Cold War, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aimed to
perform basic research and
develop military and civil space exploration programs (Eastman,
1958). NASA’s task was
not to bring U.S. space capabilities in line with the Soviet
Union, but to ensure that the U.S.
space program left the Soviets far behind in technology and
implementation.
Thus began the so-called space race of the 1960s, when the
Soviets and Americans
raced to place the first man in space and to reach the moon.
Although the Soviet cosmo-
naut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth in
1961, only Americans made
a moon landing.
In the 1960s Americans believed reaching the moon offered the
ultimate prize and sym-
bol of scientific and national superiority. In May 1961 Kennedy
delivered the now famous
NASA/Associated Press
Seen here in his Mercury space
suit, John Glenn was the first
American to orbit the Earth, on
February 20, 1962.
Technology in America: Birth of the Space Age (continued)

bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 381 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Southeast Asia
During his tenure in office, Kennedy significantly increased the
U.S. military commitment to
Southeast Asia. He accepted Eisenhower’s domino theory but
differed from his predecessor
in important ways. While Eisenhower primarily sent economic
aid and military equipment
to the region, Kennedy sent 16,000 combat advisors into
Vietnam because he believed that
the nation symbolized the wider Cold War competition for the
hearts and minds of the non-
White world (Melanson, 2005). Faced with growing movements
for civil rights among multi-
ple minority groups at home, a commitment to help the Asian
nation in its struggle to remain
free made America seem more tolerant.
By 1963, however, the troubles in Vietnam were worsening
almost daily. The U.S.-supported
premier of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, a devout Catholic in
a largely Buddhist nation,
was corrupt, repressive, and out of touch with his people. His
attempts to convert the nation
to Catholicism sparked intense protest. The most shocking of
these was conducted by a Bud-
dhist monk who protested Diem’s policies by sitting on the
street, pouring gasoline over his
head, and lighting himself on fire. Other monks soon followed
suit.

The horrific photographs of such protestors outraged millions of
people worldwide. Madame
Nhu, the premier’s sister-in-law, made the situation worse when
she said that she clapped
her hands with each suicide and called them “barbecued monks”
(as cited in Hatcher, 1990,
p. 141). At this moment the Kennedy administration knew it
needed a dramatic change in
course (Hatcher, 1990).
In the fall of 1963, American CIA operatives learned of a
military plan to assassinate and
overthrow Diem, and though U.S. officials did not directly
support it, they did nothing to pre-
vent it from happening or to inform Diem his life was in danger.
Instead, American officials
signaled a willingness to work with a new government in
Vietnam. On November 2 a group
of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers captured Diem,
assassinated him in the back of a
car, and dumped his body in an unmarked grave next to the
house of the U.S. ambassador to
Vietnam (Herring, 2002). The people of South Vietnam largely
applauded Diem’s death and
celebrated with street demonstrations, but the Soviet Union and
China condemned the act.
Assassination
Three weeks after Diem’s assassination, at 1:40 p.m. on Friday,
November 22, 1963, Walter
Cronkite broke into regularly scheduled CBS television
broadcasts with a somber announce-
ment. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, while
traveling in a motorcade. Vice
President Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office onboard Air
Force One as Kennedy’s body

was transferred back to Washington, DC.
For the next 4 days, CBS covered the story nonstop, without
commercial interruptions.
Authorities arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, claiming that his rifle
shots from the Texas School
Book Depository building mortally wounded the president in the
back of the head. Just 2 days
© Corbis
President Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office
aboard Air Force One just hours after the assassination
of John F. Kennedy. His wife, Lady Bird, and Jacqueline
Kennedy are by his side.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 382 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Section 12.2 The Freedom Movement Expands
later, while Oswald was being trans-
ferred to jail, Dallas nightclub owner
Jack Ruby shoved a pistol in Oswald’s
ribs and killed him, further obscuring
the details of the event and preventing
Oswald from sharing his motives.
Speculation about a conspiracy to kill
the president continues even today.
Some claimed it was impossible for
Oswald, a former marine with men-
tal health issues, to have acted alone,
and pointed to possible evidence of
a second shooter. Other speculation

even suggested CIA or even Soviet
involvement. To search for the truth,
Johnson appointed a special commis-
sion headed by Chief Justice Earl War-
ren, which eventually concluded that
Oswald operated alone.
12.2 The Freedom Movement Expands
Prior to his death, President Kennedy was poised to make
substantial civil rights advances as
the movement gained momentum in the 1960s. The civil rights
activism of the 1950s took a
new turn during his presidency and received considerable
support from both the Kennedy
and Johnson administrations. Martin Luther King Jr. and other
activists wanted to spread
the momentum of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (see Chapter 11)
to a full-fledged movement
against segregation across the South.
Along with other southern ministers, King founded the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) in 1957, but the organization struggled to
gain traction after Montgom-
ery. The number of African American voters in southern states
actually decreased between
1956 and 1960 because militant local Whites employed
violence, intimidation, and fraudu-
lent registration tactics to suppress their exercise of the
franchise (Aldridge, 2011). In the
1960s a new generation of civil rights activists emerged to drive
the movement and the SCLC
in new directions.
New Tactics

African American college students in the South, whom
established African American leaders,
including King, had once criticized as apathetic and apolitical,
pushed the movement for civil
rights forward in the 1960s. Influencing members of the SCLC
and inspiring others to join in
peaceful acts of civil disobedience, they were responsible for
dramatic changes that continue
to impact Americans in the 21st century.
Southeast Asia
During his tenure in office, Kennedy significantly increased the
U.S. military commitment to
Southeast Asia. He accepted Eisenhower’s domino theory but
differed from his predecessor
in important ways. While Eisenhower primarily sent economic
aid and military equipment
to the region, Kennedy sent 16,000 combat advisors into
Vietnam because he believed that
the nation symbolized the wider Cold War competition for the
hearts and minds of the non-
White world (Melanson, 2005). Faced with growing movements
for civil rights among multi-
ple minority groups at home, a commitment to help the Asian
nation in its struggle to remain
free made America seem more tolerant.
By 1963, however, the troubles in Vietnam were worsening
almost daily. The U.S.-supported
premier of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, a devout Catholic in
a largely Buddhist nation,
was corrupt, repressive, and out of touch with his people. His
attempts to convert the nation
to Catholicism sparked intense protest. The most shocking of
these was conducted by a Bud-
dhist monk who protested Diem’s policies by sitting on the

street, pouring gasoline over his
head, and lighting himself on fire. Other monks soon followed
suit.
The horrific photographs of such protestors outraged millions of
people worldwide. Madame
Nhu, the premier’s sister-in-law, made the situation worse when
she said that she clapped
her hands with each suicide and called them “barbecued monks”
(as cited in Hatcher, 1990,
p. 141). At this moment the Kennedy administration knew it
needed a dramatic change in
course (Hatcher, 1990).
In the fall of 1963, American CIA operatives learned of a
military plan to assassinate and
overthrow Diem, and though U.S. officials did not directly
support it, they did nothing to pre-
vent it from happening or to inform Diem his life was in danger.
Instead, American officials
signaled a willingness to work with a new government in
Vietnam. On November 2 a group
of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers captured Diem,
assassinated him in the back of a
car, and dumped his body in an unmarked grave next to the
house of the U.S. ambassador to
Vietnam (Herring, 2002). The people of South Vietnam largely
applauded Diem’s death and
celebrated with street demonstrations, but the Soviet Union and
China condemned the act.
Assassination
Three weeks after Diem’s assassination, at 1:40 p.m. on Friday,
November 22, 1963, Walter
Cronkite broke into regularly scheduled CBS television
broadcasts with a somber announce-

ment. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, while
traveling in a motorcade. Vice
President Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office onboard Air
Force One as Kennedy’s body
was transferred back to Washington, DC.
For the next 4 days, CBS covered the story nonstop, without
commercial interruptions.
Authorities arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, claiming that his rifle
shots from the Texas School
Book Depository building mortally wounded the president in the
back of the head. Just 2 days
© Corbis
President Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office
aboard Air Force One just hours after the assassination
of John F. Kennedy. His wife, Lady Bird, and Jacqueline
Kennedy are by his side.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 383 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Sit-Ins
On February 1, 1960, four African American students from
North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University entered a Woolworth’s drugstore in
Greensboro, North Carolina,
and sat at the Whites-only lunch counter. African Americans
were permitted to shop in
stores such as Woolworth’s but were denied service at the lunch
counter. Franklin McCain,
Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond, all

freshmen, acted out of frustration and
impatience with the slow, legalistic methods of King and older
civil rights activists. Like
other politically aware and well-educated African American
youth, they rejected the conser-
vative and cautious methods of their elders and were determined
to take matters in their
own hands.
When the four students were asked
to leave, they did so, but the following
day 29 students appeared at the lunch
counter. Over succeeding days the pro-
test grew until hundreds of students,
African American and White, occupied
the lunch counter. They sat quietly
and endured taunts, curses, and even
being spat upon. The protest spread to
other stores in other cities across the
South. Police generally left the protest-
ers alone, but when violence erupted,
protestors and their White challengers
were often arrested. Although college
student protestors generally retained
their cool and held to nonviolent prin-
ciples, when high school students
joined the protests it was common for
fights to ensue as tempers flared. In
Portsmouth, Virginia, White and Afri-
can American high school students were arrested for exchanging
blows after a sit-in. Violence
following a Chattanooga, Tennessee, sit-in on February 23
involved more than 1,000 people,
leading to the arrest of 30 White people and ending only after
police turned fire hoses on the

crowd (Carson, 1981). Fearing a loss of business, some stores
quickly opened lunch coun-
ters to all shoppers, but others closed their restaurants to
impede protests. The Greensboro
Woolworth’s held out through more than 6 months of protests
before finally integrating at the
national corporation’s order (Aldridge, 2011).
SNCC and the Freedom Riders
The sit-ins were widely publicized, including features in
newspapers and the nightly news
broadcasts. The vision of well-dressed and well-mannered
students politely protesting seg-
regation gained the student movement favor. To better
coordinate activities, student leaders
formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), an integrated organiza-
tion that soon had chapters throughout the South. Between 1960
and 1965 SNCC was an
important driving force in the civil rights movement, pushing
older activists to go along with
its vocally assertive tactics.
© Jack Moebes/Corbis
Four students occupy stools at the Woolworth’s
lunch counter on the second day of the Greensboro,
North Carolina, protest, February 2, 1960.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 384 1/9/15 9:35 AM
SNCC’s tactics inspired an older civil rights organization, the

Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE), to sponsor a series of “Freedom Rides” to force
southern states to comply with a 1960
Supreme Court ruling banning segregation in public interstate
travel. Taking routes across
multiple southern states, White and African American
volunteers, carefully selected by CORE,
sat together on buses and used restrooms and waiting areas in
bus stations without regard to
segregation rules. It was one of the most dangerous strategies of
the civil rights movement,
and riders took a special course in nonviolent resistance in
anticipation of physical attack by
organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and other advocates of
maintaining segregation.
Freedom Riders hailed from all walks of life. Walter Bergman, a
retired Michigan college pro-
fessor, was among the riders aboard two buses, a Greyhound
and a Trailways, that departed
from Washington, D.C., bound for New Orleans in May 1961.
Bergman was a longtime advo-
cate of social justice causes and believed the New Deal had not
gone far enough in its attack
on poverty (New York Times, 1999).
Traveling across several southern states, one of the buses
carrying Bergman and the other
Freedom Riders made a scheduled stop in Anniston, Alabama,
on May 14, 1961. It was Moth-
er’s Day, and many local residents were just finishing a midday
family meal. Media accounts
let them know when the buses were scheduled to arrive, and a
mob of angry Whites headed
by Ku Klux Klan leader Kenneth Adams intercepted the
Greyhound.

The mob slashed the bus’s tires, but the driver managed to
speed away. Six miles out of town,
now on flat tires, the driver stopped the bus and fled as dozens
of cars filled with angry Whites
converged. A firebomb crashed through a window, setting the
bus on fire. The mob held the
doors closed, temporarily preventing the riders’ escape, but
there were no major injuries.
A second Trailways bus carrying more
Freedom Riders arrived in Anniston
an hour later, and its riders suffered
an even worse fate. Whites boarded
the bus at the station and brutally beat
the Freedom Riders, including Walter
Bergman, with clubs and soda bottles
(Noble, 2013). Media images of the
burning bus and beaten riders gained
public sympathy for the cause, but
Bergman was severely injured. Beaten
unconscious, he suffered a stroke a few
days later and remained wheelchair-
bound for the remainder of his life.
Like Ron Kovic, Bergman did not let his
disability stop him, and he remained
an outspoken advocate of freedom and
justice.
Following the events in Alabama, the Freedom Riders continued
to Mississippi, reinforced
with members of CORE and SNCC to replace the wounded
riders. When they entered Jackson
on May 24, state police and National Guard troops surrounded
the buses. When the riders
tried to use the Whites-only facilities in the bus depot, they

were promptly arrested.
Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Freedom Riders escape a burning Greyhound bus
after it was firebombed near Anniston, Alabama, on
May 14, 1961.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 385 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Aiming to fill the jails, the subsequent buses also headed for
Jackson, where Yale Univer-
sity chaplain William Coffin joined southern ministers Ralph
Abernathy and Fred Shuttles-
worth in the city jail. When the local jail filled, officials
transferred the Freedom Riders to
the state penitentiary, where at one point as many as 300
endured harsh treatment. The
violence the Freedom Rides provoked shocked the nation and
brought much needed atten-
tion to the civil rights cause.
March on Washington
Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and other tactics kept the demand for
civil rights at the forefront of
the nation’s attention during Kennedy’s presidency and
prompted him to craft a civil rights
bill. Early in his presidency Kennedy was reluctant to speak out
in favor of civil rights for
African Americans, largely because he feared losing the support
of White southerners. After
observing the actions of civil rights activists in their struggle to

integrate public schools, lunch
counters, universities, and other venues, however, the president
shifted toward a strong sup-
port for the movement. To support the civil rights bill that
would advance the cause of African
American rights, the leaders of multiple freedom, economic, and
civil rights organizations
came together for a gathering in the nation’s capital. Planned as
the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom, this largest ever political rally for human
rights on August 28, 1963,
is considered by many as the most memorable moment in the
civil rights movement.
In the days leading up to the event, the president and Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy
grew ever more anxious. At one point, the Kennedy
administration sought to stop the march,
weighing the enormous possibility for change against the
potential for domestic unrest. Both
men worried about the reaction of White Americans but also
realized that the moment marked
a turning point in the movement and for U.S. society. At risk
was the fate of major civil rights
legislation that President Kennedy supported. Attorney General
Kennedy assigned a small
number of Justice Department staff to help with the event’s
coordination. Despite the con-
cerns, the event proved a success. Standing before a crowd of
nearly 250,000, Martin Luther
King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. Few
would have guessed that within
3 months the president who proposed the civil rights bill they
celebrated would be gone.
Midmovement Achievement

President Kennedy supported a broad-based bill that would end
discrimination based on
race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, but at the time of
his death it was stalled in the
House of Representatives. Upon assuming the presidency,
Johnson used his political influence
to propel the measure through Congress by suggesting that the
bill honored the legacy of the
fallen president. Even though he realized that the bill could
swing southern political support
toward the Republican Party, Johnson pushed ahead. Addressing
a joint session of Congress in
November 1963, he said, “No memorial oration or eulogy could
more eloquently honor Presi-
dent Kennedy’s memory than the earliest possible passage of
the civil rights bill for which he
fought so long” (as cited in Loevy, 1997, p. 159). The House
voted 289 to 126 on the final bill,
and the Senate approved it by a measure of 73 to 27.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 counts as a major victory of the
civil rights movement. It out-
lawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin when hiring, pro-
moting, or firing employees; in public accommodations; and in
all programs receiving federal
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 386 1/9/15 9:35 AM
funding. At the last moment conservative Virginia
representative Howard W. Smith added the
word sex to the final language in the hope that adding women

into the mix would kill the bill.
Despite his intention, the final law also included a ban on
gender discrimination.
The act also created the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission within the Justice
Department to oversee its implementation and enforce its
antidiscriminatory provisions.
Finally, it expanded the right of the federal government to
prosecute civil rights violations in
southern states.
Freedom Summer
Voting rights stood out as the major civil rights hurdle not
addressed by the 1964 law. Most
southern states had disfranchised African Americans in the late
19th and early 20th centuries
through violence and intimidation as well as unfair poll taxes
and literacy tests. Invigorated
by recent victories, multiple civil rights organizations and
White northerners moved into Mis-
sissippi, a state widely known for strident opposition to African
American civil rights, in the
summer of 1964 to participate in drives to register African
American voters. Although most
of the leadership and financing came from SNCC, other groups
including CORE and the NAACP,
and King’s SCLC also lent support.
Mississippi’s White residents resented the intrusion
of outsiders bent on forcing social change. Almost
immediately, activists faced physical attack. On
June 21 a deputy sheriff arrested three CORE orga-
nizers; one African American, James Chaney; and
two Whites, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Good-
man. After they were released later that night, a

group of angry residents murdered all three, and
their bodies were later found hastily buried nearby.
Reports of their disappearance and subsequent
murder, and especially of the two White northern
organizers, galvanized the nation and brought criti-
cal attention to the issue of voting rights. Although
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowed the federal gov-
ernment to conduct a criminal investigation in the
case, Mississippi State prosecutors refused to try
the 18 men the FBI arrested. It was not until 2005
that some of those responsible came to trial and
were convicted.
Freedom advocates also sought a way around the
White domination of Mississippi’s political system.
Civil rights organizers formed the Mississippi Free-
dom Democratic Party (MFDP) that aimed to take
the state’s seats at the 1964 Democratic National
Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A televised
hearing examined the credentials of party delegates,
© Bettmann/Corbis
Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party demanded
that her delegation be seated as the true
Democratic Party from the southern
state. Her activism forced a compromise
that would make future conventions
more inclusive.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 387 1/9/15 9:35 AM

including SNCC organizer Fannie Lou Hamer, known for
singing Christian hymns during voter
registration drives.
Elected vice chair of the MFDP delegation, Hamer testified to
the violence and intimidation
she and other African Americans faced in their drive to vote or
help register others. At the end
of her testimony, she declared:
If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now I question
America. Is
this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave,
where we have
to sleep with our telephones off of the hook because our lives
be threatened
daily, because we want to live as decent human beings in
America? (as cited
in Lee, 1999, p. 89)
Convention organizers offered to seat two African American
delegates as a compromise
and to reform the selection process for succeeding conventions,
but the MFDP refused.
The Voting Rights Act
Hamer’s impassioned testimony failed to win her party seats at
the convention but did
heighten awareness of the problem of African American
disfranchisement. It was primar-
ily, however, the continued violent attacks upon nonviolent
protestors that finally moved the
nation and Johnson to act. In January 1965 Martin Luther King
Jr. initiated a voting rights cam-

paign focusing on the city of Selma, Alabama, where only a few
hundred of the city’s 15,000
African Americans had registered to vote.
The culmination of the drive was to be a peaceful march
covering the 54 miles between Selma
and the state capital at Montgomery. On two occasions
television cameras captured marchers
under police assault as officers attacked them with cattle prods,
tear gas, and clubs.
Moved to act, Johnson addressed Congress, asking that it enact
a law guaranteeing all Amer-
icans the right to vote. Closing his speech with the language of
the civil rights movement,
he assured the nation, “we shall overcome” (as cited in Albert &
Hoffman, 1990, p. 212).
Congress quickly passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which
Johnson signed into law on
August 6. The law established federal jurisdiction over elections
and required certain juris-
dictions (mostly in the South) to seek the attorney general’s
approval before implementing
changes that affect voting, such as redrawing districts
(Aldridge, 2011).
Expanding the Fight for Equality
A host of groups paralleled and followed the African American
civil rights movement, redefin-
ing what it meant to be an American and challenging the
conservative status quo that domi-
nated the postwar era. Often referred to as part of the New Left,
these groups sought a broad
range of economic and social reforms. Unlike the Communist
Party sympathizers of an earlier
generation, they rejected the Soviet Union as a model and

generally eschewed involvement
in labor politics. Instead, they emphasized the liberalism of the
New Deal as a model for eco-
nomic justice. They emulated the tactics of the civil rights
movement, including sit-ins, boy-
cotts, and peaceful protests, and applied them to their own
causes.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 388 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Women’s Liberation
One movement challenged the secondary status of women in
American society. Early in the
20th century, women’s rights activists had focused their energy
on winning the right to vote,
but with that battle won, 1960s feminists emphasized a broad
range of issues, including offi-
cial legal inequalities, sexuality, the workplace, and
reproductive rights (Horowitz, 1998). In
1957 writer and journalist Betty Friedan conducted a survey of
her college classmates for
their upcoming 15th reunion. She found that most of her fellow
graduates of Smith College
were unhappy in their traditional roles
as housewives. Even affluent women
living in the suburbs with all the mod-
ern conveniences felt unfulfilled. She
continued to research the issue and
published her findings in The Feminine
Mystique, the 1963 best seller that
sparked the beginning of second-wave
feminism.

Friedan’s Feminine Mystique resonated
most strongly with White middle-class
women. She urged women to seek
a career path for fulfillment. At the
time of the book’s publication, single
women did not have access to birth
control, and married women did not
have access to credit independent of
their husbands. Access to birth control
and family planning, which Friedan
supported, gave women the ability to pace the birth of their
children, plan careers, and pursue
professional goals. Earning their own wages also offered women
more financial freedom and
purchasing power of their own.
Seeking economic and social justice, feminists formed
consciousness-raising groups through-
out the United States. In 1966 the National Organization for
Women (NOW) formed with
Friedan as its first president. Modeled on civil rights groups,
NOW called for equal opportu-
nity in the workplace and education and objected to media
portrayals of women.
Some feminists gained militant reputations as they publicly
rejected things they regarded
as objects of female oppression, such as bras, girdles, and high-
heeled shoes. Stereotypes
of women as “bra burners” did not depict reality, however.
Feminists sought equality of the
sexes, and they did not burn their undergarments in protest.
Instead, they organized and
worked diligently to overturn laws and support new legislation.

Women of color and working-class women often did not relate
to Friedan’s brand of femi-
nism, however. Many of these women, who never had a choice
but to work, endured an ever-
widening wage gap and were relegated to clerical jobs, sales
jobs, or other so-called women’s
work. Some feminists came to embrace a more radical form of
feminism and joined groups
such as the Redstockings movement, which formed in 1969 to
raise public consciousness
about women’s oppression in a male-dominated society and to
call for supportive legislation
for family planning and other women’s issues (Rosen, 2013).
Associated Press
Betty Friedan, the first president of the National
Organization for Women, demanded an end to
discrimination and called for equality between
the sexes.
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Latino Civil Rights
Hispanic Americans began demanding equal rights in the 1940s,
but in the 1960s Latinos
formally organized in support of economic justice and legal
equality. Hispanic Americans in
eastern cities such as Philadelphia and New York, largely
Puerto Ricans, faced issues of urban
poverty and discrimination and focused on those needs. In the
West, where many Mexican

Americans worked in agriculture, the struggle for civil rights
was more closely linked to the
labor movement. In California, César Chávez emerged in 1965
as leader of a 5-year struggle
to organize migrant farmworkers and improve the working and
living conditions of Latinos
in the Southwest.
The son of migrant farmworkers, Chávez watched and admired
the activism of Martin Luther
King Jr. He patterned his struggle in the fields after King’s
nonviolent protests, using marches,
rallies, and hunger strikes to bring attention to the United Farm
Workers’ cause. A national
grape boycott finally pressured growers to agree to a contract
that gave workers better pay
and living conditions. Chávez became a nationally recognized
labor and civil rights leader and
continued to fight for change through the 1970s.
Red Power
Native Americans also saw the 1960s as an opportunity to raise
their voices against ineq-
uity. They successfully fought against a federal attempt to
terminate the sovereignty guar-
anteed them under the reservation system, and Johnson’s
policies made special efforts to
extend programs to Native American tribes (Shriver, 1966). In
1968 the American Indian
Movement (AIM) organized protests to bring attention to Native
American issues and to
inspire the renewal of native culture.
AIM also coordinated education and
employment programs among rural
and urban Native American commu-

nities and demanded the restoration
of commitments from earlier treaties
with the U.S. government.
More militant Native American activ-
ists gained national intention in 1969
by occupying Alcatraz Island in San
Francisco Bay. The Red Power group
claimed that under an old treaty, all
abandoned federal land reverted to
Native Americans. The federal prison
on Alcatraz closed in 1963, so the group
argued it could rightfully reclaim own-
ership. Calling themselves Indians of
© Bettmann/Corbis
Richard Oakes, Earl Livermore, and Al Miller (from
left to right) speak at a press conference during the
American Indian Movement’s takeover of Alcatraz.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 390 1/9/15 9:35 AM
All Tribes, the group members held the island for 19 months
until they were forcibly removed
in June 1971. Although their claim failed, in succeeding years
the federal government became
more responsive to Native American activism, and many tribes
regained important control
over their reservation policies and programs linked to
economics and education.

Gay Rights
Gay men and lesbians did not enjoy much tolerance in 1960s
America, and they were often
forced to conceal their identities to avoid derision and
discrimination. Until 1973 the Ameri-
can Psychiatric Association considered homosexuality a mental
illness, and in most states
homosexual sex was outlawed. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did
not apply to gays, who could
be fired from their jobs, arrested for sexual behavior, or even
have their children taken away.
A vibrant but underground gay community emerged in the
United States during the 1950s
and 1960s. As early as 1953 the pro-gay ONE Magazine began
publishing from Los Angeles,
although the following year the U.S. Post Office declared it to
be an obscene publication and
banned its circulation in the mail. After winning an important
First Amendment legal
battle in the Supreme Court case of One, Inc. v. Olesen, it
began circulating again, and until
1967 it provided an important forum for gay news and dialog
among subscribers in cities
across the nation.
Subscribers often wrote to detail the discrimination and
violence the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender community experienced. Many detailed the
urban antigay crackdown as
police in disguise raided gay bars or otherwise tried to entrap
unsuspecting men. One cor-
respondent informed ONE readers of recent activity in the
Northeast: “Philadelphia raided
twice. Carted the boys to jail for a nite for ‘frequenting a
disorderly place’” and “NYC still quiet

and closed down fairly tight, so streets are busy” (Loftin, 2012,
pp. 109–110). New York City
would not remain quiet for long. Despite the risks, some gays
did organize to demand equality.
A gay rights movement emerged from a series of violent
protests and demonstrations that
began on June 29, 1969. That night police raided the Stonewall
Inn, a bar in New York’s
Greenwich Village where gay men, transvestites, and lesbians
regularly gathered. Refusing
to submit to police, the bar’s patrons fought back, resisting
arrest and in one case trying
to overturn a police vehicle. This confrontation sparked a series
of protests known as the
Stonewall Riots that continued over the next 6 days.
After the initial violence, more peaceful protests took place in a
nearby park, and activists
began to form a more coordinated gay rights movement. Two
important organizations came
out of the protests. The Gay Liberation Front and the Gay
Activists Alliance were emblematic
of new gay rights organizations that inspired thousands of gay
men and lesbians across the
United States to demand civil and human rights (Carter, 2004).
Their collective strength cre-
ated a movement to overturn antigay laws and to push for gay
rights.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 391 1/9/15 9:35 AM

American Experience: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
The modern environmental movement, also
rooted in the 1960s, received a huge boost
with the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s
nonfiction book, Silent Spring. The book
shocked the nation by revealing the detri-
mental effects of pesticides, especially DDT,
the most widely used pesticide in agricultural
production. A marine biologist by training,
Carson wrote a series of popular nonfiction
nature books in the 1950s and even won a
National Book Award before turning her atten-
tion to the environmental problems pesticides
caused. She later credited a letter from a friend
with bringing the issue to her attention, and
she spent several years conducting research
and consulting other scientists.
Silent Spring emphasized the negative impacts
humans often have on the natural world.
Carson argued that pesticides harmed more
than undesirable insects and that DDT in par-
ticular killed birds and aquatic life and posed
harm to humans as well. Carson also revealed
the relationship between large-scale farm-
ers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and
the chemical industry in promoting the use of
pesticides and concealing their ill effects. She argued that
economic self-interest kept these
industries from honestly assessing the risks and that instead
they falsely told the public
that the pesticides were safe.
A special television program based on her book and hosted by
Eric Sevareid reached 10

million to 15 million CBS viewers. The book was also
distributed widely as a main selec-
tion of the Book of the Month Club. It remains one of the best-
selling nonfiction books of all
time. The scientific community largely backed Carson’s
research, but the chemical industry,
and especially the DuPont Corporation, derided her findings as
nonsense.
At the insistence of environmentalists, Congress passed
important legislation to protect
clean air and water. The pesticide DDT, once considered safe
enough to spray on school-
children, was banned for use in the United States in 1972.
Carson was already ill with
cancer when Silent Spring appeared, and she died 2 years later,
but the questions she raised
remain central to environmentalism. How does human-generated
pollution and chemical
use travel through the food chain to affect human health? Are
Americans destroying them-
selves as well as the world around them? (Tyrrell, 2006).
For further reading, see:
Carson, R. (2002). Silent spring. (40th anniversary edition).
New York: First Mariner Books.
Murphy, P. C. (2005). What a book can do: The publication and
reception of Silent Spring. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press.
© Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Popular scientist Rachel Carson inspired
the modern environmental movement with
her book Silent Spring, which exposed the

dangers of pesticides and other chemicals.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 392 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Black Power
Federal backing for civil and voting rights concentrated in the
South, but African Americans
in other areas of the country expressed their own desires for
change. Uttered in 1966 by
SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael, Black Power became a phrase
associated with calls for
African Americans all over the United States to unify to support
community change and to
celebrate their heritage. The movement argued that all people of
African descent should
come together to achieve self-determination and to oppose the
oppression of people of color
by the White race.
Carmichael and others also used the term to express their
frustration with the slow and
moderate gains of the nonviolent civil rights movement. The
Black Power movement gave
expression to a growing belief that African Americans should
not have to ask White society
to support them in a struggle for civil rights. Instead, they
demanded that they be accorded
the rights guaranteed them as Americans. Through Black Power,
young civil rights activists
articulated a more militant stance and set of tactics in pursuit of
black freedom.

Malcolm X
The militant and sometimes threatening expression of Black
Power is most associated with
the influence of Malcolm X. Born Malcolm Little in Nebraska
in 1925, he grew up in a house-
hold far removed from the Jim Crow South with a father who
supported the Black Nationalism
of Marcus Garvey (see Chapter 5).
While imprisoned for burglary, Little became affiliated with the
Nation of Islam, which had
formed in the 1930s and celebrated African American self-
actualization and cultural contri-
butions to American society. Changing his name to Malcolm X
because he believed Little was
a slave surname, he became the movement’s leading spokesman.
Under his leadership, the
Nation of Islam swelled to more than 30,000 members by 1963.
Malcolm X challenged the nonviolent
tactics and philosophy of Martin Luther
King Jr. and the early student move-
ment. He called for African American
pride and separation from White soci-
ety, and he urged African Americans
to resist White violence “by any means
necessary.” Carmichael and student
leaders of SNCC agreed and began to
emphasize African American pride and
to seek solidarity with people of color
around the world.
Other organizations followed his lead
as well, including the Black Panther
Party for Self Defense, which formed in
Oakland, California, in 1966 to combat

© Library of Congress - digital ve/Science Faction/Corbis
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X supported
different paths to achieving civil rights. They met
only once, at the U.S. Capitol in 1964.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 393 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Section 12.3 Johnson’s Great Society
police brutality. The organization also supported community
programs for youth and pro-
vided social programming and meal services to poor African
American neighborhoods. The
Black Power movement received unprecedented attention from
the national press and faced
considerable backlash from White Americans. Images of Black
Panther members dressed in
black leather and holding rifles made a shocking contrast to the
nonviolent protests in the
South. With the rise of African American militancy, national
support for civil rights began to
diminish.
Urban Riots
Adding to militants’ demands for change were a series of
uprisings in northern and western
cities. In many states African American unemployment was
double the rate for Whites, and
working African Americans routinely earned less than Whites.
Rising expectations for equal-
ity and social change moved faster than economic change.
African Americans found that new

civil rights guarantees did little to improve their financial
conditions, and many still lived
below the poverty level. From the mid-1960s, pressures
stemming from this reality led to
violent riots in urban centers outside the South.
One of the largest uprisings, which took place in August 1965
in the Watts neighborhood
of Los Angeles, was triggered by the arrest of African American
motorist Marquette Frye.
His brother and mother somehow came into contact with police
as well, and they were also
arrested. A crowd that gathered during the altercation grew as
rumors of police brutality
spread, and soon rioting erupted. For 6 days as many as 50,000
city residents attacked police
and firefighters, looted White-owned businesses, and burned
buildings. Finally subdued with
the help of the National Guard, the Watts uprising resulted in
$40 million in property damage
as well as 34 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries (Campbell,
2008).
The Watts Riot marked the tipping point for urban unrest.
Similar violence soon erupted in
the northern cities of Newark, New Jersey; Detroit; and
Cleveland. In 1967 Johnson appointed
a special commission to study the cause of the rioting, but no
clear proposal for change
emerged.
By the late 1960s poverty moved front and center among some
civil rights and antiwar activ-
ists. The issues of poverty and war coalesced as working-class
young men disproportion-
ately filled the ranks of the military while middle- and upper

class youth remained in college,
exempted from the draft. Established civil rights leaders turned
their attention to urban liv-
ing conditions and poverty. Martin Luther King Jr. refocused
his efforts on his Poor People’s
Campaign, an effort to gain economic justice for the millions of
Americans living below the
poverty line. However, by 1967 the escalation of the Vietnam
War subsumed the nation’s
attention and its resources.
12.3 Johnson’s Great Society
Although John F. Kennedy proposed the New Frontier, it was
Lyndon Johnson who was
referred to as the “last frontiersman” (Alsop, 1973, p. 8).
Emerging from humble beginnings
in the Texas Hill Country, Johnson was one of the most skilled
politicians ever to assume the
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 394 1/9/15 9:35 AM
presidency. Before entering politics, Johnson earned a teaching
degree and briefly taught high
school in Texas. He also became a champion for Latino civil
rights. During the New Deal he
headed the National Youth Administration in Texas, where he
used his teaching experience to
expand educational opportunities for Texas youth. He left after
2 years to run for Congress.
First elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives in

1937, he moved on to the
Senate in 1948, where he served as majority leader. Johnson
was committed to an agenda
of liberal reform, and upon assuming the presidency he moved
to complete Kennedy’s out-
standing goals and to extend his own program of social welfare
and civil rights. Although not
as media savvy as Kennedy, Johnson worked behind the scenes
to convince members of Con-
gress to support his legislative agenda. In his first address to
Congress, Johnson also assured
the nation of his commitment to continue Kennedy’s actions in
South Vietnam.
He proclaimed that he and the nation needed to “resolve that
John Fitzgerald Kennedy did
not live—or die—in vain” (as cited in Waldman, 2010, p. 192).
The tax cut came next on the
unfinished Kennedy agenda, and Johnson signed it into law in
February 1964. Civil rights
proved a tougher sell in Congress, where southern Democrats
provided staunch opposition,
and Johnson turned his attention toward equality for all
Americans as the fall election began
to consume the nation’s attention.
Johnson’s Social Programs
In the year before the 1964 election, Johnson also
began his own domestic legislative agenda under
the umbrella of a program known as the Great Soci-
ety. Johnson’s domestic goals were broad and aimed
at eliminating poverty, increasing educational
opportunities, and securing racial justice. He pro-
posed a broad range of new spending programs to
address the needs of education, the nation’s health
care, and both urban and rural poverty.

Declaring a War on Poverty in his January 1964
State of the Union address, Johnson sought a range
of legislation to address the struggles shared by
poor families in their efforts to obtain food, educa-
tion, work, and medical care. He promoted his plan
with an April trip to the Appalachian town of Inez,
Kentucky, where cameras captured his visit to the
three-room cabin that was home to Tom Fletcher,
his wife, and eight children. Johnson sat on Fletch-
er’s porch and listened to his story. Fletcher was an
unemployed coal miner who sometimes spent his
nights caring for a sick neighbor who was too poor
to go to the hospital. His family had very little food,
two of his children had stopped going to school, and
he had little hope for the future.
© Bettmann/Corbis
Tom Fletcher, shown here with
President Lyndon Johnson, provided
for his family, which included eight
children, on $400 per year when he
was employed at the saw mill.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 395 1/9/15 9:35 AM
The White House had specifically chosen the compelling image
of the president sitting on the
porch of an ordinary American, one whose face was etched in
misery, to personalize poverty
and to serve as a symbol of the 35 million Americans who lived

below the poverty level. John-
son said, “I don’t know if I’ll pass a single law or get a single
dollar appropriated, but before
I’m through, no community in America will be able to ignore
the poverty in its midst” (as cited
in Gillette, 2010, p. xi).
At the president’s urging, Congress passed the Economic
Opportunity Act in August 1964,
creating 10 new programs aimed at reducing poverty in America
(see Table 12.1). Congress
also allocated a staggering $800 million to the programs for the
first year. Controversial
among the programs was the Community Action Program, which
empowered poor people
to oversee programs in their own communities, including early
childhood education through
Head Start, home weatherization programs, and the Low Income
Home Energy Assistance
Program. Operating with various degrees of success,
Community Action organizations relied
heavily on volunteers and a combination of federal, state, and
local funding.
Table 12.1: Major programs of the Economic Opportunity Act
Program Purpose
Head Start Early childhood education for youth ages 3 to 5
Job Corps Vocational training for youth ages 16 to 24
Volunteers in Service to America Domestic program akin to the
Peace Corps but focusing on reliev-
ing poverty and related problems in the United States

Community Action Program Community-based agencies
overseeing a range of antipoverty
services
Legal Services Program (Legal Aid) Legal representation for
those in need
Work Study Federally funded work assistance for college
students
The Landslide 1964 Election
Although he had held office less than a year before seeking the
1964 Democratic nomina-
tion, Johnson and his agenda proved widely popular, even with
Republican voters. A pollster
canvassing in rural Texas, a region long considered a
conservative stronghold, was amazed at
what he discovered. Many of those polled compared Johnson to
FDR, and not one opposed his
candidacy. One woman, who claimed she had not voted for a
Democrat since 1936, declared,
“I’m not just for him, I’ll fight for him!” (as cited in Bernstein,
1996, p. 26).
The election of 1964 turned out to be one of the most lopsided
in the nation’s history. John-
son promised a series of social reforms, including poverty relief
and an end to segregation,
under his Great Society. His Republican opponent, Arizona
businessman Barry Goldwater,
stood in stark contrast, considered too conservative even by
many party stalwarts. Credited
with reviving the modern conservative movement, Goldwater
mobilized opposition to the
New Deal–like ideals and programs of his opponent, but his
ideas proved to have little voter

appeal in this election.
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 396 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Johnson won 44 of the 50 states, and an amazing 61% of the
popular vote. It was the mandate
he needed to finish his reform agenda. The election also
strengthened the Democratic major-
ity in Congress. In the House the Democratic majority
approached two thirds after it took
36 seats from Republicans. The party’s lead of 68 to 32 in the
Senate exceeded two thirds,
although Democrats picked up only two seats.
The Great Society Continues
The election gave Johnson a mandate to press forward with his
Great Society initiatives (see
Table 12.2). He used evidence gathered from his trip to
Appalachia and from the President’s
Appalachian Regional Commission, begun under Kennedy’s
administration, to support the
Appalachian Regional Development Act. Signed into law in
March 1965, it created a perma-
nent federally funded agency, known as the Appalachian
Regional Commission, that aimed
to increase employment, improve infrastructure, and reduce
regional isolation through con-
struction of a highway system.
The Great Society approached the nation’s education needs
through two important pieces of
legislation. The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act

allotted $1 billion in federal
grants to states to aid schools in areas with high concentrations
of poverty. The most far-
reaching congressionally passed education measure, the bill
aimed to provide equal access
to education and to create a system of accountability without
enacting a national curriculum.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 similarly offered federal
support and funding for state col-
leges and universities and established scholarships and student
loans. The new law made it
possible for millions of American youth to afford a university
education and established a
long-lasting trend of public funding for higher education.
One of the most visible and long-lasting legacies of the Great
Society came with revisions to
the Social Security system to provide government insured health
care services to the elderly
and poor under the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Debate
over a national health insurance
program was not new, but the large Democratic majority in
Congress finally made it a seri-
ous possibility. Although conservative Republicans, including
future president Ronald Reagan,
condemned it as socialism, the bill passed the House by a
margin of 313 to 115 and the Senate
by a margin of 68 to 21. Johnson signed it into law on July 30,
1965 (Oberlander, 2003).
Table 12.2: Great Society legislation, 1965
Legislation Purpose
Elementary and Secondary School Act Provided $1 billion in
public school funds

Higher Education Act Increased federal support to colleges and
universities
Medicare Provided health care to the aged
Medicaid Provided health care to the poor
Voting Rights Act Prohibited racial discrimination in voting
Water Quality Act Required states to issue standards to assure
water quality
Air Quality Act Instituted standards for regulating auto
emissions
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 397 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Section 12.4 The Vietnam War
12.4 The Vietnam War
Johnson’s Great Society eventually took a backseat to the
growing military and diplomatic cri-
sis in Southeast Asia. In the months after the assassinations of
South Vietnamese leader Diem
and President Kennedy, political disarray and guerilla
insurgency in South Vietnam made U.S.
experts fear the capital of Saigon would fall to the enemy.
Soviet support for the already Com-
munist North Vietnam was expanding. Many of Johnson’s close
advisors, including Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara, urged military escalation, but the
president hesitated.

Entering the Quagmire
Johnson overcame his reluctance in August 1964, when North
Vietnamese torpedo boats
apparently fired twice on an American destroyer in the Gulf of
Tonkin in the South China Sea.
Much later, once documentation became public, the public
learned that the second attack
had never occurred. Although intelligence services were still
gathering evidence about the
attacks, Johnson declared the incident an act of aggression and
asked Congress to pass a joint
resolution that gave him the authority “to take all necessary
measures to repel any armed
attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent
further aggression” (as cited in
McMahon, 2003, p. 145). Only two senators opposed the
measure (Hall, 2007).
Americanization of the War
American troops acted in an advisory capacity before the
escalation of the ground war in
Vietnam, with just over 23,000 in the country in 1964. Johnson
waited until after the fall
election to begin openly supporting escalation of U.S.
involvement, which became known as
Americanization, but his show of strength in asking for the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution helped
cement his victory.
By that point, continued instability in South Vietnam after the
ousting of the dictator Diem
became a rising concern. In the spring of 1965, the South
Vietnam–based Viet Cong, who
opposed the southern government and detested the presence of
U.S. military advisors, also

began to step up attacks against American personnel. McNamara
urged action, including com-
mitting thousands of American combat troops. He called the
operation Rolling Thunder.
The swell of American ground troops began in 1965, and within
3 years more than a half mil-
lion U.S. soldiers were “in country,” a term used by U.S.
soldiers to mean they were in Vietnam.
More soldiers meant more Americans killed, missing, or
wounded in action. Total U.S. casual-
ties grew from 2,500 at the end of 1965 to over 130,000 at the
end of 1968, which marked the
high point of American troop presence. Troops fought regular
North Vietnamese army troops
but also the Viet Cong, who were more difficult to identify
because they were often disguised
as civilians (see Figure 12.2).
Fighting in the humid jungles of Southeast Asia was difficult,
so to aid American and South
Vietnamese fighting forces, the U.S. military sprayed toxic
chemical defoliants, including
Agent Orange, to help clear the forests. Hitting millions of
acres, the defoliants destroyed half
of the nation’s timber. There was little consideration of the
long-term effect of the chemicals
on human and animal life (Patterson, 1996). Although evidence
is not completely conclusive,
studies show increased rates of cancer, as well as nerve and
digestive disorders, among veter-
ans exposed to the defoliant.
Figure 12.2: The Vietnam War
The escalation of the Vietnam War brought the incursion of

more than a half million U.S. troops into the
region. By the 1968 election, Americans were losing faith that
the war was winnable and that it was
possible to prevent the spread of communism into South
Vietnam.
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bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 398 1/9/15 9:35 AM
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Vinh Long
Dalat
Nha Trang
Quy Nhon
Da Nang
Hue
Quang Tri
Tuy HoaBuon
Ma Thuot

Kon Tum
Khe Sanh
Lang Vei
Pleiku
Bien Hua
Tan Son Nhut
Cholon
Ca Mau
My Tho
Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ)
Harbor mined,
1972
Maddox Incident,
1972
U.S. IN
VASION, 1970
Major U.S. base
(January 1968)

U.S. Seventh Fleet
12.4 The Vietnam War
Johnson’s Great Society eventually took a backseat to the
growing military and diplomatic cri-
sis in Southeast Asia. In the months after the assassinations of
South Vietnamese leader Diem
and President Kennedy, political disarray and guerilla
insurgency in South Vietnam made U.S.
experts fear the capital of Saigon would fall to the enemy.
Soviet support for the already Com-
munist North Vietnam was expanding. Many of Johnson’s close
advisors, including Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara, urged military escalation, but the
president hesitated.
Entering the Quagmire
Johnson overcame his reluctance in August 1964, when North
Vietnamese torpedo boats
apparently fired twice on an American destroyer in the Gulf of
Tonkin in the South China Sea.
Much later, once documentation became public, the public
learned that the second attack
had never occurred. Although intelligence services were still
gathering evidence about the
attacks, Johnson declared the incident an act of aggression and
asked Congress to pass a joint
resolution that gave him the authority “to take all necessary
measures to repel any armed

attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent
further aggression” (as cited in
McMahon, 2003, p. 145). Only two senators opposed the
measure (Hall, 2007).
Americanization of the War
American troops acted in an advisory capacity before the
escalation of the ground war in
Vietnam, with just over 23,000 in the country in 1964. Johnson
waited until after the fall
election to begin openly supporting escalation of U.S.
involvement, which became known as
Americanization, but his show of strength in asking for the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution helped
cement his victory.
By that point, continued instability in South Vietnam after the
ousting of the dictator Diem
became a rising concern. In the spring of 1965, the South
Vietnam–based Viet Cong, who
opposed the southern government and detested the presence of
U.S. military advisors, also
began to step up attacks against American personnel. McNamara
urged action, including com-
mitting thousands of American combat troops. He called the
operation Rolling Thunder.
The swell of American ground troops began in 1965, and within
3 years more than a half mil-
lion U.S. soldiers were “in country,” a term used by U.S.
soldiers to mean they were in Vietnam.
More soldiers meant more Americans killed, missing, or
wounded in action. Total U.S. casual-
ties grew from 2,500 at the end of 1965 to over 130,000 at the
end of 1968, which marked the
high point of American troop presence. Troops fought regular

North Vietnamese army troops
but also the Viet Cong, who were more difficult to identify
because they were often disguised
as civilians (see Figure 12.2).
Fighting in the humid jungles of Southeast Asia was difficult,
so to aid American and South
Vietnamese fighting forces, the U.S. military sprayed toxic
chemical defoliants, including
Agent Orange, to help clear the forests. Hitting millions of
acres, the defoliants destroyed half
of the nation’s timber. There was little consideration of the
long-term effect of the chemicals
on human and animal life (Patterson, 1996). Although evidence
is not completely conclusive,
studies show increased rates of cancer, as well as nerve and
digestive disorders, among veter-
ans exposed to the defoliant.
Figure 12.2: The Vietnam War
The escalation of the Vietnam War brought the incursion of
more than a half million U.S. troops into the
region. By the 1968 election, Americans were losing faith that
the war was winnable and that it was
possible to prevent the spread of communism into South
Vietnam.
G u l f o f
T o n k i n
G u l f o f
T h a i l a n d

S O U T H
C H I N A
S E A
M
e
ko
n
g
R
iver
C H I N A
L
A
O
S
H a i n a n

( C H I N A )
T
H
A
I L
A N
D
C
A
M
B O
D I
A
B U R M A
( M Y A N M A R )
N
O
R
T
H
V
I

E
T
N
A
M
S
O
U
T
H
V
I E
T
N
A
M
Phnom Penh
Saigon
Quang Ngai
Vinh
Haiphong

Hanoi
Dien Bien Phu
Chu Lai
An Khe
Vung Tau
My Lai
Can Ranh Bay
Bu Dop
CA M AU
P E N I N S U L A
Bangkok
Long Binh
Khon Kaen
Udon Thani Nakhom
Phanom
Ubon
RatchataniRachasima
Ta Khli
Don Muang
Sattahip

Can
Tho
Vinh Long
Dalat
Nha Trang
Quy Nhon
Da Nang
Hue
Quang Tri
Tuy HoaBuon
Ma Thuot
Kon Tum
Khe Sanh
Lang Vei
Pleiku
Bien Hua
Tan Son Nhut
Cholon
Ca Mau
My Tho

Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ)
Harbor mined,
1972
Maddox Incident,
1972
U.S. IN
VASION, 1970
Major U.S. base
(January 1968)
U.S. Seventh Fleet
bar82063_12_c12_371-410.indd 399 1/9/15 9:35 AM
Despite employing the full force of the U.S. military, troops
made little progress in pushing the
North Vietnamese forces out of the region. The North
Vietnamese relied heavily on guerilla

tactics and on sympathetic southern residents and political
activists known as the Viet Cong,
and they were willing to suffer high casualties.
The geography of Vietnam proved another problem for combat
troops. Jungles dense with
foliage, wet marshes, and even razor-sharp elephant grass made
the combat mission almost
unbearable. The North Vietnamese imprisoned U.S. soldiers in
deplorable conditions and
fought relentlessly. As U.S. casualty figures rose, some began
to question the war’s goals and
blamed the president for involving the nation in “Mr. Johnson’s
War.”
Media and the War
Thanks to modern media, Americans watched war developments
on their televisions as war
correspondents, including CBS Evening News anchor Walter
Cronkite, reported directly from
the conflict zone. During World War II and the Korean War,
media coverage had been limited
due to technological limitations and government censorship.
Newspaper and radio accounts
and short newsreels that aired in movie theaters before a feature
film provided the main
images and news of war in the 1940s. Television improved
steadily in the 1950s, and net-
works provided some war coverage, but Cronkite’s coverage of
Vietnam brought the war
home to millions of Americans.
Cronkite arrived in Southeast Asia shortly after the conclusion
of the Tet Offensive, in
which the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched a series of
surprise attacks against

the South and U.S. troops. Beginning in January 1968 on Tet, or
the Lunar New Year holi-
day, and lasting well into February, it
caught American and allied forces off
guard and forced them to struggle to
maintain control of several impor-
tant cities. Although the assaults were
ultimately repelled, the high number
of casualties created a crisis for the
Johnson administration and turned
public opinion against the war.
Upon Cronkite’s return to the United
States, CBS aired a special news
broadcast focusing on the aftermath
of the Tet Offensive. One of the most
trusted men in America, Cronkite
used the opportunity to express his
own loss of faith in the American mis-
sion. He told viewers:
It seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience
of Vietnam
is to end in a stalemate. To say that we are closer to victory
today is to believe
in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong
in the past.
(as cited in Oberdorfer, 1971, p. 251)
© Bettmann/Corbis
Troops in personnel carriers and on foot on the
streets of Saigon during the height of the Tet
Offensive in 1968.

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