The document provides historical context about the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. It discusses the conformity and security of the 1950s with the rise of suburbia and focus on traditional gender roles. It also covers the space race with the Soviet Union, the Red Scare and rise of McCarthyism. The 1960s are presented as a period of social change with the civil rights movement challenging racial segregation and discrimination. Fear of nuclear war and the arms race with the USSR are also addressed.

1. DECADE OF THE 60’S
THE 60’S
FIFTH EDITION
TERRY H ANDERSON
Turn on, tune in, drop out

2. THE 60’S
CONTINUE
TO
AFFECT
US MANY
YEARS
AFTER
• 2004 ELECTION – JOHN KERRY AND GWBUSH ATTACK
EACHOTHER’S MILITARY RECORD.
• 2008 – JOHN MCCAIN RAN ADS OF HIMSELF AS A POW
• 2010 – NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALIZES “2010 DEBATES
STILL TRAPPED IN THE 60’S.
• YEARS EARLIER – TIME MAGAZINE PUBLISHED THE
QUESTION, “MOST DECADES HAVE THE GOOD GRACE TO
GO AWAY. WHY WON’T THE 60’S.”
• NEW LEFT IDEOLOGY AFFECTED BY THE RISE OF THE
SNNC (STUDENT NONVIOLENT COMMITTEE,” OR THE RISE
OF THE SDS (STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY,

3. SNCC AND SDS

4. THE 50’S
The 50’s
- Liberals call this the “dullest and
dreariest in all of history”.
- Conformity
- Women as homemakers
- Men as husband, father, and provider
- Levittown – one house completed every
15 minutes
- Boys have crew cuts
- Girls’ dress as their mother does
- Jim Crowe Laws
- US – defender of freedom
- Movie – ‘The Best Years of our Lives”’
- GI Bill
- Many attended college in record numbers.
- Marriage in record numbers – 1946 – increase
of 40%
- Babies in equally record numbers
- “The Baby Boom” – 1950 – 8 million more
children than demographers predicted.
- Housing doubled between 1946 – 1950
-
60,000 residents in Levitown
– all white.
White flight,

5. RUSSIA AND COMMUNISM
• JOSEPH STALIN BEGINS BREAKING AGREEMENTS.
• WON’T ALLOW DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN COUNTRIES HIS ARMY HAD LIBERATED
FROM NAZI GERMANY.
• RESULTS IN COMMUNIST GOVERNMENTS THROUGHOUT EUROPE.
• IN TWO YEARS, COLD WAR BEGINS.
• “CONTAINMENT POLICY” – US WOULD KEEP OTHER COUNTRIES FROM BECOMING
COMMUNIST.
• TRUMAN DOCTRINE
• BERLIN AIRLIFT”
• MARSHALL PLAN – GROUNDWORK FOR NATO
• KOREAN WAR BEGINS
• WE ARE FIGHTING IN KOREA SO THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT IN OUR BACK YARD.
• - US AND RUSSIA HAVE ATOMIC BOMB.
• AMERICANS FELT VULNERABLE TO ANNIHILATION BY NUCLEAR BOMBS.

6. COLD WAR, STALIN, AND BERLIN AIRLIFT

7. COMMUNISM IN AMERICA
• MARCH 1947 – THE LOYALTY PROGRAM
• TRUMAN’S LOYALTY PROGRAM HAS ITS ORIGINS IN WORLD WAR II, PARTICULARLY IN
THE HATCH ACT (1939), WHICH FORBADE ANYONE WHO “ADVOCATED THE
OVERTHROW OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES” TO WORK IN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. AFTER THE WAR, TENSIONS BETWEEN
THE U.S. AND THE SOVIET UNION GREW, AS DID SUSPICION OF WORKERS IN EVERY
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.
• ONE HOMOSEXUAL CAN POLLUTE A GOVERNMENT OFFICE.
• MCCARRAN ACT
• CONGRESS PASSED THE MCCARRAN INTERNAL SECURITY ACT OF 1950 OVER THE VETO OF
PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN FOUR MONTHS INTO THE KOREAN WAR. CRITICS BELIEVED
THE ACT POSED A RISK TO FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND
ASSOCIATION.
• THE AUTHOR, SEN. PAT MCCARRAN, D-NEV., WAS A SUPPORTER OF SEN. JOSEPH MCCARTHY
AND CHAIRED THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DURING THE LATE 1940S AND EARLY 1950S,
WHEN FEAR OF COMMUNISM WAS PARTICULARLY RAMPANT.

8. MCCARTHYISM – THE ONLY THING MISSING IS THE
TRUTH
(Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole,
Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard
Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott,
and Dalton Trumbo), plus German playwright Bertolt
Brecht.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50JLbD0b7Tg

9. MYCARTHISM
MCCARTHY GIVEN A LOW-LEVEL SPEECH.
- SENT WHEELING, WV
- SAYS HE HAS A LIST OF 205 PEOPLE.
- PRESS ATTENTION IS IMMEDIATE – HE REVELED IN THE ATTENTION.
- NORTHERN KOREA ATTACKS SOUTH KOREA
- PRESENTS MCCARTHY FOR THE IMMEDIATE NEED TO DEPORT COMMUNIST IN
AMERICA.
- THE FEAR COMMUNISM IN THE US DROVE THE PRESIDENT TO ESTABLISH MORE
SEVERE QUOTES ON THOSE IN THE US.
- MCCARTHY IMPLICATES DEAN ACHESON
- AS SECRETARY OF STATE, ACHESON PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SHAPING U.S. POLICY DURING
THE EARLY COLD WAR. ACHESON ENJOYED A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT
HARRY S. TRUMAN, WHO OFTEN ALLOWED ACHESON TO BE THE FIRST OFFICIAL TO SPEAK ON
RECORD ABOUT U.S. FOREIGN POLICY DECISIONS.

10. ACCUSED COMMUNISTS
He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from
1945 to 1947, especially regarding the Cold War.
Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the
Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. He was in private law practice from July
1947 to December 1948.
Dean Acheson
Trumbo was sentenced to 12 months in prison
for refusing to testify in 1947 before the House Un-
American Activities Committee, notorious in U.S. history
for its investigations of people alleged to have communist
or radical ties.Feb 5, 2020
Dalton Trumbo

11. FBI INVOLVEMENT
• 25,000 FULL SCALE INVESTIGATIONS
• -” BETTER DEAD THAN RED”
• INCLUDES ACADEMICS AND HOLLYWOOD, BANNED “RADICAL” SPEAKERS
• A PURGE – DURING 1940
• DOMINO THEORY
• BRINKMANSHIP POLICY
• NUCLEAR WEAPONS GREW FROM 1,200 TO 22,000.
• NATO ESTABLISHED TO KEEP EUROPE SECURE
• BY THE 1960’S US HAD MILITARY COMMITMENTS TO 47 NATIONS – MOST NEW ALLIANCES
WERE WITH DICTATORSHIPS.

12. CONFORMITY AND SECURITY IN THE 50’S
EARLY 50’S
 THREATS FROM ABROAD AND WITHIN CREATES FEAR.
- THIS DEMOGRAPHIC – CONFORMITY IS VITAL
THE MAN IN THE GREY FINAL SUIT. CLEAN CUT, :SUIT AND TIE
HIGH SCHOOLS HAVE A UNIFORM CODE OF DRESS.
BE ON A SPORTS TEAM, OR BE SUSPECT.
HAPPY DAYS

13. SPACE RACE & WOMEN’S PLACE
• 1957 – RUSSIANS LAUNCH THE SPUTNIK
• ATOMIC FEAR PREDOMINATES
• FOR WOMEN
• NOW STAY AT HOME MOMS
• BETTY FRIEDAN – “THE PROBLEM THAT HAS NO NAME
• MOTHERS FELT TRAPPED
• BIRTHS SOARED FROM 2.8 MILLION IN 1945 TO OVER 5 MILLION
• BY 1950.
• BOOMERS ARRIVE TO CHANGE CONSUMER SPENDING, SCHOOL SIZES.
• KINSEY REPORT SHOCKS THE US WITH ACTIVITIES OF MEN AND WOMEN BEHIND
CLOSED DOORS.
• ALABAMA – CRIMINAL TO PARTICIPATE IN CONSENSUAL SEX IF NOT MARRIED.

14. NUCLEAR WAR FEARS
The six most likely target cities in the US are as
follows: New York, Chicago, Houston, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington,
DC. These countries will stay prepared to
combat any type of nuclear attack shortly. The
nuclear impact could destroy the city and this
will lead to a disaster.Oct 20, 2022
What is the death radius of a nuclear bomb?
Death is highly likely and radiation poisoning is almost certain if one is caught in the open with no
terrain or building masking effects within a radius of 0–3 km from a 1 megaton airburst, and the
50% chance of death from the blast extends out to ~8 km from the same 1 megaton atmospheric
explosion.

15. MOVIES AND BOOKS INSPIRED BY NUCLEAR
FEAR
• A CANTICLE FOR LIEBOWITZ DR. STRANGELOVE
• FAILSAFE
• ON THE BEACH

16. REPRESSION OF MINORITY
GROUPS
• “CURES” FOR HOMOSEXUALS- HORMONE
INJECTIONS AND HYSTERECTOMIES FOR WOMEN,
CASTRATION OR LOBOTOMY
• LGBTQ RIGHTS – PREVIOUSLY IN THE CLOSET.
• CHRISTINE JORGENSEN
• JIM CROWE SOUTH
• 4000 LYNCHINGS

17. PLESSY VS. FERGUSON – SEPARATE BUT
EQUAL
• HOSPITALS, JAILS, AND HOMES FOR THE INDIGENT, DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND –
SEGREGATED
• BLACK CODES
• POLL TAXES
• WHITES ONLY – WATER FOUNTAINS, HOTELS, SCHOOLS

18. EDUCATIONAL DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN
WHITES AND BLACKS
Clarendon County, SC - $ 179 per white student, $ 43,00 on each black
student.
Mississippi - $ 123 per white student, $33.00 on black students.

19. VOTING RIGHTS AND
DEROGATORY NAMES
• POLL TAXES - A TAX OF A FIXED AMOUNT PER PERSON’
LEVIED ON ADULTS AND OFTEN LINKED TO THE RIGHT TO VOTE.
• LITERARY TESTS - DESCRIPTION. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, MANY STATES ENACTED LITERACY TESTS AS A VOTING
REQUIREMENT. THE PURPOSE WAS TO EXCLUDE PERSONS WITH MINIMAL LITERACY, IN PARTICULAR, POOR AFRICAN
AMERICANS IN THE SOUTH, FROM VOTING.
• EXAMPLE: HOW MANY BUBBLES IN A BAR OF SOAP?
• IN MISSISSIPPI, APPLICANTS WERE REQUIRED TO TRANSCRIBE AND INTERPRET A SECTION OF THE STATE
CONSTITUTION AND WRITE AN ESSAY ON THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENSHIP. REGISTRATION OFFICIALS
SELECTED THE QUESTIONS AND INTERPRETED THE ANSWERS, EFFECTIVELY CHOOSING WHICH APPLICANTS TO
PASS AND WHICH TO FAIL.
• LOUISIANA - AMONG OTHER REQUIREMENTS, THE LOUISIANA VOTER REGISTRATION LAWS
RESTRICTED REGISTRATION TO CITIZENS OF "GOOD CHARACTER." DISQUALIFIERS INCLUDED
(BUT WERE NOT LIMITED TO) LIVING IN A COMMON-LAW MARRIAGE OR HAVING AN
"ILLEGITIMATE" CHILD. THE DETERMINATION OF WHO WAS OR WASN'T OF "GOOD CHARACTER"
(OR "ILLEGITIMATE") WAS LEFT UP TO THE LOCAL REGISTRAR OF VOTERS

20. • BETWEEN 1890 AND 1902, ALL ELEVEN FORMER CONFEDERATE STATES IMPOSED SOME FORM
OF A POLL TAX TO DETER BLACK AMERICANS FROM VOTING. THE TAX, WHICH RANGED FROM $1
TO $2, WAS PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE FOR MOST BLACK SHARECROPPERS, WHO EARNED
THEIR WAGES IN CROPS, NOT CURRENCY