C39 - The Stormy Sixties: 1960-1968

Question 1

Stokely Carmichael

Answer 1

“Black Power” leader during the civil rights movement. He was later a leader in the Black Panther Movement. He did not share Martin Luther King Jr.’s beliefs about peaceful protest.

Question 2

New Frontier

Answer 2

President John F. Kennedy’s plans for new federal social programs like medical help for elderly and $ for education.

Question 3

Lee Harvey Oswald

Answer 3

Alleged to have shot President Kennedy. He was later killed by Jack Ruby.

Question 4

Alliance for Progress

Answer 4

Kennedy policy in 1961, of giving aid to Latin American countries. The goal was to help close the gap between rich and poor in those countries and therefore hopefully decrease the likelihood of communist leaders coming in to those countries and getting power.

Result: the program did not really work to help close the gap between rich and poor. These countries had immense social problems that couldn’t be fixed with US dollars.

Question 5

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Answer 5

Passed after long fight in Congress. Pushed by President Johnson. Banned racial discrimination at private places that were open to the public (theatres, hospitals, restaurants). Gave more power to federal government to end segregation in schools. Created EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) to stop discrimination in hiring for jobs. Also banned gender discrimination.

Question 6

Richard W. Nixon

Answer 6

Republican candidate for President in 1968. He was a war “hawk” (supporter) and strongly anti-crime. Chose Spiro Agnew as his VP, who was also a “law and order” type.

Question 7

Martin Luther King Jr.

Answer 7

In August, 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial, he gave his “I have a Dream” speech. Said “I have a dream that my four little children will someday be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin”.

He was shot in 1968 while speaking in Memphis, TN.

He preached peaceful means of pushing for fairness and integration into society, he did not agree with “Black Power” leaders like Malcolm X, who called for Black separation and violence against Whites.

Question 8

Barry Goldwater

Answer 8

Republican candidate who ran against Johnson in 1964.

Question 9

Tet offensive

Answer 9

1968. Viet Cong strongly and violently attacked many cities in South Vietnam. This helped to turn the course of the war as many in the World and US realized that the Viet Cong were still able to fight. The world started to wonder what the goal of the war was.

Question 10

Twenty-fourth Amendment

Answer 10

1964 - Abolished the poll tax in elections.

Question 11

George Wallace

Answer 11

3rd party candidate in 1968. He did not favor civil rights and called for segregation of blacks and whites.

Question 12

Great Society

Answer 12

President Johnson called his social program this. Included economic and welfare reforms that were like the New Deal in nature.

Question 13

Robert F. Kennedy

Answer 13

“Bobby” Kennedy. Brother of President Kennedy. At 35 years old, Kennedy made him the youngest US Attorney General in 1961.

He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President. Very popular. In June, 1968, he was shot and killed.

He had been running against the Vietnam War against Johnson.

Question 14

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Answer 14

August 1964, shooting began between US Navy ships and North Vietnamese.

President LBJ made it a political issue and acted militarily without having all of the facts, just to gain political approval during the election season.

He later pushed a bill through Congress, which gave him almost unlimited power to declare war in Vietnam, without Congress’s consent.

Question 15

Lyndon B. Johnson

Answer 15

Kennedy’s VP, who was sworn in as President shortly after Kennedy was shot, and flew back to DC with Kennedy’s body.

He kept most of Kennedy’s team and pledged a smooth transition.

LBJ pushed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other social reforms that he called “Great Society”.

He was known to have a big ego (vain).

Won the Presidential election of 1964 by a landslide.

Pushed many new social programs, quickly through congress, including starting Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

Question 16

Vienna summit

Answer 16

1961 - meeting in Vienna between President Kennedy and Russia’s Khrushchev.

Question 17

credibility gap

Answer 17

Name for the game between what citizens believed and what the US government was saying about the objectives and ability to win the Vietnam war.

Between 1965 and 1969, public opinion changed dramatically about the Vietnam War. By 1969, most Americans opposed it.

Question 18

Bay of Pigs

Answer 18

Cuban port where in 1961, Kennedy had helped to send 1200 Cuban exiled people who wanted to invade Cuba, start a popular uprising, and try to topple Fidel Castro from power. Castro was a communist dictator, and these exiles from Cuba wanted to return their country to non-communist rule.

The Bay of Pigs incident was not successful. Kennedy took responsibility for the defeat.

Question 19

nuclear test-ban treaty

Answer 19

1963. Kennedy pushed for this treaty for US and Russia to refrain from testing nuclear weapons (which would hopefully lead to fewer being produced).

Kennedy was becoming alarmed at the nuclear arms race and the risks of either country starting a nuclear war.

Question 20

Peace Corps

Answer 20

Proposed by President Kennedy in early 60s as a way for young volunteers to do peaceful work throughout the World.

Question 21

John F. Kennedy

Answer 21

President in 1961. Youngest President ever. Brought style and grace to the presidency. First Catholic elected President. Brought idealism to American - he was well-liked. After his death, stories of womanizing and relationships with organized crime figures surfaced.

Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Nuclear test-ban treaty and “peaceful coexistence” all happened under Kennedy.

Started Peace Corps.

Promoted service, said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.

Killed 11/22/1963, while riding in an open car in Dallas TX.

Question 22

peaceful coexistence

Answer 22

Kennedy pushed this at a speech in 1963. Idea that US should accept Russia as it is, not as US wished it would be (democratic nation). This would hopefully relax tensions between US and Russia.

Question 23

flexible response

Answer 23

Kennedy’s military policy. He did not want to rely on nuclear war as the only option. He built the military, added ground forces and increased spending on Special Forces like the Green Berets (elite soldiers).

This would give the US more options when diplomacy failed to solve foreign crises. He wanted to be able to send military forces/soldiers overseas, rather than just rely on nuclear force.

Question 24

J. William Fulbright

Answer 24

Headed Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and led hearings in 1966 and 1967, calling into question the objectives and ability to win in the Vietnam war.

Helped to form the credibility gap between the US government and citizens about the war.

Question 25

March on Washington

Answer 25

August, 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. led 200,000 black and white demonstrators on a march on Washington. From the Lincoln Memorial, he gave his “I have a Dream” speech. Said “I have a dream that my four little children will someday be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin”.

Question 26

Robert S. McNamara

Answer 26

Defense Secretary under President Johnson. Began to question US’s mission in Vietnam and was pushed out of the Cabinet.

He later wrote that we were terribly wrong about Vietnam.

Question 27

Charles de Gaulle

Answer 27

President of France in 1961, who opposed some of US’s and Kennedy’s efforts in Europe.

He demanded an independent Europe - did not want American influence.

Question 28

Hubert H. Humphrey

Answer 28

When Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election in 1968, his VP Humphrey became the Democratic nominee. He defeated the “dove” or anti-war candidate, McCarthy. The other anti-war candidate was Bobby Kennedy, who had been killed.

Question 29

Eugene McCarthy

Answer 29

In 1968, he announced that he would run against Johnson for the Democrat nomination for President. He was against the Vietnam war.

Question 30

Viet Cong

Answer 30

Fighters from North Vietnam who attached American bases in South Vietnam.

Question 31

Malcolm X

Answer 31

Black separatist leader who was a great speaker and called for blacks to rise up in violence.

He did not agree with Martin Luther King Jr., who called for peaceful demonstrations and peaceful means of blacks integrating more fully into society.

Question 32

Cuban missile crisis

Answer 32

October 1962. Tense situation. Cuba was becoming friendlier with Russia. Russian nuclear weapons were brought to Cuba (only 90 miles away from US) and pointed at the US.

Kennedy said that if those weapons were used against the US, the US would drop nuclear bombs on Russia.

US sent ships to keep more Russian ships from reaching Cuba with more weapons.

Russia’s President Krushchev finally backed down.

US agreed to leave Cuba alone, and to move some US weapons from Turkey, which was close to Russia.

Question 33

counterculture

Answer 33

1960s - some young people became “flower children”, drug users, etc. They had a culture counter to mainstream American life.

Question 34

War on Poverty

Answer 34

Starting in 1964/1965, Johnson pushed many new programs through the Democrat congress, increasing spending on social programs.

Question 35

Operation Rolling Thunder

Answer 35

March, 1965 - large numbers of US troops landed in South Vietnam (185,000) and were fighting in jungles and rice paddies against North Vietnamese Viet Cong (guerrilla warriors).

Question 36

Voting Rights Act

Answer 36

Passed to help give more Blacks the opportunity to vote, especially in the South. In Mississippi and Alabama most blacks had been afraid to vote, due to laws that made it difficult or dangerous for them.

Question 37

Alfred Kinsey

Answer 37

Indiana University PhD who did studies and published books about Human sexual habits. He found that adultery, premarital sex, and homosexuality were more prominent than most thought.

Question 38

Nakita Khrushchev

Answer 38

President of Russia while Kennedy was President. See Cuban Missile Crisis. He agreed later to a nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Russians strongly criticized him because his backing down in the Cuban Missile Crisis was seen as cowardly.

Question 39

J. Edgar Hoover

Answer 39

Head of the FBI for 35+ years. Disagreed with Attorney General Robert (Bobby) Kennedy’s efforts to reform the FBI.