The USA by 1963 Flashcards
what has the US masterminded
- Defense organisations such as NATO (1949), SEATO (1954) and CENTO (1959) - anti-soviet middle eastern pact
- Treaties with countries
- The Soviets were short of committed friends and allies, Sino-Soviet relations had greatly deteriorated
had kennedy improved America’s international position
His record on ‘unsolved problems of peace and war’ was mixed. Despite its nuclear arsenal and treaties, Americans still felt insecure during JFK’s presidency. This was primarily because the USSR still possessed the nuclear capacity to destroy the US.
effects of CMC
Kennedy’s triumph in the CMC increased america’s insecurity - First, Soviet determination that naval and nuclear inferiority would never again force them to back down prompted a Soviet build-up that resulted in Soviet-American nuclear parity. Second, America greatly worried its allies during the crisis - France’s President de Gaulle complained and removed French troops from NATO in 1966. On the other hand, Kennedy had signed the first treaty that attempted to slow the nuclear arms race. Furthermore, he was deeply conscious of American identity abroad. He worked to improve the nations image in the Peace Corps and in space.
when did Kennedy establish the peace corps
1961
peace corps
He described it as an organisation that allowed Americans to fulfil their responsibilities to ‘world development’ and ‘world peace’ by means of young volunteers sent to help poorer nations to help themselves through teaching and technical aid. Although he insisted that the peace corp was not an instrument of ‘propaganda or ideological conflict’ he privately expressed the hope that it would counter Soviet propaganda that depicted the US as exploiting weaker nations. Between 1961-63 Peace corps sent volunteers to 44 developing countries that requested aid. They improved the American image there
kennedy and the space race
After Sputnik, the soviets boasted increasingly about their lead in achievements in space
A US satellite launch failure in Nov 1957 caused national embarrassment - British headlines - flopnik.
JFK needed success in space to help restore faith in America’s international image and in his leadership after the bay of pigs fiasco
men in space
President Kennedy understood the need to restore America’s confidence and intended not merely to match the Soviets, but surpass them. On May 25, 1961, he stood before Congress to deliver a special message on “urgent national needs.” He asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation’s lagging space efforts. Sceptics questioned the ability of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to meet the president’s timetable. Within a year, however, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom became the first two Americans to travel into space.
economic prosperity
In 2963, the US remained by far the worlds most prosperous nation. The GNP expanded by 20% and industrial production by 22% while personal income rose by 15%. However, there were problems the boom of the Eisenhower years were over and there were frequent slowdowns in economic growth. In a spring 1963 poll, Americans put inflation and unemployment on their list of major concerns
the other America
Kennedy was aware of poverty issues in the United States
Widely read and talked to leading academics
John Kenneth Galbraith- ‘The Affluent Society’ - emphasised the poverty of the permanent American underclas
Michael Harrington- ‘The Other America’- described Poverty stricken 40-60 million American
Dwight MacDonald’s New Yorker essay review on the invisible poor
20% of America’s poor were EM.
racial and ethnic poverty
South- African-Americans employed in sharecropping or as domestics
North- ‘white flight’ to the suburbs and the Great Migration had led to large ghettos
African Americans crowded in low quality housing- little access to facilities or good schools
Deprived cities lost their tax base and led to urban decay
In Chicago black neighborhoods were torn down and replaced with commercial buildings and expensive housing for white people
Kennedy tried to deal with problem but difficult to gain funding from congress- 325,203 federal housing units built between 1945-65
Difficult to escape ghettos because of discrimination and low paid jobs
what sparked women’s activism
Betty Friedan and other protest movements
women and inequality
Women lacked economic equality in 1963. Increasing numbers of women worked after WWII but in 1963, most remained in low-paid jobs. Women constituted 80% of teachers and only 10% of principals and only 7% of doctors and 3% of lawyers. Gender inequality was often enshrined in law and practice. 18 states refused to allow female jurors, six women could not enter into financial agreements without a male co-signatory. Schools expelled pregnant students and fired pregnant teachers. The media encouraged the domesticity of women and played down
intellectual capacity.
measuring the extent of gender inequality
Some women drank alcohol or tranquillizers to cope
Betty Friedan
Wrote the Feminist Mystique in 1963
WWII had seen empowerment for women
Baby boom had a negative effect on women- little energy to think about what they lost
Said women were imprisoned in a ‘comfortable
concentration camp’
Encouraged women to break out and fulfil potential
in education and work
She founded NOW (National Organisation for
women) aimed to bring women into an equal partnership with men
1963 Equal Pay Act
1960 Kennedy set up the Presidential Commission of the Status of Women
‘American Women’ report published- highlighted discrimination in the workplace
Women made up half the workforce but 95% of managers were men
7% doctors were women
4% of lawyers were women
Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in June 1962- allowed 171,000 women to reclaim pay amounting $84 million over the next 10 years
