Week 8 – The 1960s: From Camelot to the Moon Flashcards
New Frontiers I (1960s)
- The end of the “quiet years”
- John F. Kennedy becomes president (1960–63), until he is assassinated in Dallas, 1963, and vice president Lyndon B. Johnson takes over
- The Cold War continues
o 1961: The Berlin Wall is built
o 1961: The disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion
o 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis
o 1967: The Six Days War
o 1968: The Prague Spring
New Frontiers II (1960s)
- The Vietnam War escalates and splits the nation
- The Civil Rights Movement becomes influential
- Segregation is contested
- The Hippie and Flower Power movements appear
- Student‘s movements become radicalized
- The Space Race accelerates
- Environmental consciousness and politics develop
John F. Kennedy (29.5.1917 – 22.11. 1963)
- A new style in the White House evolves: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis
- The “new frontiers” are located in space.
- Still, the US is mired in the cold war.
What’s the Bay of Pigs disaster?
- 1961: 1400 Cuban exiles invade the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro and the communist regime
- In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
- Kennedy withholds air support; the mission ends in a disaster
What’s the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?
- Krushtshov (president Soviet Union) presumes Kennedy to be weakened by the Bay of Pigs disaster, and deploys ballistic missiles to Cuba
- The installment is uncovered by the famous high reconnaissance spy airplanes, called U2
- Kennedy orders a sea blockade of Cuba – the world is on the brink of a nuclear war.
Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Nov 22, 1963
- Kennedy is fatally wounded – allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, a highly disturbed loner who had lived in Russia and was a supporter of Castro
- As of today, there is still a cloud of uncertainty revolving around this assassination
- Oswald is shot two days later by Jack Ruby, local nightclub operator, “live” on TV
The Vietnam entanglement starts with JFK
- By the end of 1962, Kennedy has 11,000 so-called “military advisors” (Green Berets) sent to support what most South Vietnamese consider a weak and highly corrupt government to defend South Vietnam against repeated intrusions by the communist Vietcong (VC), mostly through neighboring Laos
- Financial aids to the Ngo Dinh Diem government excel $400 million a year; after the Bay of Pigs disaster, however, Kennedy has lost trust in his military command and is reluctant to deploy massive military force.
Lyndon B Johnson
- Vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the new president aboard Air Force One after JFK’s assassination
- Johnson beats Republican right-wing ideologue Barry Goldwater in the elections 1964.
The Vietnam entanglement continues with LBJ
- A staunch anti-communist, LBJ increases American military engagement in Vietnam.
- The Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, where American ships are attacked by North Vietnamese forces, leads to heavy bombing raids against North Vietnamese military bases and filtration routes in Laos and Cambodia.
- 1965 the first ground forces are dispatched to South Vietnam
- Later in the year, LBJ orders saturation bombing and 100,000 troops to Vietnam.
- 1966: Massive bombing with napalm and chemical herbicides (“Agent Orange”) sets in, leaving scars on the Vietnam peninsula still to been seen today.
- In 1968, 500,000 troops are installed in Vietnam
- Vietnam becomes the first televised war, creating one of the most iconic war photographs ever taken.
What happens during the Vietnam War in the USA?
- Large anti-war demonstrations begin in the spring of 1965
- Left ideas, as well as the Hippie and Flower Power movement, emerge
- Returning war veterans, leftist student movements, and the peace movement increase pressure on the U.S. government
- Not since the Civil war has the nation been divided to such a degree
What’s Agent Orange?
“Agent Orange” (so-called because it was delivered in orange containers) is used massively to defoliage the Vietnamese jungle, a terrain in which the Vietcong (VC) clearly holds tactical advantage.
What are the consequences of Agent Orange?
- Not known at the time, “Agent Orange” contains high amounts of Dioxine, which causes long-term genetic and birth defects, and whose impact lasts until today.
- Until now, the US has declined any compensation, claiming there is no “convincing scientific evidence” of a connection between “Agent Orange” and the deformations.
Consequences in Vietnam
Through the heavy use of both Agent Orange and Napalm, more than 30% of the country have become uninhabitable or at least highly hazardous to live in.
Consequences for the US in Vietnam?
- When the U.S troops are finally withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973, 58,000 soldiers have fallen, and more than 300,000 thousand are wounded.
- 2 million Vietnamese have died, and more bombs were dropped on Vietnam between July 1965 and December 1967 alone than the Allied Forces dropped on Europe during the entire second World War.
- The pictures of the frantic escape from the American embassy in are indelibly burnt into the US-American psyche and constitute a trauma to be culturally negotiated for decades.
Movies
- Born on the 4th of July
- Good Morning Vietnam
- Platoon
- Full Metal Jacket
- Deerhunter
- Apocalypse Now