U.S. History - Unit 7 Study Guide

Working Class Goes to War Selective Service System, or draft Socioeconomic disparity

MostsoldierswhofoughtinVietnamwerecalled into combat under the country's Selective Service System, or draft, which had been established during World War I. Under this system, all males had to register with their local draft boards when they turned 18. All registrants were screened, and unless they were excluded—such as for medical reasons—in the event of war, men between the ages of 18 and 26 would be called into military service. As Americans' doubts about the war grew, thousands of men attempted to find ways around the draft, which one man characterized as a "very manipulatable system." Some men sought out sympathetic doctors to grant medical exemptions, while others changed residences in order to stand before a more lenient draft board. Some Americans even joined the National Guard or Coast Guard, which often secured a deferment from service in Vietnam. One of the most common ways to avoid the draft was to receive a college deferment, by which a young man enrolled in a university could put off his military service. Because university students during the 1960s tended to be white and financially well-off, many of the men who fought in Vietnam were lower-class whites or minorities who were less privi- leged economically. With almost 80 percent of American soldiers com- ing from lower economic levels, Vietnam was a working-class war.

Johnson increases U.S. involvement (again) Robert McNamara Dean Rusk

Much of the nation supported Lyndon Johnson's determination to contain com- munism in Vietnam. In the years following 1965, President Johnson began send- ing large numbers of American troops to fight alongside the South Vietnamese. Even after Congress had approved the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, President Johnson opposed sending U.S. ground troops to Vietnam. Johnson's victory in the 1964 presidential election was due in part to charges that his Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater, was an anti- Communist who might push the United States into war with the Soviet Union. In contrast to Goldwater's heated, warlike language, Johnson's speeches were more moderate, yet he spoke determinedly about containing communism. He declared he was "not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." However, in March of 1965, that is precisely what the president did. Working closely with his foreign-policy advisers, particularly Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, President Johnson began dis- patching tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam. Some Americans viewed Johnson's decision as contradictory to his position during the presidential campaign. However, most saw the president as following an established and popu- lar policy of confronting communism anywhere in the world. Congress, as well as the American public, strongly supported Johnson's strategy. A 1965 poll showed that 61 percent of Americans supported the U.S. policy in Vietnam, while only 24 percent opposed. There were dissenters within the Johnson administra- tion, too. In October of 1964, Undersecretary of State George Ball had argued against escalation, warning that "once on the tiger's back, we cannot be sure of picking the place to dis- mount." However, the president's closest advisers strongly urged escalation, believing the defeat of communism in Vietnam to be of vital importance to the future of America and the world. Dean Rusk stressed this view in a 1965 memo to President Johnson.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Minister Power of Nonviolent resistance

News of Parks's arrest spread rapidly. Jo Ann Robinson and NAACP leader E. D. Nixon suggested a bus boycott. The leaders of the African-American community, including many ministers, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to organize the boycott. They elected the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, 26-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead the group. An ordained minister since 1948, King had just earned a Ph.D. degree in theology from Boston University. "Well, I'm not sure I'm the best person for the position," King confided to Nixon, "but if no one else is going to serve, I'd be glad to try." On the night of December 5, 1955, Dr. King made the following declaration to an estimated crowd of between 5,000 and 15,000 people King's passionate and eloquent speech brought people to their feet and filled the audience with a sense of mission. African Americans filed a lawsuit and for 381 days refused to ride the buses in Montgomery. In most cases they had to find other means of transportation by organizing car pools or walking long distances. Support came from within the black community-—workers donated one-fifth of their weekly salaries—as well as from outside groups like the NAACP, the United Auto Workers, Montgomery's Jewish community, and sympathetic white southerners. The boy- cotters remained nonviolent even after a bomb ripped apart King's home 1956 Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

Pentagon Papers

Nixon and Kissinger's Cambodia policy, however, cost Nixon significant political support. By first bombing and then invading Cambodia without even notifying Congress, the president stirred anger on Capitol Hill. On December 31, 1970, Congress repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which had given the president near independence in conducting policy in Vietnam. Support for the war eroded even further when in June of 1971 former Defense Department worker Daniel Ellsberg leaked what became known as the Pentagon Papers. The 7,000-page document, written for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1967-1968, revealed among other things that the government had drawn up plans for entering the war even as President Lyndon Johnson promised that he would not send American troops to Vietnam. Furthermore, the papers showed that there was never any plan to end the war as long as the North Vietnamese persisted. For many Americans, the Pentagon Papers confirmed their belief that the government had not been honest about its war intentions. The document, while not particularly damaging to the Nixon administration, supported what oppo- nents of the war had been saying.

Race to the moon Effects on other areas of American life

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space. Kennedy saw this as a challenge and decided that America would surpass the Soviets by sending a man to the moon. In less than a month the United States had duplicated the Soviet feat. Later that year, a communications satellite called Telstar relayed live television pictures across the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Europe. Meanwhile, America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had begun to construct new launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and a mission control center in Houston, Texas. America's pride and prestige were restored. Speaking before a crowd at Houston's Rice University, Kennedy expressed the spirit of "the space race." Neil Armstrong 1st on moon. s a result of the space program, universities expanded their science pro- grams. The huge federal funding for research and development gave rise to new industries and new technologies, many of which could be used in business and industry and also in new consumer goods. Space- and defense-related industries sprang up in the Southern and Western states, which grew rapidly. While progress was being made on the new frontiers of space exploration and international aid, many Americans suffered at home. In 1962, the problem of poverty in America was brought to national attention in Michael Harrington's book The Other America. Harrington profiled the 50 million people in America who scraped by each year on less than $1,000 per person. The number of poor shocked many Americans. While Harrington awakened the nation to the nightmare of poverty, the fight against segregation took hold. Throughout the South, demonstrators raised their voices in what would become some of the most controversial civil rights battles of the 1960s. (See Chapter 29.) Kennedy had not pushed aggressively for legislation on the issues of poverty and civil rights, although he effected changes by executive action. However, now he felt that it was time to live up to a campaign promise. In 1963, Kennedy began to focus more closely on the issues at home. He called for a "national assault on the causes of poverty." He also ordered Robert Kennedy's Justice Department to investigate racial injustices in the South. Finally, he present- ed Congress with a sweeping civil rights bill and a proposal to cut taxes by over $10 billion. D

Johnson expands U.S. involvement Tonkin Gulf Resolution

OnAugust2,1964,aNorthVietnamesepatrol boat fired a torpedo at an American destroyer, the USS Maddox, which was patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin off the North Vietnamese coast. The torpedo missed its target, but the Maddox returned fire and inflicted heavy damage on the patrol boat. MAIN IDEA Forming Generalizations C Why was the Diem regime unpopular? Vocabulary coup: a sudden appropriation of leadership; a takeover Two days later, the Maddox and another destroyer were again off the North Vietnamese coast. In spite of bad weather that could affect visibility, the crew report- ed enemy torpedoes, and the American destroyers began firing. The crew of the Maddox later declared, however, that they had neither seen nor heard hostile gunfire. The alleged attack on the U.S. ships prompted President Johnson to launch bombing strikes on North Vietnam. He asked Congress for powers to take "all nec- essary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Congress approved Johnson's request, with only two senators voting against it, and adopted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on August 7. While not a declaration of war, it granted Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam. Johnson did not tell Congress or the American people that the United States had been leading secret raids against North Vietnam. The Maddox had been in the Gulf of Tonkin to collect information for these raids. Furthermore, Johnson had prepared the resolution months beforehand and was only waiting for the chance to push it through Congress. In February of 1965, President Johnson used his newly granted powers. In response to a Vietcong attack that killed eight Americans, Johnson unleashed "Operation Rolling Thunder," the first sustained bombing of North Vietnam. In March of that year the first American combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam. By June, more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers were battling the Vietcong. The Vietnam War had become Americanized. D

Nixon George Wallace

One beneficiary of this turmoil was Republican presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, who by 1968 had achieved one of the greatest political comebacks in American politics. After his loss to Kennedy in the presidential race of 1960, Nixon tasted defeat again in 1962 when he ran for governor of California. His political career all but dead, Nixon joined a New York law firm, but he never strayed far from politics. In 1966, Nixon campaigned for Republican candidates in congressional elections, helping them to win back 47 House seats and 3 Senate seats from Democrats. In 1968, Nixon announced his candidacy for president and won the party's nomination. During the presidential race, Nixon campaigned on a promise to restore law and order, which appealed to many mid- dle-class Americans tired of years of riots and protests. He also promised, in vague but appealing terms, to end the war in Vietnam. Nixon's candidacy was helped by the entry of former Alabama governor George Wallace into the race as a third-party candidate. Wallace, a Democrat running on the American Independent Party ticket, was a longtime champion of school segregation and states' rights. Labeled the "white backlash" candidate, Wallace captured five Southern states. In addition, he attracted a surprisingly high number of Northern white working-class voters disgusted with inner-city riots and antiwar protests. In the end, Nixon defeated Humphrey and inherited the quagmire in Vietnam. He eventually would end America's involvement in Vietnam, but not before his war policies created even more protest and uproar within the country.

Berlin Crisis Berlin Wall

One goal that had guided Kennedy through the Cuban missile crisis was that of proving to Khruschev his determination to contain communism. All the while, Kennedy was thinking of their recent confrontation over Berlin, which had led to the construction of the Berlin Wall, a concrete wall topped with barbed wire that severed the city in two. In 1961, Berlin was a city in great tur- moil. In the 11 years since the Berlin Airlift, almost 3 million East Germans—20 percent of that country's population—had fled into West Berlin because it was free from Communist rule. These refugees advertised the failure of East Germany's Communist government. Their departure also dangerously weakened that country's economy Khrushchev realized that this problem had to be solved. At a summit meeting in Vienna, Austria, in war, that is your June 1961, he threatened to sign a treaty with East But, if you want problem." SOVIET PREMIER NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV Germany that would enable that country to close all the access roads to West Berlin. When Kennedy refused to give up U.S. access to West Berlin, Khrushchev furi- ously declared, "I want peace. But, if you want war, that is your problem." After returning home, Kennedy told the nation in a tele- vised address that Berlin was "the great testing place of Western courage and will." He pledged "[W]e cannot and will not permit the Communists to drive us out of Berlin." Kennedy's determination and America's superior nuclear striking power prevented Khrushchev from closing the air and a Berliner"). land routes between West Berlin and West Germany. Instead, the Soviet premier sur- prised the world with a shocking decision. Just after midnight on August 13, 1961, East German troops began to unload concrete posts and rolls of barbed wire along the border. Within days, the Berlin Wall was erected, separating East Germany from West Germany. The construction of the Berlin Wall ended the Berlin crisis but further aggra- vated Cold War tensions. The wall and its armed guards successfully reduced the flow of East German refugees to a tiny trickle, thus solving Khrushchev's main problem. At the same time, however, the wall became an ugly symbol of Communist oppression.

Peace Corps

One of the first campaign promises Kennedy fulfilled was the creation of the Peace Corps, a program of volunteer assistance to the developing nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Critics in the United States called the program "Kennedy's Kiddie Korps" because many vol- unteers were just out of college. Some foreign observers questioned whether Americans could understand other cultures. Despite these reservations, the Peace Corps became a huge success. People of all ages and backgrounds signed up to work as agricultural advisers, teach- ers, or health aides or to do whatever work the host coun- try needed. By 1968, more than 35,000 volunteers had served in 60 nations around the world.

Protest Movement Doves Hawks Reasons for anti-Vietnam War movement

2 groups U.S. found themselves in Those who should withdraw were known as doves. Feeling just as strongly that America should unleash much of its greater military force to win the war were the hawks. Despite the visibility of the antiwar protesters, a majority of American citizens in 1967 still remained committed to the war. Others, while less cer- tain about the proper U.S. role in Vietnam, were shocked to see protesters publicly criticize a war in which their fellow Americans were fighting and dying. A poll taken in December of 1967 showed that 70 percent of Americans believed the war protests were "acts of disloyalty." A fire- fighter who lost his son in Vietnam articulated the bitter feelings a number of Americans felt toward the antiwar movement

Alliance for Progress

A second foreign aid program, the Alliance for Progress, offered economic and technical assistance to Latin American countries. Between 1961 and 1969, the United States invested almost $12 billion in Latin America, in part to deter these countries from picking up Fidel Castro's revolutionary ideas. While the money brought some development to the region, it didn't bring fundamental reforms.

WWII

After the Civil War, some African Americans tried to escape Southern racism by moving north. This migration of Southern African Americans speeded up greatly during World War I, as many African-American sharecroppers abandoned farms for the promise of industrial jobs in Northern cities. However, they discovered racial prejudice and segregation there, too. Most could find housing only in all-black neighborhoods. Many white workers also resented the competition for jobs. This sometimes led to violence. In many ways, the events of World War II set the stage for the civil rights movement. First, the demand for sol- diers in the early 1940s created a shortage of white male laborers. That labor shortage opened up new job opportunities for African Americans, Latinos, and white women. Second, nearly one million African Americans served in the armed forces, which needed so many fighting men that they had to end their discriminatory poli- cies. Such policies had previously kept African Americans from serving in fighting units. Many African-American soldiers returned from the war determined to fight for their own freedom now that they had helped defeat fascist regimes overseas. Third, during the war, civil rights organizations actively campaigned for African-American voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws. In response to protests, President Roosevelt issued a presidential directive prohibiting racial dis- crimination by federal agencies and all companies that were engaged in war work. The groundwork was laid for more organized campaigns to end segregation throughout the United States.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Lunch counter sit-ins

After the bus boycott ended, King joined with ministers and civil rights leaders in 1957 to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Its purpose was "to carry on nonviolent cru- sades against the evils of second-class citizenship." Using African-American churches as a base, the SCLC planned to stage protests and demonstrations throughout the South. The leaders hoped to build a movement from the grass- roots up and to win the support of ordinary African Americans of all ages. King, president of the SCLC, used the power of his voice and ideas to fuel the move- ment's momentum. The nuts and bolts of organizing the SCLC was handled by its first director, Ella Baker, the granddaughter of slaves. While with the NAACP, Baker Baker had served as national field secretary, traveling over 16,000 miles throughout the South 1957 to 1960, Baker used her contacts to set up branches of the SCLC in Southern cities. In April 1960, Baker helped stu- dents at Shaw University, an African-American university in Raleigh, North Carolina, to organize a national protest group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, pronounced "snick" for short. It had been six years since the Brown decision, and many college students viewed the pace of change as too slow. Although these students risked a great deal—losing college scholarships, being expelled from college, being physically harmed—they were determined to challenge the system. SNCC hoped to harness the energy of these student protest- ers; it would soon create one of the most important student activist movements in the nation's history. The founders of SNCC had models to build on. In 1942 in Chicago, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had staged the first sit-ins, in which African-American protesters sat down at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave until they were served. In February 1960, African-American students from North Carolina's Agricultural and Technical College staged a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro. This time, television crews brought coverage of the protest into homes through- out the United States. There was no denying the ugly face of racism. Day after day, news reporters captured the scenes of whites beating, jeering at, and pouring food over stu- dents who refused to strike back. The coverage sparked many other sit-ins across the South. Store managers called in the police, raised the price of food, and removed counter seats. But the move- ment continued and spread to the North. There, students formed picket lines around national chain stores that maintained segregated lunch counters in the South. By late 1960, students had descended on and desegregated lunch counters in some 48 cities in 11 states. They endured arrests, beatings, suspension from col- lege, and tear gas and fire hoses, but the army of nonviolent students refused to back down. "My mother has always told me that I'm equal to other people," said Ezell Blair, Jr., one of the students who led the first SNCC sit-in in 1960. For the rest of the 1960s, many Americans worked to convince the rest of the country that blacks and whites deserved equal treatment.

Canceled election

Although he directed a brutal and repressive regime, Ho Chi Minh won popular support in the North by breaking up large estates and redistributing land to peasants. Moreover, his years of fighting the Japanese and French had made him a national hero. Recognizing Ho Chi Minh's widespread popularity, South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem (ngIP dGnP dC-DmP), a strong anti-Communist, refused to take part in the countrywide elec- tion of 1956. The United States also sensed that a countrywide election might spell victory for Ho Chi Minh and supported canceling elections. The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South. B

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Although he directed a brutal and repressive regime, Ho Chi Minh won popular support in the North by breaking up large estates and redistributing land to peasants. Moreover, his years of fighting the Japanese and French had made him a national hero. Recognizing Ho Chi Minh's widespread popularity, South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem (ngIP dGnP dC-DmP), a strong anti-Communist, refused to take part in the countrywide elec- tion of 1956. The United States also sensed that a countrywide election might spell victory for Ho Chi Minh and supported canceling elections. The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South. B Diem, however, failed to hold up his end of the bargain. He ushered in a cor- rupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind and offered little or no land distribution to peasants. In addition, Diem, a devout Catholic, angered the country's majority Buddhist population by restricting Buddhist practices. By 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem government, assassinating thousands of South Vietnamese government officials. Although the political arm of the group would later be called the National Liberation Front (NLF), the United States continued to refer to the fighters as the Vietcong. Ho Chi Minh supported the group, and in 1959 began sup- plying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the bor- ders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (See map on page 733.) As the fighters stepped up their surprise attacks, or guerrilla tactics, South Vietnam grew more unstable. The Eisenhower administration took little action, however, deciding to "sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem."

U.S. involvement Ngo Dinh Diem

Although he directed a brutal and repressive regime, Ho Chi Minh won popular support in the North by breaking up large estates and redistributing land to peasants. Moreover, his years of fighting the Japanese and French had made him a national hero. Recognizing Ho Chi Minh's widespread popularity, South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem (ngIP dGnP dC-DmP), a strong anti-Communist, refused to take part in the countrywide elec- tion of 1956. The United States also sensed that a countrywide election might spell victory for Ho Chi Minh and supported canceling elections. The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South. B Diem, however, failed to hold up his end of the bargain. He ushered in a cor- rupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind and offered little or no land distribution to peasants. In addition, Diem, a devout Catholic, angered the country's majority Buddhist population by restricting Buddhist practices. By 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem government, assassinating thousands of South Vietnamese government officials. Although the political arm of the group would later be called the National Liberation Front (NLF), the United States continued to refer to the fighters as the Vietcong. Ho Chi Minh supported the group, and in 1959 began sup- plying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the bor- ders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (See map on page 733.) As the fighters stepped up their surprise attacks, or guerrilla tactics, South Vietnam grew more unstable. The Eisenhower administration took little action, however, deciding to "sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem."

Vietcong

Although he directed a brutal and repressive regime, Ho Chi Minh won popular support in the North by breaking up large estates and redistributing land to peasants. Moreover, his years of fighting the Japanese and French had made him a national hero. Recognizing Ho Chi Minh's widespread popularity, South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem (ngIP dGnP dC-DmP), a strong anti-Communist, refused to take part in the countrywide elec- tion of 1956. The United States also sensed that a countrywide election might spell victory for Ho Chi Minh and supported canceling elections. The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South. B Diem, however, failed to hold up his end of the bargain. He ushered in a cor- rupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind and offered little or no land distribution to peasants. In addition, Diem, a devout Catholic, angered the country's majority Buddhist population by restricting Buddhist practices. By 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem government, assassinating thousands of South Vietnamese government officials. Although the political arm of the group would later be called the National Liberation Front (NLF), the United States continued to refer to the fighters as the Vietcong. Ho Chi Minh supported the group, and in 1959 began sup- plying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the bor- ders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (See map on page 733.) As the fighters stepped up their surprise attacks, or guerrilla tactics, South Vietnam grew more unstable. The Eisenhower administration took little action, however, deciding to "sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem."

Napalm Agent Orange Search-and-destroy missions

Another key part of the American strategy was to keep the Vietcong from winning the support of South Vietnam's rural population. Edward G. Lansdale, who helped found the fighting unit known as the U.S. Army Special Forces, or Green Berets, stressed the plan's importance. "Just remember this. Communist guerrillas hide among the people. If you win the people over to your side, the communist guerrillas have no place to hide." The campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the South Vietnamese villagers proved more difficult than imagined. For instance, in their attempt to expose Vietcong tunnels and hideouts, U.S. planes dropped napalm, a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle. They also sprayed Agent Orange, a leaf-killing toxic chemical. The saturation use of these weapons often wounded civilians and left villages and their surroundings in ruins. Years later, many would blame Agent Orange for cancers in Vietnamese civilians and American veterans. U.S. soldiers conducted search-and-destroy missions, uprooting civilians with suspected ties to the Vietcong, killing their livestock, and burning villages. Many villagers fled into the cities or refugee camps, creating by 1967 more than 3 million refugees in the South. The irony of the strategy was summed up in February 1968 by a U.S. major whose forces had just leveled the town of Ben Tre: "We had to destroy the town in order to save it."

Hurts Great Society programs

As the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam con- tinued to mount, the war grew more costly, and the nation's economy began to suffer. The inflation rate, which was less than 2 percent through most of the early 1960s, more than tripled to 5.5 percent by 1969. In August of 1967, President Johnson asked for a tax increase to help fund the war and to keep inflation in check. Congressional conservatives agreed, but only after demanding and receiv- ing a $6 billion reduction in funding for Great Society programs. Vietnam was slowly claiming an early casualty: Johnson's grand vision of domestic reform.

William Westmoreland Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)

By the end of 1965, the U.S. government had sent more than 180,000 Americans to Vietnam. The American commander in South Vietnam, General William Westmoreland, continued to request more troops. Westmoreland, a West Point graduate who had served in World War II and Korea, was less than impressed with the fighting ability of the South Vietnamese Army, or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The ARVN "cannot stand up to this pressure without substantial U.S. combat support on the ground," the general reported. "The only possible response is the aggressive deployment of U.S. troops." Throughout the early years of the war, the Johnson administration complied with Westmoreland's requests; by 1967, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had climbed to about 500,000.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who promised to defend Cuba with Soviet arms. During the summer of 1962, the flow to Cuba of Soviet weapons—including nuclear missiles—increased greatly. President Kennedy responded with a warning that America would not tolerate offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. Then, on October 14, photographs taken by American planes revealed Soviet missile bases in Cuba—and some contained missiles ready to launch. They could reach U.S. cities in minutes. On October 22, Kennedy informed an anxious nation of the existence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba and of his plans to remove them. He made it clear that any missile attack from Cuba would trigger an all-out attack on the Soviet Union. or the next six days, the world faced the terrifying possibility of nuclear war. In the Atlantic Ocean, Soviet ships—presumably carrying more missiles—headed toward Cuba, while the U.S. Navy pre- pared to quarantine Cuba and pre- vent the ships from coming within 500 miles of it. In Florida, 100,000 troops waited—the largest inva- sion force ever assembled in the United States. C. Douglas Dillon, Kennedy's secretary of the treasury and a veteran of nuclear diploma- cy, recalled those tension-filled days of October. The first break in the crisis occurred when the Soviet ships stopped suddenly to avoid a con- frontation at sea. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said, "We are eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just blinked." A few days later, Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles in return for an American pledge not to invade Cuba. U.S. secretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. The leaders agreed, and the crisis ended. "For a moment, the world had stood still," Robert Kennedy wrote years later, "and now it was going around again."

Dien Bien Phu

Despite massive U.S. aid, however, the French could not retake Vietnam. They were forced to surrender in May of 1954, when the Vietminh overran the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu, in northwestern Vietnam.

Cambodia Kent State University

Despite the shock over My Lai, the country's mood by 1970 seemed to be less explosive. American troops were on their way home, and it appeared that the war was finally winding down. On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced that U.S. troops had invaded Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese and Vietcong supply cen- ters. The president defended his action: "If when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations . . . throughout the world." Upon hearing of the invasion, college students across the country burst out in protest. In what became the first general student strike in the nation's history, more than 1.5 million students closed down some 1,200 campuses. The president of Columbia University called the month that fol- lowed the Cambodian invasion "the most disas- trous month of May in the history of . . . higher education." VIOLENCE ON CAMPUS Disaster struck hardest at Kent State University in Ohio, where a massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building. In response to the growing unrest, the local mayor called in the National Guard. On May 4, 1970, the Guards fired live ammunition into a crowd of campus protesters who were hurling rocks at them. The gunfire wounded nine people and killed four, including two who had not even participated in the rally. Ten days later, similar violence rocked the mostly all-black college of Jackson State in Mississippi. National Guardsmen there confronted a group of antiwar demonstrators and fired on the crowd after several bottles were thrown. In the hail of bullets, 12 students were wounded and 2 were killed, both innocent bystanders. In a sign that America still remained sharply divided about the war, the coun- try hotly debated the campus shootings. Polls indicated that many Americans supported the National Guard; respondents claimed that the students "got what they were asking for." The weeks following the campus turmoil brought new attention to a group known as "hardhats," construction workers and other blue- collar Americans who supported the U.S. government's war policies. In May of 1970, nearly 100,000 members of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York held a rally outside city hall to support the government.

1968 Assassination of Dr. King, August 3, 1968 Kerner Commission Civil Rights Act of 1968 Affirmative action

Dr. King seemed to sense that death was near. On April 3, 1968, he addressed a crowd in Memphis, where he had gone to support the city's striking garbage workers. "I may not get there with you but . . . we as a people will get to the Promised Land." He added, "I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." The next day as King stood on his hotel balcony, James Earl Ray thrust a high-powered rifle out of a window and squeezed the trigger. King crumpled to the floor. REACTIONS TO KING'S DEATH The night King died, Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Fearful that King's death would spark riots, Kennedy's advisers told him to cancel his appearance in an African- American neighborhood in Indianapolis. However, Kennedy attended anyway, making an impassioned plea for nonviolence. Despite Kennedy's plea, rage over King's death led to the worst urban rioting in United States history. Over 100 cities exploded in flames. The hardest-hit cities included Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C. Then in June 1968, Robert Kennedy himself was assassinated by a Jordanian immigrant who was angry over Kennedy's support of Israel. The civil rights movement ended de jure segregation by bringing about legal protection for the civil rights of all Americans. Congress passed the most important civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, including the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which ended discrimination in housing. After HISTORICAL L school segregation ended, the numbers of African Americans who finished high school and who went to college increased significantly. This in turn led to better jobs and business opportunities. Another accomplishment of the civil rights movement was to give African Americans greater pride in their racial identity. Many African Americans adopted African-influenced styles and proudly displayed symbols of African history and culture. College students demanded new Black Studies pro- grams so they could study African-American history and liter- ature. In the entertainment world, the "color bar" was lowered as African Americans began to appear more frequently in movies and on television shows and commercials. In addition, African Americans made substantial political gains. By 1970, an estimated two-thirds of eligible African Americans were registered to vote, and a significant increase in African-American elected officials resulted. The number of African Americans holding elected office grew from fewer than 100 in 1965 to more than 7,000 in 1992. Many civil rights activists went on to become political leaders, among them Reverend Jesse Jackson, who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1984 and 1988; Vernon Jordan, who led voter-registration drives that enrolled about 2 million African Americans; and Andrew Young, who has served as UN ambassador and Atlanta's mayor. F UNFINISHED WORK The civil rights movement was suc- cessful in changing many discriminatory laws. Yet as the 1960s turned to the 1970s, the challenges for the movement changed. The issues it confronted—housing and job discrim- ination, educational inequality, poverty, and racism— involved the difficult task of changing people's attitudes and behavior. Some of the proposed solutions, such as more tax monies spent in the inner cities and the forced busing of schoolchildren, angered some whites, who resisted further changes. Public support for the civil rights movement declined because some whites were frightened by the urban riots and the Black Panthers. By 1990, the trend of whites fleeing the cities for the suburbs had reversed much of the progress toward school integration. In 1996-1997, 28 per- cent of blacks in the South and 50 percent of blacks in the Northeast were attending schools with fewer than 10 percent whites. Lack of jobs also remained a serious problem for African Americans, who had a poverty rate three times that of whites. To help equalize education and job opportunities, the government in the 1960s began to promote affirmative action. Affirmative- action programs involve making spe- cial efforts to hire or enroll groups that have suffered discrimination. Many colleges and almost all compa- nies that do business with the feder- al government adopted such pro- grams. But in the late 1970s, some people began to criticize affirmative- action programs as "reverse discrimi- nation" that set minority hiring or enrollment quotas and deprived whites of opportunities. In the 1980s, Republican administrations eased affirmative-action require- ments for some government con- tractors. The fate of affirmative action is still to be decided. Changes in Poverty and Education Today, African Americans and whites interact in ways that could have only been imagined before the civil rights movement. In many respects, Dr. King's dream has been realized—yet much remains to be done.

Plessy v. Ferguson

During the 1890s, a number of other court decisions and state laws severely limited African- American rights. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law requiring railroads to provide "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." In the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that this "separate but equal" law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, which guar- antees all Americans equal treatment under the law. Armed with the Plessy decision, states throughout the nation, but especially in the South, passed what were known as Jim Crow laws, aimed at separating the races. These laws for- bade marriage between blacks and whites and established many other restrictions on social and religious contact between the races. There were separate schools as well as sepa- rate streetcars, waiting rooms, railroad coaches, elevators, wit- ness stands, and public restrooms. The facilities provided for blacks were always inferior to those for whites. Nearly every day, African Americans faced humiliating signs that read: "Colored Water"; "No Blacks Allowed"; "Whites Only!"

Legacy of Vietnam War Powers Act American morale

Evenafteritended,theVietnam War remained a subject of great controversy for Americans. Many hawks continued to insist that the war could have been won if the United States had employed more military power. They also blamed the antiwar movement at home for destroying American morale. Doves countered that the North Vietnamese had displayed incredible resiliency and that an increase in U.S. military force would have resulted only in a continuing stalemate. In addition, doves argued that an unrestrained war against North Vietnam might have prompt- ed a military reaction from China or the Soviet Union. E The war resulted in several major U.S. policy changes. First, the government abolished the draft, which had stirred so much antiwar sentiment. The country also took steps to curb the president's war-making powers. In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which stipulated that a presi- dent must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war. In addition, the troops may remain there no longer than 90 days unless Congress approves the president's actions or declares war. In a broader sense, the Vietnam War significantly altered America's views on foreign policy. In what has been labeled the Vietnam syndrome, Americans now pause and consider possible risks to their own interests before deciding whether to intervene in the affairs of other nations. Finally, the war contributed to an overall cynicism among Americans about their government and political leaders that persists today. Americans grew suspicious of a government that could provide as much misleading information or conceal as many activities as the Johnson and Nixon administrations had done. Coupled with the Watergate scandal of the mid-1970s, the war diminished the optimism and faith in govern- ment that Americans felt during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years.

War on Poverty Economic Opportunity Act

Following these successes, LBJ pressed on with his own agenda—to alleviate poverty. Early in 1964, he had declared "unconditional war on poverty in America" and proposed sweeping legislation designed to help Americans "on the outskirts of hope." In August 1964, Congress enacted the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA), approving nearly $1 billion for youth programs, antipoverty measures, small-business loans, and job training. The EOA legislation created: • the Job Corps Youth Training Program • VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) • Project Head Start, an education program for underpriv- ileged preschoolers • the Community Action Program, which encouraged poor people to participate in public-works programs.

Rosa Parks

Four days after the Brown decision in May 1954, Robinson wrote a letter to the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, asking that bus drivers no longer be allowed to force riders in the "colored" section to yield their seats to whites. The mayor refused. Little did he know that in less than a year another African-American woman from Alabama would be at the center of this controversy, and that her name and her words would far outlast segregation. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the "colored" section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled up, the dri- ver ordered Parks and three other African-American passen- gers to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down without having to sit next to any African Americans. "It was time for someone to stand up— or in my case, sit down," recalled Parks. "I refused to move." As Parks stared out the window, the bus driver said, "If you don't stand up, I'm going to call the police and have you arrested." The soft-spoken Parks replied, "You may do that."

Geneva Accords

From May through July 1954, the countries of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, Laos, and Cambodia met in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Vietminh and with South Vietnam's anticommunist nationalists to hammer out a peace agreement. The Geneva Accords temporar- ily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The Communists and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, controlled North Vietnam from the capital of Hanoi. The anticommu- nist nationalists controlled South Vietnam from the capital and southern port city of Saigon. An election to unify the country was called for in 1956.

French history in Vietnam

From the late 1800s until World War II, France ruled most of Indochina, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. French colonists, who built plantations on peasant land and extracted rice and rubber for their own profit, encountered growing unrest among the Vietnamese peasants. French rulers reacted harshly by restricting freedom of speech and assembly and by jailing many Vietnamese nationalists. These measures failed to curb all dissent, and opposition continued to grow. The Indochinese Communist Party, founded in 1930, staged a number of revolts under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Although the French condemned Ho Chi Minh to death for his rebellious activity, he fled Vietnam and orches- trated Vietnam's growing independence movement from exile in the Soviet Union and later from China. In 1940 the Japanese took control of Vietnam. The next year, Ho Chi Minh returned home and helped form the Vietminh, an organization whose goal it was to win Vietnam's independence from foreign rule. When the Allied defeat of Japan in August 1945 forced the Japanese to leave Vietnam, that goal suddenly seemed a reality. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh stood in the middle of a huge crowd in the northern city of Hanoi and declared Vietnam an inde- pendent nation. France,however,hadno intention of relinquishing its former colony. French troops moved back into Vietnam by the end of 1945, eventually regaining control of the cities and the country's southern half. Ho Chi Minh vowed to fight from the North to liberate the South from French control. "If ever the tiger pauses," Ho had said, referring to the Vietminh, "the elephant [France] will impale him on his mighty tusks. But the tiger will not pause, and the elephant will die of exhaustion and loss of blood." In 1950, the United States entered the Vietnam strug- gle—despite A. Peter Dewey's warnings. That year, President Truman sent nearly $15 million in economic aid to France. Over the next four years, the United States paid for much of France's war, pumping nearly $1 billion into the effort to defeat a man America had once supported. Ironically, during World War II, the United States had forged an alliance with Ho Chi Minh, supplying him with aid to resist the Japanese. But by 1950, the United States had come to view its one-time ally as a communist aggressor. A

Vietminh

In 1940 the Japanese took control of Vietnam. The next year, Ho Chi Minh returned home and helped form the Vietminh, an organization whose goal it was to win Vietnam's independence from foreign rule. When the Allied defeat of Japan in August 1945 forced the Japanese to leave Vietnam, that goal suddenly seemed a reality. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh stood in the middle of a huge crowd in the northern city of Hanoi and declared Vietnam an inde- pendent nation.

Crisis in Little Rock

In 1948, Arkansas had become the first Southern state to admit African Americans to state universities without being required by a court order. By the 1950s, some scout troops and labor unions in Arkansas had quietly ended their Jim Crow practices. Little Rock citizens had elected two men to the school board who publicly backed desegregation—and the school superintendent, Virgil Blossom, began planning for desegregation soon after Brown. However, Governor Orval Faubus publicly showed support for segrega- tion. In September 1957, he ordered the National Guard to turn away the "Little Rock Nine"—nine African- American students who had volun- teered to integrate Little Rock's Central High School as the first step in Blossom's plan. A federal judge ordered Faubus to let the students into school. NAACP members called eight of the students and arranged to drive them to school. They could not reach the ninth student, Elizabeth Eckford, who did not have a phone, and she set out alone. Outside Central High, Eckford faced an abu- sive crowd. Terrified, the 15-year-old made it to a bus stop where two friendly whites stayed with her. The crisis in Little Rock forced Eisenhower to act. He placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and ordered a thousand paratroopers into Little Rock. The nation watched the televised coverage of the event. Under the watch of soldiers, the nine African-American teenagers attended class. But even these soldiers could not protect the students from troublemakers who confronted them in stairways, in the halls, and in the cafeteria. Throughout the year African-American students were regularly harassed by other students. At the end of the year, Faubus shut down Central High rather than let integration continue. On September 9, 1957, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights law since Reconstruction. Shepherded by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the law gave the attorney general greater power over school desegrega- tion. It also gave the federal government jurisdiction—or authority—over viola- tions of African-American voting rights.

The Election of 1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon Election results TV and civil rights

In 1960, as President Eisenhower's second term drew to a close, a mood of rest- lessness arose among voters. The economy was in a recession. The USSR's launch of Sputnik I in 1957 and its development of long-range missiles had sparked fears that the American military was falling behind that of the Soviets. Further set- backs including the U-2 incident and the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Union had Americans questioning whether the United States was losing the Cold War.The Democratic nominee for president, Massachusetts senator John Kennedy, promised active leadership "to get America moving again." His Republican oppo- nent, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, hoped to win by riding on the coattails of Eisenhower's popularity. Both candidates had similar positions on policy issues. Two factors helped put Kennedy over the top: television and the civil rights issue ennedy had a well-organized campaign and the backing of his wealthy family, and was handsome and charismatic. Yet many felt that, at 43, he was too inexperienced. If elected, he would be the second-youngest president in the nation's history. Americans also worried that having a Roman Catholic in the White House would lead either to influence of the pope on American policies or to closer ties between church and state. Kennedy was able to allay worries by discussing the issue openly.One event in the fall determined the course of the election. Kennedy and Nixon took part in the first televised debate between presidential candidates. On September 26, 1960, 70 million TV viewers watched the two articulate and knowledgeable candidates debating issues. Nixon, an expert on foreign policy, had agreed to the forum in hopes of exposing Kennedy's inexperience. However, Kennedy had been coached by televi- sion producers, and he looked and spoke better than Nixon.Kennedy's success in the debate launched a new era in American politics: the television age. As journalist Russell Baker, who covered the Nixon campaign, said, "That night, image replaced the printed word as the natural language of politics." A second major event of the campaign took place in October. Police in Atlanta, Georgia, arrested the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and 33 other African-American demonstrators for sitting at a segregated lunch counter. Although the other demonstrators were released, King was sentenced to months of hard labor—officially for a minor traffic violation. The Eisenhower administration refused to intervene, and Nixon took no public position. When Kennedy heard of the arrest and sentencing, he telephoned King's wife, Coretta Scott King, to express his sympathy. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy, his broth- er and campaign manager, persuaded the judge who had sentenced King to release the civil rights leader on bail, pending appeal. News of the incident captured the immediate attention of the African-American community, whose votes would help Kennedy carry key states in the Midwest and South.

Freedom riders Goals President Kennedy Results

In 1961, James Peck, a white civil rights activist, joined other CORE members on a historic bus trip across the South. The two-bus trip would test the Supreme Court decisions banning segregated seating on interstate bus routes and segregated facilities in bus terminals. Peck and other freedom riders hoped to provoke a violent reaction that would convince the Kennedy administration to enforce the law. The violence was not long in coming. At the Alabama state line, white racists got on Bus One car- rying chains, brass knuckles, and pistols. They brutally beat African-American riders and white activists who tried to intervene. Still the riders managed to go on. Then on May 4, 1961—Mother's Day—the bus pulled into the Birmingham bus terminal. James Peck saw a hostile mob waiting, some holding iron bars. he ride of Bus One had ended, but Bus Two continued southward on a journey that would shock the Kennedy administration into action. In Anniston, Alabama, about 200 angry whites attacked Bus Two. The mob followed the activists out of town. When one of the tires blew, they smashed a window and tossed in a fire bomb. The freedom riders spilled out just before the bus exploded. Thebuscom- panies refused to carry the CORE freedom riders any farther. Even though the determined volunteers did not want to give up, they ended their ride. However, CORE director James Farmer announced that a group of SNCC volunteers in Nashville were ready to pick up where the others had left off. When a new band of freedom riders rode into Birmingham, policemen pulled them from the bus, beat them, and drove them into Tennessee. Defiantly, they returned to the Birmingham bus terminal. Their bus driver, however, feared for his life and refused to transport them. In protest, they occupied the whites-only waiting room at the ter- minal for eighteen hours until a solution was reached. After an angry phone call from U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, bus company officials convinced the driver to proceed. The riders set out for Montgomery on May 20. Although Alabama officials had promised Kennedy that the riders would be protected, a mob of whites—many carrying bats and lead pipes—fell upon the riders when they arrived in Montgomery. John Doer, a Justice Department official on the scene, called the attorney general to report what was happening. "A bunch of men led by a guy with a bleeding face are beating [the passengers]. There are no cops. It's terrible. There's In May 1961, a mob firebombed this bus of free- dom riders out- side Anniston, Alabama, and attacked passen- gers as they tried to escape. not a cop in sight. People are yelling. 'Get 'em, get 'em.' It's awful." " We will continue The violence provoked exactly the response the freedom riders our journey one way wanted. Newspapers throughout the nation and abroad denounced the beatings. President Kennedy arranged to give the freedom riders direct sup- port. The Justice Department sent 400 U.S. marshals to protect the rid- ers on the last part of their journey to Jackson, Mississippi. In addition, the attorney general and the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in all inter- state travel facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters

Bay of Pigs

In March 1960, President Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretly train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. The CIA and the exiles hoped it would trigger a mass uprising that would overthrow Castro. Kennedy learned of the plan only nine days after his elec- tion. Although he had doubts, he approved it. On the night of April 17, 1961, some 1,300 to 1,500 Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. military landed on the island's southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs. Nothing went as planned. An air strike had failed to knock out the Cuban air force, although the CIA reported that it had succeeded. A small advance group sent to dis- tract Castro's forces never reached shore. When the main unit landed, it lacked American air support as it faced 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet tanks and jets. Some of the invading exiles were killed, others imprisoned. The Cuban media sensationalized the defeat of "North American mercenaries." One United States commentator observed that Americans "look like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies, and incompetents to the rest." The disaster left Kennedy embarrassed. Publicly, he accepted blame for the fiasco. Privately, he asked, "How could that crowd at the CIA and the Pentagon be this wrong." D Kennedy negotiated with Castro for the release of surviving commandos and paid a ransom of $53 million in food and medical supplies. In a speech in Miami, he promised exiles that they would one day return to a "free Havana." Although Kennedy warned that he would resist further Communist expansion in the Western Hemisphere, Castro defiantly welcomed further Soviet aid.

End of Vietnam War Is peace established? What happens to Vietnam after U.S. leaves?

In March of 1972, the North Vietnamese launched their largest attack on South Vietnam since the Tet offensive in 1968. President Nixon responded by ordering a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnamese cities. He also ordered that mines be laid in Haiphong harbor, the North's largest harbor, into which Soviet and Chinese ships brought supplies. The Communists "have never been bombed like they are going to be bombed this time," Nixon vowed. The bombings halted the North Vietnamese attack, but the gruel- ing stalemate continued. It was after this that the Nixon administration took steps to finally end America's involve- ment in Vietnam. "PEACEISATHAND" Bythemiddleof1972,thecountry's growing social division and the looming presidential election prompted the Nixon administration to change its negotiating policy. Polls showed that more than 60 percent of Americans in 1971 thought that the United States should withdraw all troops from Vietnam by the end of the year. Henry Kissinger, the president's adviser for national secu- rity affairs, served as Nixon's top negotiator in Vietnam. Since 1969, Kissinger had been meeting privately with North Vietnam's chief negotiator, Le Duc Tho. Eventually, Kissinger dropped his insistence that North Vietnam withdraw all its troops from the South before the complete withdrawal of American troops. On October 26, 1972, days before the pres- idential election, Kissinger announced, "Peace is at hand." The war itself, however, raged on. Within months of the United States' departure, the cease-fire agreement between North and South Vietnam collapsed. In March of 1975, after several years of fighting, the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion against the South. Thieu appealed to the United States for help. America provided economic aid but refused to send troops. Soon thereafter, President Gerald Ford—who assumed the presidency after the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign—gave a speech in which he captured the nation's attitude toward the war: "America can regain its sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is con- cerned." On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon and cap- tured the city. Soon after, South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam.

Great Society Education Healthcare Housing Immigration Environment Consumer protection Warren Court Impact of the Great Society Increase in power of federal government

In May 1964, Johnson had summed up his vision for America in a phrase: the Great Society. In a speech at the University of Michigan, Johnson outlined a legislative program that would end poverty and racial injustice. But, he told an enthusiastic crowd, that was "just the beginning." Johnson envisioned a legisla- tive program that would create not only a higher standard of living and equal opportunity, but also promote a richer quality of life for all Like his idol FDR, LBJ wanted to change America. By the time Johnson left the White House in 1969, Congress had passed 206 of his measures. The president personally led the battle to get most of them passed. EDUCATION During 1965 and 1966, the LBJ administration introduced a flurry of bills to Congress. Johnson considered education "the key which can unlock the door to the Great Society." The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided more than $1 billion in federal aid to help public and parochial schools purchase textbooks and new library materials. This was one of the earliest federal aid packages for education in the nation's history. HEALTHCARE LBJ and Congress changed Social Security by establishing Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare provided hospital insurance and low-cost medical insurance for almost every American age 65 or older. Medicaid extend- ed health insurance to welfare recipients. Congress also made several important decisions that shifted the nation's political power from rural to urban areas. These decisions included: appropriating money to build some 240,000 units of low-rent public housing and helping low- and moderate-income families pay for better private housing; estab- lishing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and appoint- ing Robert Weaver, the first African-American cabinet member in American his- tory, as Secretary of HUD. The Great Society also brought profound changes to the nation's immigration laws. The Immigration Act of 1924 and the National Origins Act of 1924 had estab- lished immigration quotas that discriminated strongly against people from outside Western Europe. The Act set a quota of about 150,000 people annually. It discriminated against southern and eastern Europeans and barred Asians complete- ly. The Immigration Act of 1965 opened the door for many non-European immigrants to settle in the United States by ending quotas based on nationality. D In 1962, Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson, had exposed a hidden danger: the effects of pesti- cides on the environment. Carson's book and the public's outcry resulted in the Water Quality Act of 1965, which required states to clean up rivers. Johnson also ordered the government to search out the worst chemical polluters. "There is no excuse . . . for chemical companies and oil refineries using our major rivers as pipelines for toxic wastes." Such words and actions helped trigger the environmental movement in the United States. (See Chapter 32.) Consumer advocates also made headway. They convinced Congress to pass major safety laws, including a truth-in-packaging law that set standards for label- ing consumer goods. Ralph Nader, a young lawyer, wrote a book, Unsafe at Any Speed, that sharply criticized the U.S. auto- mobile industry for ignoring safety concerns. His testimony helped persuade Congress to establish safety standards for automobiles and tires. Precautions extended to food, too. Congress passed the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967. "Americans can feel a little safer now in their homes, on the road, at the supermarket, and in the department store," said Johnson. Reforms of the Warren Court The wave of liberal reform that characterized the Great Society also swept through the Supreme Court of the 1960s. Beginning with the 1954 landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled school segregation unconstitutional, the Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren took an activist stance on the leading issues of the day. Several major court decisions in the 1960s affected American soci- ety. The Warren Court banned prayer in public schools and declared state-required loyalty oaths unconstitutional. It limited the power of communities to censor books and films and said that free speech included the wearing of black armbands to school by antiwar students. Furthermore, the Court brought about change in federal and state reap- portionment and the criminal justice system. In a key series of decisions, the Warren Court addressed the issue of reapportionment, or the way in which states redraw election districts based on the changing number of people in them. By 1960, about 80 percent of Americans lived in cities and suburbs. However, many states had failed to change their congressional districts to reflect this development; instead, rural districts might have fewer than 200,000 people, while some urban districts had more than 600,000. Thus the voters in rural areas had more representation—and also more power—than those in urban areas. Baker v. Carr (1962) was the first of several decisions that established the prin- ciple of "one person, one vote." The Court asserted that the federal courts had the right to tell states to reapportion—redivide—their districts for more equal repre- sentation. In later decisions, the Court ruled that congressional district bound- aries should be redrawn so that districts would be equal in population, and in Reynolds v. Sims (1964), it extended the principle of "one person, one vote" to state legislative districts. (See Reynolds v. Sims, page 774.) These decisions led to a shift of political power throughout the nation from rural to urban areas. Other Warren Court decisions greatly expanded the rights of people accused of crimes. In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Court ruled that evidence seized illegally could not be used in state courts. This is called the exclusionary rule. In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the justices required criminal courts to provide free legal counsel to those who could not afford it. In Escobedo v. Illinois (1964), the justices ruled that an accused person has a right to have a lawyer present during police questioning. In 1966, the Court went one step fur- ther in Miranda v. Arizona, where it ruled that all suspects must be read their rights before questioning. (See Miranda v. Arizona, page 694.) These rulings greatly divided public opinion. Liberals praised the decisions, arguing that they placed necessary limits on police power and protected the right of all citizens to a fair trial. Conservatives, however, bitterly criticized the Court. They claimed that Mapp and Miranda benefited criminal suspects and severely lim- ited the power of the police to investigate crimes. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Republican candidates for office seized on the "crime issue," portraying liberals and Democrats as being soft on crime and citing the decisions of the Warren Court as major obstacles to fighting crime. The Great Society and the Warren Court changed the United States. People dis- agree on whether these changes left the nation better or worse, but most agree on one point: no president in the post-World War II era extended the power and reach of the federal government more than Lyndon Johnson. The optimism of the Johnson presidency fueled an activist era in all three branches of government, for at least the first few years. The "war on poverty" did help. The number of poor people fell from 21 per- cent of the population in 1962 to 11 percent in 1973. However, many of Johnson's proposals, though well intended, were hastily conceived and proved difficult to accomplish. Johnson's massive tax cut spurred the economy. But funding the Great Society contributed to a growing budget deficit—a problem that continued for decades. Questions about government finances, as well as debates over the effectiveness of these programs and the role of the federal government, left a number of people dis- illusioned. A conservative backlash began to take shape as a new group of Republican leaders rose to power. In 1966, for example, a conservative Hollywood actor named Ronald Reagan swept to victory in the race for governor of California over the Democratic incumbent. Thousands of miles away, the increase of Communist forces in Vietnam also began to overshadow the goals of the Great Society. The fear of communism was deeply rooted in the minds of Americans from the Cold War era. Four years after ini- tiating the Great Society, Johnson, a peace candidate in 1964, would be labeled a "hawk"—a supporter of one of the most divisive wars in recent U.S. history.

Tragedy in Dallas Kennedy's assassination Warren Commission

In the fall of 1963, public opinion polls showed that Kennedy was losing popu- larity because of his advocacy of civil rights. Yet most still supported their beloved president. No one could foresee the terrible national tragedy just ahead. FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER On the sunny morning of November 22, 1963, Air Force One, the presidential aircraft, landed in Dallas, Texas. President and Mrs. Kennedy had come to Texas to mend political fences with members of the state's Democratic Party. Kennedy had expected a cool reception from the conservative state, but he basked instead in warm waves of applause from crowds that lined the streets of downtown Dallas. Jacqueline and her husband sat in the back seat of an open-air limousine. In front of them sat Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. As the car approached a state building known as the Texas School Book Depository, Nellie Connally turned to Kennedy and said, "You can't say that Dallas isn't friendly to you today." A few seconds later, rifle shots rang out, and Kennedy was shot in the head. His car raced to a nearby hospital, where doc- tors frantically tried to revive him, but it was too late. President Kennedy was dead. As the tragic news spread through America's schools, offices, and homes, people reacted with disbelief. Questions were on everyone's lips: Who had killed the president, and why? What would happen next? During the next four days, television became "the window of the world." A photograph of a somber Lyndon Johnson tak- ing the oath of office aboard the presidential airplane was broadcast. Soon, audiences watched as Dallas police charged Lee Harvey Oswald with the murder. His palm print had been found on the rifle used to kill John F. Kennedy. The 24-year-old ex-Marine had a suspicious past. After receiv- ing a dishonorable discharge, Oswald had briefly lived in the Soviet Union, and he supported Castro. On Sunday, November 24, as millions watched live television coverage of Oswald being transferred between jails, a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby broke through the crowd and shot and killed Oswald. The next day, all work stopped for Kennedy's funeral as America mourned its fallen leader. The assassination and televised funeral became a historic event. Americans who were alive then can still recall what they were doing when they first heard about the shooting of their president. The bizarre chain of events made some people wonder if Oswald was part of a conspiracy. In 1963, the Warren Commission investigated and con- cluded that Oswald had shot the president while acting on his own. Later, in 1979, a reinvestigation concluded that Oswald was part of a conspiracy. Investigators also said that two per- sons may have fired at the president. Numerous other people have made investigations. Their explanations have ranged from a plot by anti-Castro Cubans, to a Communist-spon- sored attack, to a conspiracy by the CIA. What Americans did learn from the Kennedy assassina- tion was that their system of government is remarkably stur- dy. A crisis that would have crippled a dictatorship did not prevent a smooth tran- sition to the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. In a speech to Congress, Johnson expressed his hope that "from the brutal loss of our leader we will derive not weakness but strength." Not long after, Johnson drove through Congress the most ambitious domestic legislative package since the New Deal.

Urban riots

In the mid 1960s, clashes between white authority and black civilians spread like wildfire. In New York City in July 1964, an encounter between white police and African-American teenagers ended in the death of a 15-year- old student. This sparked a race riot in central Harlem. On August 11, 1965, only five days after President rights problems in Northern cities similar to those in the South? Between 1964 and 1968, more than 100 race riots erupted in major American cities. The worst included Watts in Los Angeles in 1965 (top) and Detroit in 1967 (right). In Detroit, 43 people were killed and property damage topped $40 million. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, one of the worst race riots in the nation's history raged through the streets of Watts, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Los Angeles. Thirty-four people were killed, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property was destroyed. The next year, 1966, saw even more racial disturbances, and in 1967 alone, riots and violent clashes took place in more than 100 cities. The African-American rage baffled many whites. "Why would blacks turn to violence after winning so many victories in the South?" they wondered. Some realized that what African Americans wanted and needed was economic equali- ty of opportunity in jobs, housing, and education. B Even before the riots in 1964, President Johnson had announced his War on Poverty, a program to help impover- ished Americans. But the flow of money needed to fund Johnson's Great Society was soon redirected to fund the war in Vietnam. In 1967, Dr. King proclaimed, "The Great Society has been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam."

Nixon and Vietnamization Henry Kissinger Vietnamization

In the summer of 1969, newly elected president Richard Nixon announced the first U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam. "We have to get rid of the nightmares we inherited," Nixon later told reporters. "One of the nightmares is war without end." However, as Nixon pulled out the troops, he continued the war against North Vietnam, a policy that some critics would charge prolonged the "war with- out end" for several more bloody years. As President Nixon settled into the White House in January of 1969, negotiations to end the war in Vietnam were going nowhere. The United States and South Vietnam insisted that all North Vietnamese forces with- draw from the South and that the government of Nguyen Van Thieu, then South Vietnam's ruler, remain in power. The North Vietnamese and Vietcong demand- ed that U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam and that the Thieu government step aside for a coalition government that would include the Vietcong. In the midst of the stalled negotiations, Nixon conferred with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on a plan to end America's involvement in Vietnam. Kissinger, a German emigrant who had earned three degrees from Harvard, was an expert on international relations. Their plan, known as Vietnamization, called for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in order for the South Vietnamese to take on a more active combat role in the war. By August of 1969, the first 25,000 U.S. troops had returned home from Vietnam. Over the next three years, the number of American troops in Vietnam dropped from more than 500,000 to less than 25,000 Part of Nixon and Kissinger's Vietnamization policy was aimed at establishing what the president called a "peace with honor." Nixon intended to maintain U.S. dignity in the face of its withdrawal from war. A fur- ther goal was to preserve U.S. clout at the negotiation table, as Nixon still demanded that the South Vietnamese government remain intact. With this objec- tive—and even as the pullout had begun—Nixon secretly ordered a massive bombing campaign against supply routes and bases in North Vietnam. The pres- ident also ordered that bombs be dropped on the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, which held a number of Vietcong sanctuaries. Nixon told his aide H. R. Haldeman that he wanted the enemy to believe he was capable of anything.

U.S. involvement

In the wake of France's retreat, the United States took a more active role in halt- ing the spread of communism in Vietnam. Wading deeper into the country's affairs, the Eisenhower and the Kennedy administrations provided economic and military aid to South Vietnam's non-Communist regime.

Trouble on the Home Front My Lai Massacre

InNovemberof1969,Americanslearnedofashocking event. That month, New York Times correspondent Seymour Hersh reported that on March 16, 1968, a U.S. platoon under the command of Lieutenant William Calley, Jr., had massacred innocent civilians in the small village of My Lai (mCP lFP) in northern South Vietnam. Calley was searching for Vietcong rebels. Finding no sign of the enemy, the troops rounded up the villagers and shot more than 200 inno- cent Vietnamese—mostly women, children, and elderly men. "We all huddled them up," recalled 22-year-old Private Paul Meadlo. "I poured about four clips into the group. . . . The mothers was hugging their children. . . . Well, we kept right on firing." The troops insisted that they were not responsible for the shootings because they were only following Lieutenant Calley's orders. When asked what his direc- tive had been, one soldier answered, "Kill anything that breathed." Twenty-five army officers were charged with some degree of responsibility, but only Calley was convicted and imprisoned.

University of Mississippi James Meredith

InSeptember1962,AirForceveteranJamesMeredith won a federal court case that allowed him to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi, nicknamed Ole Miss. But when Meredith arrived on campus, he faced Governor Ross Barnett, who refused to let him register as a student. President Kennedy ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to the regis- trar's office. Barnett responded with a heated radio appeal: "I call on every Mississippian to keep his faith and courage. We will never surrender." The broad- cast turned out white demonstrators by the thousands. On the night of September 30, riots broke out on campus, resulting in two deaths. It took thousands of soldiers, 200 arrests, and 15 hours to stop the rioters. In the months that followed, federal officials accompanied Meredith to class and protected his parents from nightriders who shot up their house.

Tet Offensive Hurt American morale

January 30 was the Vietnamese equivalent of New Year's Eve, the beginning of the lunar new year festivities known in Vietnam as Tet. Throughout that day in 1968, vil- lagers—taking advantage of a week- long truce proclaimed for Tet— streamed into cities across South Vietnam to celebrate their new year. At the same time, many funerals were being held for war victims. Accompanying the funerals were the traditional firecrackers, flutes, and, of course, coffins. The coffins, however, contained weapons, and many of the villagers were Vietcong agents. That night the Vietcong launched an overwhelm- ing attack on over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam, as well as 12 U.S. air bases. They even attacked the U.S. embassy in Saigon, killing five Americans. The Tet offensive continued for about a month before U.S. and South Vietnamese forces re- gained control of the cities. General Westmoreland declared the attacks an overwhelming defeat for the Vietcong, whose "well-laid plans went afoul." From a purely military standpoint, Westmoreland was right. The Vietcong lost about 32,000 soldiers during the month- long battle, while the American and ARVN forces lost little more than 3,000. However, from a psychological—and political—standpoint, Westmoreland's claim could not have been more wrong. The Tet offensive greatly shook the American public, which had been told repeatedly and had come to believe that the enemy was close to defeat. The Johnson administration's credibility gap sud- denly widened to a point from which it would never recover. Daily, Americans saw the shocking images of attacks by an enemy that seemed to be everywhere.

Why did Kennedy have difficulty achieving many of his New Frontier goals?

Kennedy set out to transform his broad vision of progress into what he called the New Frontier. "We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier," Kennedy had announced upon accepting the nomination for president. He called on Americans to be "new pioneers" and explore "uncharted areas of science and space, . . . unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus." Kennedy had difficulty turning his vision into reality, however. He offered Congress proposals to provide medical care for the aged, rebuild blighted urban areas, and aid education, but he couldn't gather enough votes. Kennedy faced the same conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats that had blocked Truman's Fair Deal, and he showed little skill in pushing his domestic reform measures through Congress. Since Kennedy had been elected by the slimmest of margins, he lacked a popular mandate—a clear indication that voters approved of his plans. As a result, he often tried to play it safe politically. Nevertheless, Kennedy did persuade Congress to enact measures to boost the economy, build the national defense, provide international aid, and fund a massive space program

Voting rights Freedom Summer Fannie Lou Hamer Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Selma Voting Rights Act of 1965

Meanwhile, the right of all African Americans to vote remained elusive. In 1964, CORE and SNCC workers in the South began registering as many African Americans as they could to vote. They hoped their campaign would receive nation- al publicity, which would in turn influence Congress to pass a voting rights act. Focused in Mississippi, the project became known as Freedom Summer. To fortify the project, civil rights groups recruited college students and trained them in nonviolent resistance. Thousands of student volun- teers—mostly white, about one-third female—went into Mississippi to help register voters. For some, the job proved deadly. In June of 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Investigators later learned that Klansmen and local police had murdered the men, two of whom were white. Through the summer the racial beatings and murders continued, along with the burning of businesses, homes, and churches. D A NEW POLITICAL PARTY African Americans needed a voice in the political arena if sweeping change was to occur. In order to gain a seat in Mississippi's all- white Democratic Party, SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Fannie Lou Hamer, the daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, would be their voice at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. In a televised speech that shocked the convention and viewers nationwide, Hamer described how she was jailed for registering to vote in 1962, and how police forced other prisoners to beat her. In response to Hamer's speech, telegrams and telephone calls poured in to the convention in support of seating the MFDP delegates. President Johnson feared losing the Southern white vote if the Democrats sided with the MFDP, so his administration pressured civil rights leaders to convince the MFDP to accept a compromise. The Democrats would give 2 of Mississippi's 68 seats to the MFDP, with a promise to ban discrimination at the 1968 convention. When Hamer learned of the compromise, she said, "We didn't come all this way for no two seats." The MFDP and supporters in SNCC felt that the leaders had betrayed them. At the start of 1965, the SCLC conducted a major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, where SNCC had been working for two years to register voters. By the end of 1965, more than 2,000 African Americans had been arrested in SCLC demonstrations. After a demonstrator named Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot and killed, King respond- ed by announcing a 50-mile protest march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. On March 7, 1965, about 600 protesters set out for Montgomery. That night, mayhem broke out. Television cameras cap- tured the scene. The rest of the nation watched in horror as police swung whips and clubs, and clouds of tear gas swirled around fallen marchers. Demonstrators poured into Selma by the hundreds. Ten days later, President Johnson presented Congress with a new voting rights act and asked for its swift passage. On March 21, 3,000 marchers again set out for Montgomery, this time with federal protection. Soon the number grew to an army of 25,000. F That summer, Congress finally passed Johnson's Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act eliminated the so-called literacy tests that had disquali- fied many voters. It also stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials. In Selma, the proportion of African Americans registered to vote rose from 10 percent in 1964 to 60 percent in 1968. Overall the percentage of registered African-American voters in the South tripled. Although the Voting Rights Act marked a major civil rights victory, some felt that the law did not go far enough. Centuries of discrimination had produced social and eco- nomic inequalities. Anger over these inequalities led to a series of violent disturbances in the cities of the North.

Great Society vs. Vietnam

Rights Act into law, one of the worst race riots in the nation's history raged through the streets of Watts, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Los Angeles. Thirty-four people were killed, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property was destroyed. The next year, 1966, saw even more racial disturbances, and in 1967 alone, riots and violent clashes took place in more than 100 cities. The African-American rage baffled many whites. "Why would blacks turn to violence after winning so many victories in the South?" they wondered. Some realized that what African Americans wanted and needed was economic equali- ty of opportunity in jobs, housing, and education. B Even before the riots in 1964, President Johnson had announced his War on Poverty, a program to help impover- ished Americans. But the flow of money needed to fund Johnson's Great Society was soon redirected to fund the war in Vietnam. In 1967, Dr. King proclaimed, "The Great Society has been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam."

Ended Berlin crisis

Showdowns between Kennedy and Khrushchev made both leaders aware of the gravity of split-second decisions that separated Cold War peace from nuclear disaster. Kennedy, in particular, searched for ways to tone down his hard-line stance. In 1963, he announced that the two nations had established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin. This dedi- cated phone enabled the leaders of the two countries to communicate at once should another crisis arise. Later that year, the United States and Soviet Union also agreed to a Limited Test Ban Treaty that barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

Further aggravated Cold War tensions

Showdowns between Kennedy and Khrushchev made both leaders aware of the gravity of split-second decisions that separated Cold War peace from nuclear disaster. Kennedy, in particular, searched for ways to tone down his hard-line stance. In 1963, he announced that the two nations had established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin. This dedi- cated phone enabled the leaders of the two countries to communicate at once should another crisis arise. Later that year, the United States and Soviet Union also agreed to a Limited Test Ban Treaty that barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

Assassinations RFK King

The Democrats—as well as the nation—were in for more shock in 1968. On April 4, America was rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Violence ripped through more than 100 U.S. cities as enraged followers of the slain civil rights leader burned buildings and destroyed neighborhoods. Just two months later, a bullet cut down yet another popular national figure. Robert Kennedy had become a strong candidate in the Democratic primary, draw- ing support from minorities and urban Democratic voters. On June 4, Kennedy won the crucial California primary. Just after midnight of June 5, he gave a victory speech at a Los Angeles hotel. On his way out he passed through the hotel's kitchen, where a young Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan, was hiding with a gun. Sirhan, who later said he was angered by Kennedy's support of Israel, fatally shot the senator. Jack Newfield, a speechwriter for Kennedy, described the anguish he and many Americans felt over the loss of two of the nation's leaders. Meanwhile, the nation's college campuses continued to protest. During the first six months of 1968, almost 40,000 students on more than 100 campuses took part in more than 200 major demonstrations. While many of the demonstrations continued to target U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, students also clashed with university officials over campus and social issues. A massive student protest at Columbia University in New York City held the nation's attention for a week in April. There, students protesting the uni- versity's community policies took over several buildings. Police eventually restored order and arrested nearly 900 protesters. Recalling the violence and turmoil that plagued the nation in 1968, the journalist and historian Garry Wills wrote, "There was a sense everywhere . . . that things were giving way. That [people] had not only lost control of [their] history, but might never regain it."

Ho Chi Minh

The Indochinese Communist Party, founded in 1930, staged a number of revolts under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Although the French condemned Ho Chi Minh to death for his rebellious activity, he fled Vietnam and orches- trated Vietnam's growing independence movement from exile in the Soviet Union and later from China.

Fighting in the Jungle Traps, tunnels, climate, attrition, guerilla warfare

The United States entered the war in Vietnam believing that its superior weapon- ry would lead it to victory over the Vietcong. However, the jungle terrain and the enemy's guerrilla tactics soon turned the war into a frustrating stalemate. AN ELUSIVE ENEMY Because the Vietcong lacked the high-powered weaponry of the American forces, they used hit-and-run and ambush tactics, as well as a keen knowledge of the jungle terrain, to their advantage. Moving secretly in and out of the general population, the Vietcong destroyed the notion of a traditional front line by attacking U.S. troops in both the cities and the countryside. Because some of the enemy lived amidst the civilian population, it was difficult for U.S. troops to discern friend from foe. A woman selling soft drinks to U.S. soldiers might be a Vietcong spy. A boy standing on the corner might be ready to throw a grenade. Adding to the Vietcong's elusiveness was a network of elaborate tunnels that allowed them to withstand airstrikes and to launch surprise attacks and then dis- appear quickly. Connecting villages throughout the countryside, the tunnels became home to many guerrilla fighters. "The more the Americans tried to drive us away from our land, the more we burrowed into it," recalled Major Nguyen Quot of the Vietcong Army. In addition, the terrain was laced with countless booby traps and land mines. Because the exact location of the Vietcong was often unknown, U.S. troops laid land mines throughout the jungle. The Vietcong also laid their own traps, and disassembled and reused U.S. mines. American soldiers marching through South Vietnam's jungles and rice paddies not only dealt with swelter- ing heat and leeches but also had to be cautious of every step. In a 1969 letter to his sister, Specialist Fourth Class Salvador Gonzalez described the tragic result from an unexploded U.S. bomb that the North Vietnamese Army had rigged. Westmoreland'sstrat- egy for defeating the Vietcong was to destroy their morale through a war of attrition, or the gradual wearing down of the enemy by continuous harassment. Introducing the concept of the body count, or the tracking of Vietcong killed in battle, the general believed that as the number of Vietcong dead rose, the guerrillas would inevitably surrender. However, the Vietcong had no intention of quitting their fight. Despite the growing number of casualties and the relentless pounding from U.S. bombers, the Vietcong—who received supplies from China and the Soviet Union— remained defiant. Defense Secretary McNamara confessed his frustration to a reporter in 1966: "If I had thought they would take this punish- ment and fight this well, . . . I would have thought differently at the start." General Westmoreland would say later that the United States never lost a bat- tle in Vietnam. Whether or not the general's words were true, they underscored the degree to which America misunderstood its foe. The United States viewed the war strictly as a military struggle; the Vietcong saw it as a battle for their very exis- tence, and they were ready to pay any price for victory.

Malcolm X Nation of Islam Message compared to King's Black Power Black Panthers

The anger that sent rioters into the streets stemmed in part from African-American leaders who urged their followers to take complete control of their communities, livelihoods, and culture. One such leader, Malcolm X, declared to a Harlem audience, "If you think we are here to tell you to love the white man, you have come to the wrong place." AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, went to jail at age 20 for burglary. While in prison, he studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam, or the Black Muslims. Malcolm changed his name to Malcolm X (dropping what he called his "slave name") and, after his release from prison in 1952, became an Islamic minister. As he gained a following, the bril- liant thinker and engaging speaker openly preached Elijah Muhammad's views that whites were the cause of the black condition and that blacks should separate from white society. Malcolm's message appealed to many African Americans and their growing racial pride. At a New York press conference in March 1964, he also advocated armed self-defense. The press gave a great deal of publicity to Malcolm X because his controver- sial statements made dramatic news stories. This had two effects. First, his call for armed self-defense frightened most whites and many moderate African Americans. Second, reports of the attention Malcolm received awakened resent- ment in some other members of the Nation of Islam In early June of 1966, tensions that had been building between SNCC and the other civil rights groups finally erupted in Mississippi. Here, James Meredith, the man who had integrated the University of Mississippi, set out on a 225-mile "walk against fear." Meredith planned to walk all the way from the Tennessee border to Jackson, but he was shot by a white racist and was too injured to continue. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the SCLC, Floyd McKissick of CORE, and Stokely Carmichael of SNCC decided to lead their followers in a march to finish what Meredith had started. But it soon became apparent that SNCC and CORE members were quite militant, as they began to shout slogans similar to those of the black sep- aratists who had followed Malcolm X. When King tried to rally the marchers with the refrain of "We Shall Overcome," many SNCC workers—bitter over the violence they'd suffered during Freedom Summer—began singing, "We shall overrun." Police in Greenwood, Mississippi, arrested Carmichael for setting up a tent on the grounds of an all-black high school. When Carmichael showed up at a rally later, his face swollen from a beating, he electrified the crowd. Black Power, Carmichael said, was a "call for black people to begin to define their own goals . . . [and] to lead their own organizations." King urged him to stop using the phrase because he believed it would provoke African Americans to violence and antagonize whites. Carmichael refused and urged SNCC to stop recruiting whites and to focus on developing African-American pride. Laterthatyear,anotherdevelopment demonstrated the growing radicalism of some segments of the African-American community. In Oakland, California, in October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded a political party known as the Black Panthers to fight police brutality in the ghetto. The party advocated self- sufficiency for African-American communities, as well as full employment and decent housing. Members main- tained that African Americans should be exempt from mili- tary service because an unfair number of black youths had MAIN IDEA Analyzing Motives D Why did some leaders of SCLC disagree with SNCC tactics? 720 been drafted to serve in Vietnam Dressed in black leather jackets, black berets, and sunglasses, the Panthers preached self-defense and sold copies of the writings of Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communist revolution. Several police shootouts occurred between the Panthers and police, and the FBI conducted numerous investigations of group mem- bers (sometimes using illegal tactics). Even so, many of the Panthers' activities—the establishment of daycare centers, free breakfast programs, free medical clinics, assis- E (above) Coretta Scott King mourns her husband at his funeral service. (below) Robert F. Kennedy Vocabulary polarization: separation into opposite camps tance to the homeless, and other services—won support in the ghettos

Democratic National Convention

The chaos and violence of 1968 climaxed in August, when thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on the city of Chicago to protest at the Democratic National Convention. The convention, which featured a bloody riot between pro- testers and police, fractured the Democratic Party and thus helped a nearly for- gotten Republican win the White House. Benefited Nixon

March on Washington August 28, 1963 Civil Rights Act of 1964

The civil rights bill that President Kennedy sent to Congress guaranteed equal access to all public accommodations and gave the U.S. attorney general the power to file school desegregation suits. To persuade Congress to pass the bill, two veteran orga- nizers—labor leader A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin of the SCLC—summoned Americans to a march on Washington, D.C. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people—including about 75,000 whites—converged on the nation's capital. They assembled on the grassy lawn of the Washington Monument and marched to the Lincoln Memorial. There, people listened to speakers demand the immediate pas- sage of the civil rights bill. C When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared, the crowd exploded in applause. In his now famous speech, "I Have a Dream," he appealed for peace and racial harmony. Two weeks after King's historic speech, four young Birmingham girls were killed when a rider in a car hurled a bomb through their church window. Two more African Americans died in the unrest that followed. Two months later, an assassin shot and killed John F. Kennedy. His successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, pledged to carry on Kennedy's work. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender. It gave all cit- izens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations.

Khrushchev

The crisis severely damaged Khrushchev's prestige in the Soviet Union and the world. Kennedy did not escape criticism either. Some people criticized Kennedy for practicing brinkmanship when private talks might have resolved the crisis without the threat of nuclear war. Others believed he had passed up an ideal chance to invade Cuba and oust Castro. (It was learned in the 1990s that the CIA had underestimated the num- bers of Soviet troops and nuclear weapons on the island.) The effects of the crisis lasted long after the missiles had been removed. Many Cuban exiles blamed the Democrats for "losing Cuba" (a charge that Kennedy had earlier leveled at the Republicans) and switched their allegiance to the GOP. eanwhile, Castro closed Cuba's doors to the exiles in November 1962 by ban- ning all flights to and from Miami. Three years later, hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of an agreement that allowed Cubans to join relatives in the United States. By the time Castro sharply cut down on exit permits in 1973, the Cuban population in Miami had increased to about 300,000

Challenging segregation in court NAACP Thurgood Marshall Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

The desegregation campaign was led largely by the NAACP, which had fought since 1909 to end segregation. One influ- ential figure in this campaign was Charles Hamilton Houston, a brilliant Howard University law professor who also served as chief legal counsel for the NAACP from 1934 to 1938. n deciding the NAACP's legal strategy, Houston focused on the inequality between the separate schools that many states provided. At that time, the nation spent ten times as much money educating a white child as an African-American child. Thus, Houston focused the orga- nization's limited resources on challenging the most glaring inequalities of segregated public education. In 1938, he placed a team of his best law students under the direction of Thurgood Marshall. Over the next 23 years, Marshall and his NAACP lawyers would win 29 out of 32 cases argued before the Supreme Court. Several of the cases became legal milestones, each chip- ping away at the segregation platform of Plessy v. Ferguson. In the 1946 case Morgan v. Virginia, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional those state laws mandating segregated seat- ing on interstate buses. In 1950, the high court ruled in Sweatt v. Painter that state law schools must admit black applicants, even if separate black schools exist. Marshall's most stun- ning victory came on May 17, 1954, in the case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. (See page 708). In this case, the father of eight-year-old Linda Brown had charged the board of education of Topeka, Kansas, with violating Linda's rights by denying her admission to an all- white elementary school four blocks from her house. The nearest all-black elementary school was 21 blocks away. In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down segregation in schooling as an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that, "[I]n the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place." The Brown decision was relevant for some 12 million schoolchildren in 21 states. Official reaction to the ruling was mixed. In Kansas and Oklahoma, state officials said they expected segregation to end with little trouble. In Texas, the governor warned that plans might "take years" to work out. He actively prevented desegre- gation by calling in the Texas Rangers. In Mississippi and Georgia, officials vowed total resistance. Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia said "The people of Georgia will not comply with the decision of the court. . . . We're going to do whatever is necessary in Georgia to keep white children in white schools and col- ored children in colored schools." RESISTANCE TO SCHOOL DESEGREGATION Within a year, more than 500 school districts had desegregated their classrooms. In Baltimore, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., black and white students sat side by side for the first time in his- tory. However, in many areas where African Americans were a majority, whites resisted desegregation. In some places, the Ku Klux Klan reappeared and White Citizens Councils boycotted businesses that supported desegregation. To speed things up, in 1955 the Supreme Court handed down a second rul- ing, known as Brown II, that ordered school desegregation implemented "with all deliberate speed." Initially President Eisenhower refused to enforce compliance. "The fellow who tries to tell me that you can do these things by force is just plain nuts," he said. Events in Little Rock, Arkansas, would soon force Eisenhower to go against his personal beliefs.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The face-to-face confrontation at Central High School was not the only showdown over segregation in the mid-1950s. Impatient with the slow pace of change in the courts, African-American activists had begun taking direct action to win the rights promised to them by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Among those on the frontline of change was Jo Ann Robinson.

Crisis over Cuba Fidel Castro

The first test of Kennedy's foreign policy came in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. About two weeks before Kennedy took office, on January 3, 1961, President Eisenhower had cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba because of a rev- olutionary leader named Fidel Castro. Castro openly declared himself a com- munist and welcomed aid from the Soviet Union. Castro gained power with the promise of democracy. From 1956 to 1959, he led a guerrilla movement to topple dictator Fulgencio Batista. He won control in 1959 and later told reporters, "Revolutionaries are not born, they are made by poverty, inequality, and dictatorship." He then promised to eliminate these conditions from Cuba. The United States was suspicious of Castro's intentions but nevertheless recognized the new government. However, when Castro seized three American and British oil refineries, relations between the United States and Cuba worsened. Castro also broke up commercial farms into communes that would be worked by formerly landless peasants. American sugar companies which controlled 75 percent of the crop land in Cuba, appealed to the U.S. government for help. In response, Congress erected trade barri- ers against Cuban sugar. Castro relied increasingly on Soviet aid— and on the political repression of those who did not agree with him. While some Cubans were taken by his charisma and his willingness to stand up to the United States, others saw Castro as a tyrant who had replaced one dictatorship with another. About 10 percent of Cuba's popu- lation went into exile, mostly to the United States. Within the large exile community of Miami, Florida, a counterrevolutionary move- ment took shape.

Low morale of troops

The frustrations of guerrilla warfare, the brutal jungle condi- tions, and the failure to make substantial headway against the enemy took their toll on the U.S. troops' morale. Philip Caputo, a marine lieutenant in Vietnam who later wrote several books about the war, summa- rized the soldiers' growing disillusionment: "When we marched into the rice paddies . . . we carried, along with our packs and rifles, the implicit convictions that the Vietcong could be quickly beaten. We kept the packs and rifles; the convictions, we lost." As the war continued, American morale dropped steadily. Many soldiers, required by law to fight a war they did not support, turned to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Low morale even led a few soldiers to murder their superior officers. Morale would worsen during the later years of the war when soldiers real- ized they were fighting even as their govern- ment was negotiating a withdrawal. D Another obstacle was the continuing cor- ruption and instability of the South Vietnamese government. Nguyen Cao Ky, a flamboyant air marshal, led the government from 1965 to 1967. Ky ignored U.S. pleas to retire in favor of an elected civilian government. Mass demonstrations began, and by May of 1966, Buddhist monks and nuns were once again burning themselves in protest against the South Vietnamese government. South Vietnam was fighting a civil war within a civil war, leaving U.S. officials confused and angry.

Roots of Opposition New Left Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Free Speech Movement

The growing youth movement of the 1960s became known as the New Left. The movement was "new" in relation to the "old left" of the 1930s, which had generally tried to move the nation toward socialism, and, in some cases, communism. While the New Left movement did not preach social- ism, its followers demanded sweeping changes in American society. Voicing these demands was one of the better-known New Left organizations, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), founded in 1960 by Tom Hayden and Al Haber. The group charged that corporations and large government insti- tutions had taken over America. The SDS called for a restoration of "participato- ry democracy" and greater individual freedom. In 1964, the Free Speech Movement (FSM) gained prominence at the University of California at Berkeley. The FSM grew out of a clash between students and administrators over free speech on campus. Led by Mario Savio, a philosophy student, the FSM focused its criticism on what it called the American "machine," the nation's faceless and powerful business and government institutions. Across the country the ideas of the FSM and SDS quickly spread to college campuses. Students addressed mostly campus issues, such as dress codes, curfews, dormitory regulations, and mandatory Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs. At Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, students marched merely as "an expression of general student discontent." With the onset of the Vietnam War, students across the country found a gal- vanizing issue and joined together in protest. By the mid-sixties, many youths believed the nation to be in need of fundamental change.

De facto segregation vs. de jure segregation Discontent

The problem facing African Americans in the North was de facto segregation—segregation that exists by practice and custom. De facto segregation can be harder to fight than de jure (dC jMrPC) segregation, or segregation by law, because eliminating it requires changing people's attitudes rather than repealing laws. Activists in the mid-1960s would find it much more difficult to convince whites to share economic and social power with African MAIN IDEA Comparing Americans than to convince them to share lunch counters and bus seats. A A How were civil De facto segregation intensified after African Americans migrated to Northern cities during and after World War II. This began a "white flight," in which great numbers of whites moved out of the cities to the nearby suburbs. By the mid- 1960s, most urban African Americans lived in decaying slums, paying rent to land- lords who didn't comply with housing and health ordinances. The schools for African-American children deteriorated along with their neighborhoods. Unemployment rates were more than twice as high as those among whites. In addition, many blacks were angry at the sometimes brutal treatment they received from the mostly white police forces in their communities. In 1966, King spearheaded a campaign in Chicago to end segregation there and create an "open city." On July 10, he led about 30,000 African Americans in a march on City Hall. In late July, when King led demonstrators through a Chicago neighborhood, angry whites threw rocks and bottles. On August 5, hostile whites stoned King as he led 600 marchers. King left Chicago without accomplishing what he wanted, yet pledging to return.

Birmingham King Events leading to desegregation

ThetroublecontinuedinAlabama.Birmingham,a city known for its strict enforcement of total segregation in public life, also had a reputation for racial violence, including 18 bombings from 1957 to 1963. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and secretary of the SCLC, decided something had to be done about Birmingham and that it would be the ideal place to test the power of non- violence. He invited Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC to help desegregate the city. On April 3, 1963, King flew into Birmingham to hold a planning meet- ing with members of the African-American community. "This is the most segre- gated city in America," he said. "We have to stick together if we ever want to change its ways." After days of demonstrations led by Shuttlesworth and others, King and a small band of marchers were finally arrested during a demonstration on Good Friday, April 12th. While in jail, King wrote an open letter to white religious lead- ers who felt he was pushing too fast. On April 20, King posted bail and began planning more demonstrations. On May 2, more than a thousand African-American children marched in Birmingham; Police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor's men arrested 959 of them. On May 3, a second "children's crusade" came face to face with a helmeted police force. Police swept the marchers off their feet with high-pressure fire hoses, set attack dogs on them, and clubbed those who fell. TV cameras captured all of it, and millions of viewers heard the children screaming. Continued protests, an economic boycott, and negative media coverage finally convinced Birmingham officials to end segregation. This stunning civil rights vic- tory inspired African Americans across the nation. It also convinced President Kennedy that only a new civil rights act could end racial violence and satisfy the demands of African Americans—and many whites—for racial justice On June 11, 1963, the president sent Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" GEORGE WALLACE, ALABAMA GOVERNOR, 1963 troops to force Governor George Wallace to honor a court order desegregating the University of Alabama. That evening, Kennedy asked the nation: "Are we to say to the world—and much more importantly, to each other—that this is the land of the free, except for the Negroes?" He demanded that Congress pass a civil rights bill. A tragic event just hours after Kennedy's speech highlighted the racial tension in much of the South. Shortly after midnight, a sniper murdered Medgar Evers, NAACP field secretary and World War II veteran. Police soon arrested a white supremacist, Byron de la Beckwith, but he was released after two trials resulted in hung juries. His release brought a new militancy to African Americans. Many demanded, "Freedom now

Role of television Credibility gap

Through the media, specifically television, Vietnam became America's first "living-room war." The combat footage that appeared nightly on the news in millions of homes showed stark pic- tures that seemed to contradict the administration's optimistic war scenario. Quoting body-count statistics that showed large numbers of communists dying in battle, General Westmoreland continually reported that a Vietcong surrender was imminent. Defense Secretary McNamara backed up the gen- eral, saying that he could see "the light at the end of the tunnel." The repeated television images of Americans in body bags told a different story, though. While communists may have been dying, so too were Americans—over 16,000 between 1961 and 1967. Critics charged that a credibility gap was growing between what the Johnson administration reported and what was really happening. One critic was Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fulbright, a former Johnson ally, charged the pres- ident with a "lack of candor" in portraying the war effort. In early 1966, the senator conducted a series of televised committee hearings in which he asked members of the Johnson administration to defend their Vietnam policies. The Fulbright hearings delivered few major revelations, but they did contribute to the growing doubts about the war. One woman appeared to capture the mood of Middle America when she told an interviewer, "I want to get out, but I don't want to give in." E By 1967, Americans were evenly split over supporting and opposing the war. However, a small force outside of mainstream America, mainly from the ranks of the nation's youth, already had begun actively protesting the war. Their voices would grow louder and capture the attention of the entire nation.

Domino theory

Upon entering the White House in 1953, President Eisenhower continued the policy of supplying aid to the French war effort. By this time, the United States had settled for a stalemate with the communists in Korea, which only stiffened America's resolve to halt the spread of communism elsewhere. During a news conference in 1954, Eisenhower explained the domino theory, in which he likened the countries on the brink of commu- nism to a row of dominoes waiting to fall one after the other. "You have a row of dominoes set up," the president said. "You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly."

Election of 1968 Robert Kennedy Eugene McCarthy

WellbeforetheTetoffensive,ananti- war coalition within the Democratic Party had sought a Democratic candidate to challenge Johnson in the 1968 primary elections. Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's brother and a senator from New York, decided not to run, citing party loyalty. However, in November of 1967, Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy answered the group's call, declaring that he would run against Johnson on a platform to end the war in Vietnam. McCarthy's early campaign attracted little notice, but in the weeks following Tet it picked up steam. In the New Hampshire Democratic primary in March 1968, the little-known senator cap- tured 42 percent of the vote. While Johnson won the primary with 48 percent of the vote, the slim margin of victory was viewed as a defeat for the president. Influenced by Johnson's perceived weakness at the polls, Robert Kennedy declared his candidacy for president. The Democratic Party had become a house divided. In a televised address on March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a dramatic change in his Vietnam policy—the United States would seek negotiations to end the war. In the meantime, the policy of U.S. escalation would end, the bombing would eventually cease, and steps would be taken to ensure that the South Vietnamese played a larger role in the war. The president paused and then ended his speech with a statement that shocked the nation. Declaring that he did not want the presidency to become "involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year," Lyndon Johnson announced, "Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." The president was stepping down from national politics, his grand plan for domestic reform done in by a costly and divisive war. "That . . . war," Johnson later admitted, "killed the lady I really loved—the Great Society."

Hubert Humphrey

With Lyndon Johnson stepping down and Robert Kennedy gone, the 1968 Democratic presidential primary race pitted Eugene McCarthy against Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's vice-president. McCarthy, while still popular with the nation's antiwar segment, had little chance of defeat- ing Humphrey, a loyal party man who had President Johnson's support. During the last week of August, the Democrats met at their convention in Chicago, sup- posedly to choose a candidate. In reality, Humphrey's nomination had already been determined, a decision that upset many antiwar activists. s the delegates arrived in Chicago, so too did nearly 10,000 protesters. Led by men such as SDS veteran Tom Hayden, many demonstrators sought to pres- sure the Democrats into adopting an antiwar platform. Others came to voice their displeasure with Humphrey's nomination. Still others, known as Yippies (mem- bers of the Youth International Party), had come hoping to provoke violence that might discredit the Democratic Party. Chicago's mayor, Richard J. Daley, was determined to keep the protesters under control. With memories of the nation- wide riots after King's death still fresh, Daley mobilized 12,000 Chicago police officers and over 5,000 National Guard. "As long as I am mayor," Daley vowed, "there will be law and order." Order, however, soon collapsed. On August 28, as delegates cast votes for Humphrey, protesters were gathering in a downtown park to march on the con- vention. With television cameras focused on them, police moved into the crowd, sprayed the protesters with Mace, and beat them with nightsticks. Many protest- ers tried to flee, while others retaliated, pelting the riot-helmeted police with rocks and bottles. "The whole world is watching!" protesters shouted, as police attacked demonstrators and bystanders alike. D The rioting soon spilled out of the park and into the downtown streets. One nearby hotel, observed a New York Times reporter, became a makeshift aid station.

Lyndon B. Johnson

y the time Lyndon Baines Johnson, or LBJ, as he was called, succeeded to the presidency, his ambition and drive had become legendary. In explaining his fre- netic energy, Johnson once remarked, "That's the way I've been all my life. My daddy used to wake me up at dawn and shake my leg and say, 'Lyndon, every boy in town's got an hour's head start on you.'" A fourth-generation Texan, Johnson grew up in the dry Texas hill country of Blanco County. The Johnsons never knew great wealth, but they also never missed a meal. LBJ entered politics in 1937 when he won a special elec- tion to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Johnson styled himself as a "New Dealer" and spokesperson for the small ranchers and struggling farmers of his district. He caught the eye of President Franklin Roosevelt, who took Johnson under his wing. Roosevelt helped him secure key committee assignments in Congress and steer much-needed electrification and water projects to his Texas district. Johnson, in turn, idolized FDR and imitated his leadership style. Once in the House, Johnson eagerly eyed a seat in the Senate. In 1948, after an exhausting, bitterly fought cam- paign, he won the Democratic primary election for the Senate by a margin of only 87 votes out of 988,000. Johnson proved himself a master of party politics and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, and he rose to the position of Senate majority leader in 1955. People called his legendary ability to persuade senators to support his bills the "LBJ treatment." As a reporter for the Saturday Evening Post explained, Johnson also used this treatment to win over reporters. Johnson's deft handling of Congress led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a voting rights measure that was the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Johnson's knack for achieving legislative results had cap- tured John F. Kennedy's attention, too, during Kennedy's run for the White House. To Kennedy, Johnson's congres- sional connections and his Southern Protestant background own drawbacks as a candidate, so he asked Johnson to be his running mate. Johnson's presence on the ticket helped Kennedy win key states in the South, especially Texas, which went Democratic by 47,000 votes.