The Trippy Sixties

The space race had begun in the late 1950's due to the Cold War, which then continued on into the 60's with the first man to land on the moon The Soviets had managed to get ahead of the United States in 1957 with the launching of the first satellite, Sputnik. It led to the fear that the soviets would fire heavy objects into outer space and that they would reach America with intercontinental ballistic missiles it fueled America into "rocket fever", which Eisenhower established NASA But due to many failures and the Vanguard exploding on national television they later launched Explorer 1 on January 31st 1958. but that success and not wanting the Soviet Union getting ahead of the lead again President Kennedy proposed on May 25, 1961 the idea of sending man to the room and back safely before the decade ended. Though, with kennedy being assassinated later on and the Soviet's chief engineer Sergei Korolev dead it caused some setbacks but these setbacks led to everyone continuing to push forward in trying to get the first man on the moon It was finally succeeded on July 20, 1969 with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Buzz Aldrin Jr. Both Kennedy and Nixon knocked out their opponents Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson before facing each other in the 1960 election. Kennedy was a young roman catholic that people from the South feared, believing that it was worse than communism. So they stayed away from the polls. North support on the other hand with overwhelming support, Nixon, was whom the Republican people supported, but his views were majorly different from that of Kennedy's. Kennedy believed that America was slipping and that the Soviets were gaining up on America, but Nixon believed that Kennedy's views were what were putting down America. So to see who was the better candidate they debated on tv. An estimated six million people watched and even though no one won everyone had in mind who to pick. In the end kennedy was elected president due to popular vote thus becoming the first roman catholic president in history as well as the youngest. The following year, in 1964 Kennedy who was already planning to run for another term in 1964 thought it was important to try and ensure a positive vote by visiting Florida and Texas. he decided to go and visit both states in two weeks but first by starting off in Texas. On November 21st he and his wife, Jacqueline, went to Texas for a two day and five city tour. Aim was to bring democrats together even if the chances of the feud among the party leaders would jeopardize his chances in the following election. He stopped at San Antonio then continued on to Houston and ended the day in Ft. Worth. He did a speech in Ft. Worth before going to Dallas on November 22nd they arrived at the airport where they were greeted. The first lady was given a banquet of red roses while waiting for the limousine. They headed off to a ten mile route to downtown Dallas on the way to the trademark where he was scheduled to speak at a lunch a thon. The car turned of Main Street at the Dealy Plaza around 12:30 pm as they passed the Texas school book depository he was shot and was immediately sent to the Parkland Memorial Hospital. After kennedy's death in an interview with his wife Jacqueline recalled that her husband loved the recording of the musical, Camelot. The lines he loved to hear were, "don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for a brief shining moment that was known as Camelot", she said. Not that long after on October 1962 an American U2 spy plane captured nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. Kennedy, not wanting to let out any information until he got to the bottom of it, met with the advisors and decided to blockade Cuba. on October 22nd Kennedy spoke about it to the nation on television though, in order to prevent nuclear war both leaders, Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, came to an agreement that if the Soviet Union removed their weapons sites that the U.S. wouldn't invade Cuba. It wasn't known until twenty five years later that the U.S. also agreed to remove their missile sites from Turkey, and the Soviets to remove their missiles from Cuba. In 1963 the tensions loosened between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On April 17, 1961 President Kennedy whom inherited the scheme from Eisenhower failed an invasion of about 12,000 exiles which landed at the Bay of Pigs and decided to not to try and go any further with the invasion due to the fact it would cost Castro too fall deeper into the Soviets embrace. Though the tensions loosened, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to an anti-ballistic missile, ABM, treaty which allowed for two defensive missiles in a series of arms reduction negotiations known as SALT, strategic arms limitation talks, which was aimed to brief the long range missiles for five years. These were the first steps into slowing down the arms race. Lyndon B. Johnson was born in Texas on August 27, 1908. After Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 1941 President Rossevelt helped Lyndon B. Johnson win a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a lieutenant commander. Johnson served on a tour of the South Pacific and flew one combat mission. Not long into the mission Johnson's plane was forced to turn back due to mechanical difficulty, but he managed receive a silver star medal, but for his participation. By 1960 Lyndon B. Johnson had set his sights on the White House however, he was overwhelmed by the young and energetic John F. Kennedy, who was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Democratic convention. Kennedy offered Johnson the vice presidency and Johnson accepted. On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Just a few hours later Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president aboard Air Force One on its return to Washington D.C. Over the next year he endorsed the late president's programs and pushed through Congress a few of his own. Including the tax cut and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the first effective civil rights law since Reconstruction. In 1964 Johnson ran for the presidency against conservative republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. With public sentiment largely for Democrats and Goldwater's staunch conservatism, Johnson won by a landslide. He received 61% of the popular vote, the biggest margin of victory in U.S. election history. In 1965 Johnson pushed a sweeping legislative agenda known as, The Great Society, which would become the most ambitious and far-reaching domestic program in the nation's history with strong bipartisan support scores of bills were passed that championed urban renewal, education, the arts, environmental beautification and conservation, and the development of depressed regions in the country. Great Society legislation also included the passage of the medicare and medicaid acts and the voting rights act and led to the establishment of the corporation for public broadcasting. The Big Four legislative achievements that crowned LBJ's Great Society program were: aid to education, medical care for the elderly immigration reform and the new voting rights bill. Johnson's main purpose after his re-election was the beginning of his new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination programs. oops... ........ President Johnson also passed the voting rights act of 1965 it outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes as a way of assessing whether anyone was fit or unfit to vote. As far as Johnson was concerned all you needed to vote was American citizenship and the registration of your name on an electoral list. By 1968 nearly 60% of eligible african-americans were registered to vote in Mississippi and other southern states showed similar improvement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were the defining figures of the 1960's black freedom struggle. These two leaders influenced and determined the scope and tone of the Civil Right's struggle and black power movement. Martin Luther King was an integrationist and promoted and practiced non-violence and advocated civil rights. He offered would he considered the more excellent way of love and non-violent protest as a means of building an integrated community of blacks and whites in America. He rejected what he called the hatred and despair of the black nationalist believing that the fate of black Americans was tied up with America's destiny. Despite the enslavement and segregation of blacks throughout American history King had faith that the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of god could reform white America through the non-violent civil rights movement. Malcolm X did not favor integration of blacks with whites in the United States because he believed "you don't integrate with a sinking ship." As the chief spokesman of the Nation of Islam Malcolm X argued that America was too racist in its institutions and people to offer hope to blacks. The solution proposed by the Nation of Islam was a separate nation for blacks to develop themselves apart from what they consider to be a corrupt white nation destined for divine destruction. On June 16, 1966 while concluding the march begun by James Meredith Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC rallied a crowd in Greenwood, Mississippi with the cry, "we want black power!" Although SNCC members had used the term during informal conversations this was the first time "black power" was used as a public slogan. Asked later what he meant by the term, Carmichael said, "when you talk about black power you talk about bringing this country to its knees anytime it messes with the black man any white man in this country knows about power he knows what white power is and he ought to know what black power is." In the late 1960's and early 1970's black power became a rallying call for black nationalists and revolutionary armed movements like the black panther party. The Civil Rights Movement in America brought about tremendous changes. Even though African-Americans weren't completely free they were able to enjoy new freedoms that they had never experienced before. The Vietnam War was fought against the Viet Cong between 1965 to 1973 the main goal of the Vietnam War was to keep communist powers from overtaking South Vietnam. The Viet Cong was a group of South Vietnamese who were upset with the leader of South Vietnam because he did not hold elections as promised by the Geneva Accords they would eventually go on to fight south vietnam's government. On February 1965 Viet Cong guerillas attacked an American airbase at Pleiku, South Vietnam prompting President Johnson to send retaliatory bombing raids and for the first time ordered attacking U.S. troops to land By the middle of March 1965 operation "rolling thunder" was in full swing. Regular full scale bombing attacks against North Vietnam were issued. By the end of 1966 the number of U.S. forces in Vietnam had reached 400,000. Fighting between the U.S. and Viet Cong escalated. When the number of attacks on U.S. soldiers increased President Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. The Viet Cong responded with an increasing frequency of attacks. The U.S. countered by committing more troops to Vietnam increasing from 23,500 to 75,000 by June of 1965. Later General Westmoreland, the military commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam requested a total of 180,000 troops. General Westmoreland believed the war against the Viet Cong could only be won by the number of the enemy, which was called the War of Attrition. Success was measured by how many many of the enemy had been killed and not by the total amount of land conquered. In a War of Attrition civilian targets are regarded as military targets as well. Discontent for the war grew especially when a new type of bomb was developed, the *** bomb, which created great firestorms on impact Pictures of burned civilians enraged many peace groups in the United States and were the subject of many protests. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong launched a massive offensive effort known as the Tet Offensive. Tet marks the vietnamese New Year and for celebrations the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, and Americans agreed to a brief truce. On January 30, 1968 the Viet Cong launched a surprise attack despite the truce. They hoped to spark a popular uprising among the Vietnamese people. The Tet Offensive did not start an uprising as the Viet Cong had hoped however it did change the course of the war. The public was surprised to see so many villages and towns being overrun by an enemy who was supposed to be on the verge of defeat. U.S. leaders had said that light was at the end of the tunnel however after many Americans began to distrust their leaders and information they had been given concerning the progress of the war. By early 1968 the war had become the longest and most unpopular foreign war in the nation's history The government failed to explain to the people what was supposed to be at stake in Vietnam. Casualties, the killed, and wounded had exceeded 100,000 and more bombs had been dropped in Vietnam than in WWII By 1969 at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. On December 1, 1969 a lottery drawing or draft the first since 1942 was held at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington D.C. This event determined a quarter of call for induction during the calendar year of 1970 That is for registrants born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950. Ending in the 1970's America had failed to achieve its objective in Vietnam A lack of public support influenced the failure of America in Vietnam By the end of the war more than 3 million people, including 58,000 Americans, were killed in the war. More than half of those were Vietnamese civilians Hippies believed that the goal in life was to be happy and it was not about what others thought you should be. Hippies rejected middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons, and the Vietnam War. They embraced aspects of Eastern philosophy and sought to find new meaning in life. They opposed political and social violence and promoted a gentle ideology that focused on peace, love, and personal freedom. Hippy dress, which they believed was part of a statement of who you were, included brightly-colored ragged clothes, tie died t-shirts, beads, sandals or barefoot, and jewelry. All of which served to differentiate them from the straight or square mainstream segments of society. The peace symbol became the hippie official logo and the VW or Volkswagen bus became the official means of group transportation. United in their Anti-war sentiment thousands of young people joined in the creation of the counterculture "New Left" became a term used to describe the generation of young people radicalized by social injustice, civil rights struggles, and the Vietnam War. The counterculture stood against the traditional values of middle class society and manifested its rebellion in several ways long hair, rock and roll etc. The counterculture challenged the governmental institutions of American society and the youth spoke out for what they believed in. Millions of Americans took to the streets in large and small groups and held protests at College campuses to discuss the moralities of war and demanded the United States to withdraw their troops from Vietnam. Located near Bethel, New York. White Lake was the site of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, that was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. one of the most profound symbols of the 1960's counterculture anti-war movement. During the concert many performers sang songs of peace and anti-war. In fact, the official slogan at Woodstock was "three days of peace and music." By 1967 many anti-war activists believed that peaceful protests alone were not enough to influence war policy so they turned more militant using civil disobedience, strikes, public disruptions, shouting down gov't speakers, and guerilla theatre to convey their message. For most of their lives women had been denied basic rights, had been trapped at their home, and had been discriminated against in the workplace. The women's movement of the 1960's made significant changes for women in regards to basic rights in the home and in the workplace for the better. Women mainly fought for equality Some extremist women made a freedom trash can and filled it with representations of women trapped in the home they threw objects like heels, bras, girdles, hair curlers, and magazines like Cosmo, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal in it. In 1968, 100 women protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it promoted physical attractiveness and charm as the primary measures of a woman's worth. The Miss America protest and the Freedom Trash Can protest helped women claim national attention towards their struggles. Women also fought for the right to abortion or reproductive rights This became the first step in the Liberation movement. This now allowed women to take a stand on their reproductive rights. In 1963, the federal government amended the Equal Rights Act or the ERA. This was to ensure that sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same work establishment was prohibited. As a result of women's hard-work and dedication they were a strong force in having the ERA passed. It was no longer about the right to vote, but it became the battle to be recognized as a citizen and a person. The women's movement would continue into the 1970's. Barry Goldwater was a senator from Arizona born in Phoenix on January 1, 1909. A conservative republican, Goldwater attacked the federal income tax, the social security system, the tennessee valley authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test ban treaty, and the Great Society. After winning several key victories in the 1964 primary election Goldwater won the Republican presidential nomination on the first ballot. He fought a determined campaign against President Lyndon B. Johnson, but national prosperity worked in Johnson's favor and Goldwater was handicapped by the charge that he was an extreme anti-communist who might carry the country into war with the Soviet Union. During his presidential campaign, the molecular formula AuH2O was used during his campaign to represent Goldwater. Barry Goldwater is often credited with starting the conservative movement in the United States.