1960's Web Quest

Architecture
In 1961, an architect received the Presidential Medal of Honor. During the sixties preservation would challenge modernism, and construction would begin on the World Trade Center. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Ventori would shake up the world of design and be the precursor to the question “Is a building important, good, or even interesting because an architect says it is?” Eero Saarinen, Edward Durrell Stone, Mies Vander Rohe, I.M. Pei, John Partman, and Harrison & Abramouitz are among the outstanding designers who turned imagination and dreams into steel and concrete.

Art
In 1962 Andy Warhol unveiled paintings of Campbell Soup cans and started the clock ticking on his fifteen minutes of fame (a phrase coined by Warhol). His career would last considerably longer, and he would leave an enduring mark on the decade along with Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Andrew Wyeth, Roy Lichtenstin, Larry Rivers, and Frank Stella. OP-art, pop art, avant-garde, minimalism, and kinetic sculpture would become part of vocabulary of sixties art. An unprecedented number of galleries and museums opened. Heck, even Sears hosted an art show in 1963. Peter Max may have put the ultimate commercial spin on the creative arts when his psychedelic images were used to sell corporate products to mainstream America. Whew, I get blurry-eyed just thinking about it.

Business
Ding dong…Avon calling! This was the slogan of one of the nation’s most profitable companies in 1968--a door-to-door cosmetics company. The sixties saw the rise of the conglomerate (International Telephone and Telegraph also owned bakeries, car rental agencies, hotels, glass plants, and loan companies), the spread of the franchise (from McDonalds to Midas Mufflers and beyond), and a serious challenge to the domination of America’s big three automakers by an invasion of imports. President Kennedy took on U.S. Steel in 1962, and the one hundred millionth telephone was installed in 1967. IBM controlled 65% of the computer industry, and General Motors had revenues eight times those of New York State. Can anyone say…bling bling?

Civil Rights
The sixties stand as a watershed decade in the history of the struggle against segregation and discrimination. This decade would include lunch-counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the integration of the University of Mississippi, campaigns in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, freedom summer, the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. Black ministers competed with Black Panthers for the souls of African Americans. The policy of non-violent protest was severely tested by riots in Los Angeles and an assassin’s bullet in Memphis. The Dream, however, did not die.

Cold War
Khrushev and Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Berlin Wall. During the 1960’s the U.S. and U.S.S.R. created huge stockpiles of atomic weapons and in 1962 came close to war. Hollywood films like Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove foresaw the possibility of nuclear Armageddon, and the government gave out blueprints for homemade fallout shelters. By the decade’s end, both sides still considered the other to be its chief adversary but had taken steps toward arms control (the SALT Treaties) and better diplomatic relations. For the first rime in many years, nuclear war did not seem to be inevitable, and Burt the Turtle was out of a job.

Counterculture
The cover of the July 7th, 1967 issue of Time was entitled “Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture.” The issue described love-ins, communes, and flower children who were turning on, turning in, and dropping out. It concluded with the observation that “hippies haven’t so much dropped out of American society as given it something to think about.” Find out what all the beards, beads, bangles, and brouhaha was all about. And don’t trust anyone over thirty. Peace.

Dance
Come on, baby…let’s do the twist…and the frog, the freddy, the watusi, and more. American Bandstand played us the latest grooves and showed us the latest moves. Don’t forget Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham, and the American debut of Rudolf Nureyev (freshly defected from the U.S.S.R.). America truly was the “land of 1000 dances.” “Feets, do your thing!”

Back to the top.

Education
In 1960, the Future of Public Education predicted a revolution in all aspects of education in the decade to come. Revolution was almost an understatement. Try rioting at the University of Mississippi over integration, the student seizure of the administration building at the University of Chicago over the draft, and rioting at the University of California at Berkeley over the status of “the people’s park.” There was Head Start, desegregation, the end of official prayer in public schools, the Education Act of 1965, with its all important Title programs, demands for the teaching of black history and women’s history, New math, bilingual education, progressive education, and draft deferments for college students that caused an Amherst professor to describe the grading system as A=excellent, B=good, C=fair, D=passing, V=Vietnam.

Elections 1960, 1964, 1968
“…You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Having lost the 1960 Presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial race, Richard Nixon bid the press farewell. So how did he become President in 1968? Find the answer to this and more as you explore the political battles of JFK, Richard Nixon, LBJ, Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace. Who could forget “Tricky Dick,” “too much profile and not enough courage,” “in your guts you know he’s nuts,” and the “Bombsy twins.” Hey, watch the mudslinging…this is supposed to be a dignified campaign.

Fashion
Before there was Cindy Crawford there was…Leslie Hornby? In the sixties she was called Twiggy--a girl so skinny that when she stuck out her tongue she resembled a zipper. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but you can see for yourself as you explore the world of miniskirts, Mod designs, wide ties, and geometric fashions by Yves St. Laurent, Rudi Gernreich, and Christian Dios. Women ironed their hair, kids tie-dyed their T-shirts, and Gernreich created a “topless” swimsuit. I think I’m coming down with a case of the bell-bottom blues.

Hawks vs. Doves
During the 1960’s, war was being waged overseas in Vietnam and in the U.S. about Vietnam as Americans demonstrated for and against U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Muhammad Ali was willing to risk prison and the loss of his boxing titles over an issue he summarized with the statement, “I don’t have no personal quarrel with those Viet Congs.” Explore the issues, songs, slogans, and events that polarized our nation during its longest war and culminated in a showdown in Chicago in 1968. “The whole world is watching.”

Innovations
Astroturf, artificial tanning creams, trading stamps, the felt tip pen, canned Coca-Cola, lycra (spandex), soft contact lenses, Coffee Mate, the electric toothbrush, the IBM electric typewriter (what’s that?), the push-button phone, microwave ovens, waterbeds, and the Big Mac. Now there’s a shopping list for you. All this good stuff but no Wal-Mart--and they call this the “good old days?”

John F. Kennedy
In 1960 Americans elected (by a slim margin) their youngest chief executive ever. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and would be the nation’s first Roman Catholic president. At his inauguration he announced that the torch of leadership had been passed to a new generation and issued an appeal to that generation’s youth, vitality, and idealism. The new president faced serious foreign and domestic issues: communism, civil rights, and a slumping economy. His administration would be forever associated with the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin, the Peace Corps, Vietnam, and tragically, Dallas. The public developed a fascination with the President’s family (especially with the First Lady, Jackie) that continues to this day. After the President’s death in 1963, Jackie Kennedy would help to forever romanticize his brief administration with one word—Camelot.

Law Enforcement
Alcatraz, Charles Whitman, Charles Manson, the F.B.I., the beginning of the war on drugs and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmy Hoffa and the war against organized crime, the Boston Strangler, and the trial of the Chicago Seven. Peace and love were sometimes a little hard to come by. Oh, and by the way, you now have the right to remain silent…

Literature/Magazines
1960’s bookworms had plenty to read about, including Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, John Updike’s Rabbit Run, James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle,The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the debut of Rolling Stone magazine. You might have burned your draft card, but don’t burn your library card!

Lyndon Baines Johnson
“Hey, Hey, LBJ…how many kids did you kill today?” By March of 1968, the increasingly divisive war in Vietnam had overshadowed the other policies of the Johnson administration. The President was becoming as unpopular as the war and that year announced that he would not run for re-election. Moved into the Oval Office by an assassin’s bullet in 1963 and then elected to the presidency in his own right in 1964, LBJ had hoped that the Great Society, not Vietnam, would be his legacy. His administration had declared war on poverty, spent billions on programs for the poor, and watched the incomes of African- Americans rise by 53%. This Southern-born Democrat sponsored the 1965 Voting Rights Act and made an inspiring speech before Congress to support its passage. He appointed the nation’s first African-American to the Supreme Court and the first African-American woman ambassador. There were economic, social, and political consequences for all of this. So, what should Johnson’s legacy be? Here is your chance to decide.

Back to the top.

Medicine
The first demonstration of CPR, the approval of the Pill (oral contraceptive) for use in the U.S., kidney and lung transplants, the introduction of home dialysis, a million abortions per year in the U.S. (most illegal), Medicare kicking in for Americans over sixty-five, the approval of a Rubella vaccine, and a new computerized blood bank in New York City. A 1964 American Medical Association public service message asked, “Are house calls a thing of the past?” If you don’t know what this means, then you have your answer.

Movies
My name is Bond…James Bond. For film in the sixties this says it all. The agent 007 franchise proved extremely popular with audiences, and the series would eventually earn more than 2 billion. For Hollywood, television would be a far tougher foe than Goldfinger. To compete, film makers gave audiences what T.V. could not…more sex, more blood, stronger language, and more mature themes. By 1968 the film industry was pressured to institute a ratings system of G’s, R’s, and X’s. Welcome to the movies where you’ll scream at Psycho, laugh at The Graduate, thrill to Bonnie and Clyde, and gasp at 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gee, 2001 seemed so far in the future then.

Music
“I know it’s only Rock & Roll…but I like it.” Let’s face it; the music folks associated with the sixties wasn’t being played by the Philharmonic. The sixties rocked. Folk, beach music, Motown, Memphis Soul, the British invasion, protest music, and Acid Rock helped define and sometimes deafen the Age of Aquarius. So…you wanna be a Rock & Roll star?

Richard Milhous Nixon
“I know some of you have been through defeats, as I have, and had your hearts broken.” Nixon had already lost the 1960 presidential and 1962 California gubernatorial races. By November 1968 Nixon had been elected President of the United States. What a comeback! Find out how he did it. What was Nixon’s “Southern Strategy?” What was his “secret plan” to end the conflict in Vietnam which by 1968 had become America’s longest war? Read about Spiro Agnew, Henry Kissinger, the Nixon Doctrine, détente, and the Christmas bombing. Not many men have had as complicated a psyche as Ricahrd Nixon. Find out what made him tick. And then explain it to us!

Religion
The October cover of Time magazine asked the question, “Is God Dead?” The debate over the role of religion in American society was conducted on the pages of magazines, in the churches, on the streets, and in the courts. The National Council of Churches approved the use of birth control, Pope Paul VI came to New York, Tennessee repealed the “Monkey Law,” and the world heard the first verses of Genesis read by the crew of Apollo 8 as it circled the moon. Read about Vatican II, Black Muslims, Engle vs. Vitale, Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, and religion’s most controversial challenger, Madalyn Murray O’Hair.

Science and Technology
In 1960 Smell-O-Vision was created for movie theaters. The idea was to release odors to coincide with events on the screen. Plastic see-through models called the Visible Man and Visible Woman became 1963’s controversial educational toys. In 1968, Lake Erie is declared “dead” from the effects of pollution. Okay…so these aren’t exactly great moments in science. Try these instead. The laser, the silicon chip, cracking the DNA code, creating the word processor, videodisc recorder, and instamatic camera, building a Braille typewriter and an atomic clock. Want more? How about proof of seafloor spreading, the theory of plate tectonics, or an air force study of UFO’s? Hit the lab, and fire up the Bunsen burners!

Space
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.” Richard Nixon was prepared to deliver these words to the American people in the event that the first moon landing failed and the two astronauts aboard the Lunar Module had to be abandoned to certain death. Instead, America celebrated an achievement unparalleled in the history of mankind. From the moment in 1961 that President Kennedy challenged America to make space exploration a national goal, the nation and the world were fascinated by the efforts of NASA to beat the Russians to the moon. From satellites, to Apollo 11, from Alan Shepard to Neil Armstrong, find out what made space…the final frontier. “To the moon, Alice!”

Sports
Television created a huge audience for sports in the sixties. Pro football franchises went from 12 to 26 and baseball from 16 to 24 clubs. As the profits rolled in, salaries went up--gone were the days of the 1950’s when a pro might earn $10,000 per year. College athletes were getting $100,000 signing bonuses. Pitcher Whitey Ford joked that ball players paid more attention to the Wall Street Journal than to the sports pages. Maybe salaries were high, but sports stars seemed larger than life too. Muhammad Ali, “Broadway” Joe Namath, Sandy Koufax, Bill Russell, Wilma Rudolph, Bobby Hull, Bob Beamon, Peggy Fleming, and Coach Vince Lombard, were just a few of the icons of the 1960’s. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

Supreme Court
In 1963 Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was asked to take on a sad duty; chairing the commission charged with investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission’s conclusion that there was only one assassin started more discussions about the President’s death than it settled. However, Earl Warren was no stranger to controversy even then. “The times they are A-changing,” sang Bob Dylan, and many of those changes came as the result of decisions handed down by the Warren Court in the sixties. The Supreme Court issued rulings on illegal searches, school prayer, the right to an attorney, discrimination, right to privacy, rights during an arrest, the rights of juveniles in court, and free expression for public school students. For the next three decades the Court would be criticized for practicing “judicial activism” (Impeach Earl Warren billboards sprang up in the South), but the times had indeed changed across America’s judicial landscape.

Television
“I invite you to sit down in front of your television sets…and stay there. You will see a vast wasteland—a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families…blood and thunder…mayhem, violence, sadism, murder…and, endlessly, commercials—many screaming, cajoling, and offending.” So said FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow in 1961. Gee, I’m glad T.V. is so different now. But as any viewer of Nick at Nite or TVLand can tell you, that wasteland was inhabited by some classic characters…Morticia Addams, Batman, Agent Maxwell Smart, the Mod Squad, Jed Clampett, Barney Fife, Fred Flintstone, Hoss Cartwright, and Commander James T. Kirk. All I can say is, Punk’d has nothing on Candid Camera and the “heir heads” of A Simple Life are poor substitutes for Eva Gabor in Green Acres. Adjust those rabbit-ears and tune in those three channels (in black and white no less)…cause “Heeeeere’s Johnny!”

Theater/Broadway
Edward Albee, Neil Simon, Robert Bolt, Arthur Miller, Jerome Robbins, LeRoi Jones, and Terence McNally were just some of the impresarios of the 1960’s. American theater played with social realism and experimentation, as well as what some critics called the Theater of the Absurd. For those of us who didn’t want our entertainment to be more serious than our lives, there were always musicals: Camelot, Bye Bye Birdie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hello Dolly, and the first “tribal love-rock musical,” Hair--a play that may have owed some of its success to the brief nude scene involving the entire cast. Break a leg!

Transportation
The year 2003 saw the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic flight. During the sixties the big news included Jumbo Jets, new airport terminals, the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, and supersonic passenger planes. 1967 was statistically the safest year ever for the world’s airlines. On the ground the word from the nation’s railroads was consolidation. From 1962 to1968, a frenzy of mergers created new rail companies like Penn Central, Southern, and Norfolk and Western. San Francisco began construction on BART, a rapid transit line for commuters. The big news, of course, remained the automobile. In 1965 Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed, pointed out what some folks had already discovered the hard way…some cars were unsafe.
By 1966, 1000 Americans a week lost their lives on the nation’s highways. For years Detroit had maintained that “safety doesn’t sell.” Now, new federal laws made it a priority. President Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act in 1966. The Department of Transportation was also created in 1966 after 17 years of recommendations. The idea was to untangle, coordinate, and build a national transportation system worthy of America. This will give you something to think about the next time you are stuck in traffic.

Vietnam 1960-1964
It was the longest and most unpopular conflict in America’s history. Americans had been in Vietnam as military advisors since 1950--about 650 per year. This would change in 1962 when President Kennedy increased them to 12,000. From that moment on, the U.S. was drawn deeper and deeper into a policy to protect a nation that President Johnson privately said was not “worth fighting for.” When the Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed (with only two dissenting votes) the President had the functional equivalent of a declaration of war. Explore the reasons for U.S. escalation of the war, the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign, the U.S.-backed coup that ended in the murder of South Vietnam’s President, and the entry of the first U.S. combat troops in Vietnam.

Vietnam 1966-1969
U.S. troop strength reached 400,000 in 1966, 475,000 in 1967, and 500,000 in 1968. Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in 1968 but not before the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive—a fight ultimately won by the U.S. but perceived at home as a sign that the war was unwinable. Compare the tactics and strategies of General Westmoreland and his successor, General Abrams. Uncover the secret bombing campaign and the tragedy of the MyLai massacre.

Women
The Feminine Mystique, the 1961 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, the Equal Rights Amendment, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the National Organization for Women, bra burning, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, the Pill, the “autonomous girl,” protestors outside the 1968 Miss America Pageant, and the fight to end discrimination against women in the workplace—often characterized as “Jane Crow.” “Sisters are doin it for themselves!”

"All we are saying is give peace a chance." -- John Lennon		MHS home

	1960s TOPICS FOR SELECTION
	Architecture In 1961, an architect received the Presidential Medal of Honor. During the sixties preservation would challenge modernism, and construction would begin on the World Trade Center. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Ventori would shake up the world of design and be the precursor to the question “Is a building important, good, or even interesting because an architect says it is?” Eero Saarinen, Edward Durrell Stone, Mies Vander Rohe, I.M. Pei, John Partman, and Harrison & Abramouitz are among the outstanding designers who turned imagination and dreams into steel and concrete. Art In 1962 Andy Warhol unveiled paintings of Campbell Soup cans and started the clock ticking on his fifteen minutes of fame (a phrase coined by Warhol). His career would last considerably longer, and he would leave an enduring mark on the decade along with Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Andrew Wyeth, Roy Lichtenstin, Larry Rivers, and Frank Stella. OP-art, pop art, avant-garde, minimalism, and kinetic sculpture would become part of vocabulary of sixties art. An unprecedented number of galleries and museums opened. Heck, even Sears hosted an art show in 1963. Peter Max may have put the ultimate commercial spin on the creative arts when his psychedelic images were used to sell corporate products to mainstream America. Whew, I get blurry-eyed just thinking about it. Business Ding dong…Avon calling! This was the slogan of one of the nation’s most profitable companies in 1968--a door-to-door cosmetics company. The sixties saw the rise of the conglomerate (International Telephone and Telegraph also owned bakeries, car rental agencies, hotels, glass plants, and loan companies), the spread of the franchise (from McDonalds to Midas Mufflers and beyond), and a serious challenge to the domination of America’s big three automakers by an invasion of imports. President Kennedy took on U.S. Steel in 1962, and the one hundred millionth telephone was installed in 1967. IBM controlled 65% of the computer industry, and General Motors had revenues eight times those of New York State. Can anyone say…bling bling? Civil Rights The sixties stand as a watershed decade in the history of the struggle against segregation and discrimination. This decade would include lunch-counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the integration of the University of Mississippi, campaigns in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, freedom summer, the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. Black ministers competed with Black Panthers for the souls of African Americans. The policy of non-violent protest was severely tested by riots in Los Angeles and an assassin’s bullet in Memphis. The Dream, however, did not die. Cold War Khrushev and Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Berlin Wall. During the 1960’s the U.S. and U.S.S.R. created huge stockpiles of atomic weapons and in 1962 came close to war. Hollywood films like Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove foresaw the possibility of nuclear Armageddon, and the government gave out blueprints for homemade fallout shelters. By the decade’s end, both sides still considered the other to be its chief adversary but had taken steps toward arms control (the SALT Treaties) and better diplomatic relations. For the first rime in many years, nuclear war did not seem to be inevitable, and Burt the Turtle was out of a job. Counterculture The cover of the July 7th, 1967 issue of Time was entitled “Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture.” The issue described love-ins, communes, and flower children who were turning on, turning in, and dropping out. It concluded with the observation that “hippies haven’t so much dropped out of American society as given it something to think about.” Find out what all the beards, beads, bangles, and brouhaha was all about. And don’t trust anyone over thirty. Peace. Dance Come on, baby…let’s do the twist…and the frog, the freddy, the watusi, and more. American Bandstand played us the latest grooves and showed us the latest moves. Don’t forget Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham, and the American debut of Rudolf Nureyev (freshly defected from the U.S.S.R.). America truly was the “land of 1000 dances.” “Feets, do your thing!” Back to the top. Education In 1960, the Future of Public Education predicted a revolution in all aspects of education in the decade to come. Revolution was almost an understatement. Try rioting at the University of Mississippi over integration, the student seizure of the administration building at the University of Chicago over the draft, and rioting at the University of California at Berkeley over the status of “the people’s park.” There was Head Start, desegregation, the end of official prayer in public schools, the Education Act of 1965, with its all important Title programs, demands for the teaching of black history and women’s history, New math, bilingual education, progressive education, and draft deferments for college students that caused an Amherst professor to describe the grading system as A=excellent, B=good, C=fair, D=passing, V=Vietnam. Elections 1960, 1964, 1968 “…You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Having lost the 1960 Presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial race, Richard Nixon bid the press farewell. So how did he become President in 1968? Find the answer to this and more as you explore the political battles of JFK, Richard Nixon, LBJ, Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace. Who could forget “Tricky Dick,” “too much profile and not enough courage,” “in your guts you know he’s nuts,” and the “Bombsy twins.” Hey, watch the mudslinging…this is supposed to be a dignified campaign. Fashion Before there was Cindy Crawford there was…Leslie Hornby? In the sixties she was called Twiggy--a girl so skinny that when she stuck out her tongue she resembled a zipper. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but you can see for yourself as you explore the world of miniskirts, Mod designs, wide ties, and geometric fashions by Yves St. Laurent, Rudi Gernreich, and Christian Dios. Women ironed their hair, kids tie-dyed their T-shirts, and Gernreich created a “topless” swimsuit. I think I’m coming down with a case of the bell-bottom blues. Hawks vs. Doves During the 1960’s, war was being waged overseas in Vietnam and in the U.S. about Vietnam as Americans demonstrated for and against U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Muhammad Ali was willing to risk prison and the loss of his boxing titles over an issue he summarized with the statement, “I don’t have no personal quarrel with those Viet Congs.” Explore the issues, songs, slogans, and events that polarized our nation during its longest war and culminated in a showdown in Chicago in 1968. “The whole world is watching.” Innovations Astroturf, artificial tanning creams, trading stamps, the felt tip pen, canned Coca-Cola, lycra (spandex), soft contact lenses, Coffee Mate, the electric toothbrush, the IBM electric typewriter (what’s that?), the push-button phone, microwave ovens, waterbeds, and the Big Mac. Now there’s a shopping list for you. All this good stuff but no Wal-Mart--and they call this the “good old days?” John F. Kennedy In 1960 Americans elected (by a slim margin) their youngest chief executive ever. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and would be the nation’s first Roman Catholic president. At his inauguration he announced that the torch of leadership had been passed to a new generation and issued an appeal to that generation’s youth, vitality, and idealism. The new president faced serious foreign and domestic issues: communism, civil rights, and a slumping economy. His administration would be forever associated with the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin, the Peace Corps, Vietnam, and tragically, Dallas. The public developed a fascination with the President’s family (especially with the First Lady, Jackie) that continues to this day. After the President’s death in 1963, Jackie Kennedy would help to forever romanticize his brief administration with one word—Camelot. Law Enforcement Alcatraz, Charles Whitman, Charles Manson, the F.B.I., the beginning of the war on drugs and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmy Hoffa and the war against organized crime, the Boston Strangler, and the trial of the Chicago Seven. Peace and love were sometimes a little hard to come by. Oh, and by the way, you now have the right to remain silent… Literature/Magazines 1960’s bookworms had plenty to read about, including Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, John Updike’s Rabbit Run, James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle,The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the debut of Rolling Stone magazine. You might have burned your draft card, but don’t burn your library card! Lyndon Baines Johnson “Hey, Hey, LBJ…how many kids did you kill today?” By March of 1968, the increasingly divisive war in Vietnam had overshadowed the other policies of the Johnson administration. The President was becoming as unpopular as the war and that year announced that he would not run for re-election. Moved into the Oval Office by an assassin’s bullet in 1963 and then elected to the presidency in his own right in 1964, LBJ had hoped that the Great Society, not Vietnam, would be his legacy. His administration had declared war on poverty, spent billions on programs for the poor, and watched the incomes of African- Americans rise by 53%. This Southern-born Democrat sponsored the 1965 Voting Rights Act and made an inspiring speech before Congress to support its passage. He appointed the nation’s first African-American to the Supreme Court and the first African-American woman ambassador. There were economic, social, and political consequences for all of this. So, what should Johnson’s legacy be? Here is your chance to decide. Back to the top. Medicine The first demonstration of CPR, the approval of the Pill (oral contraceptive) for use in the U.S., kidney and lung transplants, the introduction of home dialysis, a million abortions per year in the U.S. (most illegal), Medicare kicking in for Americans over sixty-five, the approval of a Rubella vaccine, and a new computerized blood bank in New York City. A 1964 American Medical Association public service message asked, “Are house calls a thing of the past?” If you don’t know what this means, then you have your answer. Movies My name is Bond…James Bond. For film in the sixties this says it all. The agent 007 franchise proved extremely popular with audiences, and the series would eventually earn more than 2 billion. For Hollywood, television would be a far tougher foe than Goldfinger. To compete, film makers gave audiences what T.V. could not…more sex, more blood, stronger language, and more mature themes. By 1968 the film industry was pressured to institute a ratings system of G’s, R’s, and X’s. Welcome to the movies where you’ll scream at Psycho, laugh at The Graduate, thrill to Bonnie and Clyde, and gasp at 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gee, 2001 seemed so far in the future then. Music “I know it’s only Rock & Roll…but I like it.” Let’s face it; the music folks associated with the sixties wasn’t being played by the Philharmonic. The sixties rocked. Folk, beach music, Motown, Memphis Soul, the British invasion, protest music, and Acid Rock helped define and sometimes deafen the Age of Aquarius. So…you wanna be a Rock & Roll star? Richard Milhous Nixon “I know some of you have been through defeats, as I have, and had your hearts broken.” Nixon had already lost the 1960 presidential and 1962 California gubernatorial races. By November 1968 Nixon had been elected President of the United States. What a comeback! Find out how he did it. What was Nixon’s “Southern Strategy?” What was his “secret plan” to end the conflict in Vietnam which by 1968 had become America’s longest war? Read about Spiro Agnew, Henry Kissinger, the Nixon Doctrine, détente, and the Christmas bombing. Not many men have had as complicated a psyche as Ricahrd Nixon. Find out what made him tick. And then explain it to us! Religion The October cover of Time magazine asked the question, “Is God Dead?” The debate over the role of religion in American society was conducted on the pages of magazines, in the churches, on the streets, and in the courts. The National Council of Churches approved the use of birth control, Pope Paul VI came to New York, Tennessee repealed the “Monkey Law,” and the world heard the first verses of Genesis read by the crew of Apollo 8 as it circled the moon. Read about Vatican II, Black Muslims, Engle vs. Vitale, Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, and religion’s most controversial challenger, Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Science and Technology In 1960 Smell-O-Vision was created for movie theaters. The idea was to release odors to coincide with events on the screen. Plastic see-through models called the Visible Man and Visible Woman became 1963’s controversial educational toys. In 1968, Lake Erie is declared “dead” from the effects of pollution. Okay…so these aren’t exactly great moments in science. Try these instead. The laser, the silicon chip, cracking the DNA code, creating the word processor, videodisc recorder, and instamatic camera, building a Braille typewriter and an atomic clock. Want more? How about proof of seafloor spreading, the theory of plate tectonics, or an air force study of UFO’s? Hit the lab, and fire up the Bunsen burners! Space “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.” Richard Nixon was prepared to deliver these words to the American people in the event that the first moon landing failed and the two astronauts aboard the Lunar Module had to be abandoned to certain death. Instead, America celebrated an achievement unparalleled in the history of mankind. From the moment in 1961 that President Kennedy challenged America to make space exploration a national goal, the nation and the world were fascinated by the efforts of NASA to beat the Russians to the moon. From satellites, to Apollo 11, from Alan Shepard to Neil Armstrong, find out what made space…the final frontier. “To the moon, Alice!” Sports Television created a huge audience for sports in the sixties. Pro football franchises went from 12 to 26 and baseball from 16 to 24 clubs. As the profits rolled in, salaries went up--gone were the days of the 1950’s when a pro might earn $10,000 per year. College athletes were getting $100,000 signing bonuses. Pitcher Whitey Ford joked that ball players paid more attention to the Wall Street Journal than to the sports pages. Maybe salaries were high, but sports stars seemed larger than life too. Muhammad Ali, “Broadway” Joe Namath, Sandy Koufax, Bill Russell, Wilma Rudolph, Bobby Hull, Bob Beamon, Peggy Fleming, and Coach Vince Lombard, were just a few of the icons of the 1960’s. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Supreme Court In 1963 Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was asked to take on a sad duty; chairing the commission charged with investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission’s conclusion that there was only one assassin started more discussions about the President’s death than it settled. However, Earl Warren was no stranger to controversy even then. “The times they are A-changing,” sang Bob Dylan, and many of those changes came as the result of decisions handed down by the Warren Court in the sixties. The Supreme Court issued rulings on illegal searches, school prayer, the right to an attorney, discrimination, right to privacy, rights during an arrest, the rights of juveniles in court, and free expression for public school students. For the next three decades the Court would be criticized for practicing “judicial activism” (Impeach Earl Warren billboards sprang up in the South), but the times had indeed changed across America’s judicial landscape. Television “I invite you to sit down in front of your television sets…and stay there. You will see a vast wasteland—a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families…blood and thunder…mayhem, violence, sadism, murder…and, endlessly, commercials—many screaming, cajoling, and offending.” So said FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow in 1961. Gee, I’m glad T.V. is so different now. But as any viewer of Nick at Nite or TVLand can tell you, that wasteland was inhabited by some classic characters…Morticia Addams, Batman, Agent Maxwell Smart, the Mod Squad, Jed Clampett, Barney Fife, Fred Flintstone, Hoss Cartwright, and Commander James T. Kirk. All I can say is, Punk’d has nothing on Candid Camera and the “heir heads” of A Simple Life are poor substitutes for Eva Gabor in Green Acres. Adjust those rabbit-ears and tune in those three channels (in black and white no less)…cause “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” Theater/Broadway Edward Albee, Neil Simon, Robert Bolt, Arthur Miller, Jerome Robbins, LeRoi Jones, and Terence McNally were just some of the impresarios of the 1960’s. American theater played with social realism and experimentation, as well as what some critics called the Theater of the Absurd. For those of us who didn’t want our entertainment to be more serious than our lives, there were always musicals: Camelot, Bye Bye Birdie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hello Dolly, and the first “tribal love-rock musical,” Hair--a play that may have owed some of its success to the brief nude scene involving the entire cast. Break a leg! Transportation The year 2003 saw the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic flight. During the sixties the big news included Jumbo Jets, new airport terminals, the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, and supersonic passenger planes. 1967 was statistically the safest year ever for the world’s airlines. On the ground the word from the nation’s railroads was consolidation. From 1962 to1968, a frenzy of mergers created new rail companies like Penn Central, Southern, and Norfolk and Western. San Francisco began construction on BART, a rapid transit line for commuters. The big news, of course, remained the automobile. In 1965 Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed, pointed out what some folks had already discovered the hard way…some cars were unsafe. By 1966, 1000 Americans a week lost their lives on the nation’s highways. For years Detroit had maintained that “safety doesn’t sell.” Now, new federal laws made it a priority. President Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act in 1966. The Department of Transportation was also created in 1966 after 17 years of recommendations. The idea was to untangle, coordinate, and build a national transportation system worthy of America. This will give you something to think about the next time you are stuck in traffic. Vietnam 1960-1964 It was the longest and most unpopular conflict in America’s history. Americans had been in Vietnam as military advisors since 1950--about 650 per year. This would change in 1962 when President Kennedy increased them to 12,000. From that moment on, the U.S. was drawn deeper and deeper into a policy to protect a nation that President Johnson privately said was not “worth fighting for.” When the Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed (with only two dissenting votes) the President had the functional equivalent of a declaration of war. Explore the reasons for U.S. escalation of the war, the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign, the U.S.-backed coup that ended in the murder of South Vietnam’s President, and the entry of the first U.S. combat troops in Vietnam. Vietnam 1966-1969 U.S. troop strength reached 400,000 in 1966, 475,000 in 1967, and 500,000 in 1968. Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in 1968 but not before the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive—a fight ultimately won by the U.S. but perceived at home as a sign that the war was unwinable. Compare the tactics and strategies of General Westmoreland and his successor, General Abrams. Uncover the secret bombing campaign and the tragedy of the MyLai massacre. Women The Feminine Mystique, the 1961 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, the Equal Rights Amendment, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the National Organization for Women, bra burning, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, the Pill, the “autonomous girl,” protestors outside the 1968 Miss America Pageant, and the fight to end discrimination against women in the workplace—often characterized as “Jane Crow.” “Sisters are doin it for themselves!” Return to The Task main page. Back to the top.