by The New Big Book of U S Presidents (2020) (retail) (epub)
July 17, 1955
Disneyland, a 244-acre amusement park, opens in Anaheim, California.
December 1955
Rosa Parks starts a bus boycott in Montgomery, AL. among the city’s African Americans.
May 22, 1959
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American major general.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Democrat, 1961–1963
The youngest man (and the first Catholic) ever elected president, John F. Kennedy appealed to the idealism of a new generation of Americans. In office for only 1,000 days, he aggressively fought the Cold War abroad and racial injustice at home.
Born into a wealthy and politically active Boston family, John Kennedy possessed a bright mind, robust personality, and movie-star charisma. Returning from World War II a hero, he served in Congress for 14 years. In the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy faced the Republican nominee, Vice President Richard Nixon, in four nationally televised debates. Both men spoke well, but Kennedy looked healthy and confident while Nixon looked pale and uncomfortable. When Kennedy won a very close election in 1960, many believed it was because of his performance in the debates.
As president, Kennedy promised to get America moving again with a pragmatic and vigorous program he called the “New Frontier.” At home, he took action on poverty and civil rights. Twice, for example, Kennedy sent troops to the South to protect the rights of African-American college students. He also vowed that the United States would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and he funded a $5 billion space program to achieve this goal.
Abroad, Kennedy challenged Americans to continue vigorously fighting the Cold War. He created the Peace Corps, an agency that trained American volunteers to perform humanitarian service overseas. He also supported military measures such as the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961. The next year, Kennedy faced a much more serious confrontation with Cuba when U.S. spy planes spotted Soviet nuclear missiles on the island. While the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy used a combination of strength and diplomacy to peacefully resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the same time, however, he increased American involvement in Vietnam.
On November 22, 1963, while riding in an open car in Dallas, Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. For millions of shocked Americans, his death symbolized the end of an era of hope and promise.
Born: May 29, 1917
Died: November 22, 1963
Birthplace: Brookline, MA
V.P.: Lyndon B. Johnson
First Lady: Jacqueline Lee Bouvier
• Favorite meal was tomato soup with sour cream
• Appointed his brother Robert attorney general
Civil Rights
During the early 1960s, the grassroots civil rights movement surged ahead in its struggle for African-American equality. In early February 1960, the “sit-in” movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina. In May 1961, a group of “freedom riders” headed for the South on buses to protest segregation. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of 250,000 people during the March on Washington. For the remainder of the decade, thousands of other activists shared and promoted King’s dream.
Berlin Wall
In August 1961, in an effort to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West, the Soviet-backed government of East Germany built a wall dividing East Berlin from West Berlin. The Berlin Wall remained a powerful symbol of the Cold War until it was torn down in 1989.
1963
1960
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) forms to register African-American voters in the South.
April 1961
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth.
1963
Bob Dylan records “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
1963
Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, launching a new phase of the women’s movement.
1963
Martin Luther King, Jr., writes “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Democrat, 1963–1969
As president, Lyndon Johnson displayed a genuine concern for the welfare of the disadvantaged and was committed to the cause of civil rights. However, the war in Vietnam ultimately dominated Johnson’s presidency. By 1968, the war had eroded the public’s faith and confidence in its government and had divided the nation to an extent unparalleled since the Civil War.
A self-made man, Lyndon Johnson worked his way up from a hardscrabble, rural Texas background to become one of the most powerful men in Washington. After serving six terms in the House, he was elected to the Senate in 1948, where he served nearly a decade as the Democratic leader. In 1960, although he wanted the nomination, he agreed to be Kennedy’s running mate. Sworn in as president amid the national grief surrounding Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson pledged to carry on his predecessor’s policies as well as initiate his own Great Society program.
Johnson used the momentum provided by his 1964 election victory to flood Congress with legislation to achieve economic and social justice. He moved vigorously to pass another landmark piece of civil rights legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. By the end of the year, more than 250,000 African Americans were newly registered to vote. Overall, Johnson’s Great Society was one of the most extensive reform programs in American history.
Beginning in 1964, Johnson escalated the American role in Vietnam. By 1967, some half a million U.S. troops were engaged in combat. Despite the increased American effort (including the destructive bombing of North Vietnam), the United States could not achieve a military victory. Many Americans began to join the growing anti-war movement and Johnson’s popularity declined. On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced that he would not seek another term as president. Johnson retired to Texas to write his memoirs before his death in 1973.
Vietnam
The Vietnam War was the longest, most controversial, and least successful war in U.S. history. Unlike conventional conflicts, the war in Vietnam was largely a guerrilla war—it had no defined front lines. Opposition to the war began on American college campuses in 1965. By 1967, anti-war demonstrations in New York and at the Pentagon attracted massive support.
Born: August 27, 1908
Died: January 22, 1973
Birthplace: Stonewall, TX
V.P.: Hubert H. Humphrey
First Lady: Claudia Alta (Lady Bird) Taylor
• Obsessively watched the evening news on multiple televisions
• Enjoyed high-speed drives around his Texas ranch
Black Power
In the midst of its legislative success during the mid-1960s, the civil rights movement began to fragment. The separatist and militant philosophy of “black power,” advocated by black leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, challenged Martin Luther King’s program of nonviolent protest.
1963
August 1964
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizes Johnson to escalate American involvement in Vietnam.
August 11–16, 1965
Watts, a predominantly poor black community in Los Angeles, explodes in riots and looting.
January 30, 1968
The North Vietnamese Army and its allies in the South launch the Tet Offensive, a massive surprise attack on cities in South Vietnam.
April 4, 1968
James Earl Ray assassinates Martin Luther King, Jr.
RICHARD M. NIXON
Republican, 1969–1974
Richard Nixon faced an America troubled by urban violence and deeply divided by the Vietnam War. Ultimately, Nixon’s actions and personality served to heighten rather than reduce the tensions in American society.
Born in suburban Los Angeles, Nixon grew up in a working-class Quaker family. In 1946, having completed law school and a wartime stint in the navy, Nixon jumped into the political arena. As a congressman and a senator, he rapidly rose th
rough the Republican ranks by manipulating and feeding anti-communist hysteria. He served two terms as Eisenhower’s vice president but lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy. In the 1968 contest, Nixon eked out a narrow victory, promising an honorable peace in Vietnam and harmony at home.
Despite Nixon’s campaign pledge, the American withdrawal from Vietnam was slow and not very honorable. Faced with daily and increasingly violent anti-war demonstrations, Nixon gradually reduced the number of American combat troops. At the same time, he expanded the intensity and scope of the bombing campaign. By the time a settlement was finally reached in 1973, another 20,000 Americans had died and countless more Southeast Asians had been killed or wounded. Nixon, working with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, was more successful in other areas of foreign policy. For example, he fundamentally shifted the pattern of the Cold War by pursuing détente, a policy of improved relations with China and the Soviet Union.
Nixon easily won re-election in 1972, but the Watergate crisis soon destroyed his presidency. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration’s involvement in and cover-up of a burglary at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate apartment complex. Watergate was a serious constitutional crisis and part of a larger pattern of criminal behavior sanctioned by the Nixon White House. Faced with certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office in August 1974, the only president ever to do so. In retirement, Nixon wrote and traveled widely and gradually regained some public respect, especially as a foreign policy expert.
Roe v. Wade
During the late 1960s, abortion became a controversial political issue. In 1973, the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, ruled that women had a legal right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. “Pro-life” forces widely criticized the decision and have worked vigorously since then to overturn it. “Pro-choice” advocates, in contrast, praised it and have fought just as vigorously for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Today, the issue of abortion continues to provoke heated debate.
Born: January 9, 1913
Died: April 22, 1994
Birthplace: Yorba Linda, CA
V.P.: Spiro T. Agnew, Gerald R. Ford
First Lady: Thelma Catherine (Pat) Ryan
• The first president to have visited all fifty states
• Suffered from insomnia during his presidency
Woodstock
One of the most memorable events of the 1960s was the Woodstock Music Festival, held in upstate New York in August 1969. Some 500,000 young people showed up to listen to Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, and many other performers. For three days the crowd reveled in good music, cheap drugs, and free love. Woodstock’s good vibes were short-lived, however. When promoters tried to repeat the scene four months later at Altamont, California, violence ensued and four spectators were killed.
1974
July 21, 1969
Astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon.
May 1972
The United States and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear arms control agreement known as SALT.
GERALD R. FORD
Republican, 1974–1977
Known for his warmth and integrity, Gerald Ford reassured a nation weary of political scandal. He inherited an economy suffering from inflated prices and high unemployment but worked diligently to restore prosperity.
Born with the name Leslie Lynch King, Jr., Ford took the name of his stepfather when his mother remarried in 1916. A strapping lad, Ford attended the University of Michigan and became a star football player. After graduating in 1935, Ford attended Yale Law School while coaching the university’s football team. During World War II, he joined the navy, serving in the South Pacific and rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. When the war ended, Ford practiced law in Michigan before winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1948. He served in the House for 25 years, acting as the Republican party’s minority leader between 1965 and 1973. He then became vice president after his predecessor, Spiro T. Agnew, resigned in disgrace, and became president after the Watergate scandal forced Richard Nixon from office.
As president, Ford issued Nixon a full pardon, making it impossible to prosecute the former president. Although Ford hoped pardoning Nixon would allow the country to heal itself, the American people continued to distrust their government. Ford’s efforts to revive the nation’s slumping economy also failed to inspire the people.
Ford also faced a number of challenges abroad. Hoping to secure peace in the Middle East, Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger helped settle the Israeli-Arab War of 1973. In addition, when the government of South Vietnam began collapsing in April 1975, Ford supervised the final evacuation of Americans from the region. Less than one month later, Ford ordered the rescue of the Mayaguez, a U.S. cargo ship that Cambodia’s government had captured.
Before Ford lost a hotly contested election to Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976, his honesty helped restore confidence in the American political system. He remains the only man to serve as vice president and president without being elected to either office.
Born: July 14, 1913
Died: December 26, 2006
Birthplace: Omaha, NE
V.P.: Nelson A. Rockefeller
First Lady: Elizabeth Anne (Betty) Bloomer Warren
• Teased by comedians because of his famous clumsiness
• Had the Marine Corps Band play the University of Michigan fight song instead of Hail to the Chief
Human Rights
During the first half of the 1970s, leaders of both the Soviet Union and the United States worked to improve relations between their countries. One outgrowth of this effort was the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, an agreement that bound the United States, the Soviet Union, and European nations to respect human rights. This agreement made it easier for discontented groups inside these nations to criticize their governments without fearing punishment. In fact, the Final Act nurtured a generation of reformers inside the Soviet empire who helped end the Cold War and ensured the collapse of the Soviet Union itself.
Gloria Steinem (1934–)
A gifted writer capable of reaching a large audience, Gloria Steinem became a leading feminist during the 1970s. She entered the working world as a journalist, writing for such magazines as Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. Later, her articles for New York Magazine brought a woman’s view of the American political process to public attention. In 1971, Steinem worked with fellow feminists Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Shirley Chisolm to form the National Women’s Political Caucus and, later that year, helped produce the first issue of Ms., a feminist magazine. Consistently arguing that women should have equal employment and educational opportunities, Steinem made sure women had a greater voice in American politics.
1974
September 8, 1974
President Ford pardons Richard Nixon for Watergate.
1974
Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s homerun record.
July 17, 1975
American and Soviet spacecraft link, reinforcing the policy of détente.
1975
International Women’s Year is observed around the world.
July 4, 1976
America celebrates its bicentennial.
JAMES E. CARTER
Democrat, 1977–1981
Jimmy Carter planned to make the government more efficient and compassionate. A vocal champion of human rights during his time in office, he has continued to fight for the disadvantaged as a private citizen.
Carter grew up on his family’s Georgia peanut farm before attending the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating with high marks in 1946, Carter served in the navy for 7 years. He then returned to the peanut farming business before becoming a Georgia state senator in 1963 and governor of the state in 1970. As governor, Carter stressed the importance of ecological conservation and governmental efficiency.
In 1976, Carter won the Democratic party’s nomi
nation for president and narrowly defeated Gerald Ford in the general election. As president, Carter reformed the civil service, expanded the national park system, and created the Department of Education. He also pardoned nearly 10,000 Americans guilty of evading the draft during the Vietnam War. Carter, however, did not establish good relations with Congress and, as a result, could not cope with the nation’s energy crisis.
Carter’s greatest successes came in 1978, when he helped Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian leader Anwar al-Sadat end a long-standing state of war between their two nations. Carter also negotiated a nuclear arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union, but the U.S. Senate did not ratify the agreement because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. That same year Carter faced an even greater problem when revolutionary Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took sixty-six hostages. Although Carter worked hard to secure their release, the hostages remained in Iran for fourteen months, going free on Carter’s last day in office.
Carter’s inability to work with Congress or free the hostages hurt his popularity, and he lost his bid for reelection in 1980. However, he has had global influence as a private citizen. In 1982, Carter founded the Carter Center, which is dedicated to monitoring elections overseas and mediating conflicts in many of the world’s trouble spots. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world.
The Hostage Crisis
When Muslim revolutionaries took control of Iran in 1978, Iranian-American relations suffered. Determined to show their contempt for the United States, 500 Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy on November 4, 1979 and captured 66 Americans. Although the U.S. government negotiated on behalf of the hostages, the Iranian government refused to relinquish their American captives. When a military rescue attempt failed on April 24, 1980, frustrated Americans decorated their homes with yellow ribbons to honor the hostages. On January 20, 1981, Iran finally agreed to release the hostages after holding them for 444 days.
