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- Unit 1: Progressive Era and WWI
- Unit 2: The Roaring Twenties
- Unit 3: The Great Depression
- Unit 4: World War II
- Unit 5: Cold War and the 50s
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Unit 6: Kennedy, Johnson and Vietnam War
- Unit 7: An Era of Protest
- Unit 8: Policies of the 70s and 80s
- Unit 9: 1990s
- Unit 10: Contemporary Issues
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Section 1: Kennedy and Johnson Years
In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation, warned Americans against the increasing power of the "military industrial complex," a power that he helped to create.Incoming President Kennedy and his administration did not fully heed this warning, just as Eisenhower did by furthering the power of the "military industrial complex" during his own administration. Kennedy, like his predecessors, bought into and embraced the Cold War politics of fear and used it to justify further nuclear testing, the expansion of the military draft, and burgeoning military budgets. Kennedy insisted on the presence of a "missile gap" (which did not exist), like the authors of the Gaither Report we studied earlier. Thus, by the time Kennedy took office in January 1961, he was, in his own mind, fully prepared to engage the Russians in many of the same ways Truman and Eisenhower did. Perhaps this was entirely necessary.
Perhaps the first significant test of international wills for the Kennedy Administration was over the German capital of Berlin. Ever since the Berlin Crisis of 1948-49, the city was still under military occupation, with the Allies in the western part of the city and the Soviets in the eastern part, with the Allies allowed free access to the entire city. But significant social and economic problems arose during the 1950s in east Berlin and a political and diplomatic crisis was emerging, particularly with what Premier Khrushchev perceived to be an American attempt to place nuclear weapons in West Germany, a potential nightmare for the Soviets. By 1961, both sides were quite aware that any misstep in this diplomatic crisis could lead to nuclear war.
Upon his assassination in 1963, Johnson was left with the early stages of the Vietnam war, and civil rights battles on the home front.
Perhaps the first significant test of international wills for the Kennedy Administration was over the German capital of Berlin. Ever since the Berlin Crisis of 1948-49, the city was still under military occupation, with the Allies in the western part of the city and the Soviets in the eastern part, with the Allies allowed free access to the entire city. But significant social and economic problems arose during the 1950s in east Berlin and a political and diplomatic crisis was emerging, particularly with what Premier Khrushchev perceived to be an American attempt to place nuclear weapons in West Germany, a potential nightmare for the Soviets. By 1961, both sides were quite aware that any misstep in this diplomatic crisis could lead to nuclear war.
Upon his assassination in 1963, Johnson was left with the early stages of the Vietnam war, and civil rights battles on the home front.