Wednesday May 1

[7th Becca]

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your can do for your country. JFK

ORDER OF THE COLD WAR PRESIDENTS starting with Truman.

Boston Marathon- I think everybody should read the meander rights. He did a horrible thing and I think he should have read the. Since he was an illegal citizen he should have as well.

Presidents:

Truman:

• from Missouri
• became VP in January, 1945
• took over after FDR died in April, 1945
• One of the most unpopular presidents of all time when he left office-22% approval rating
• Rating has improved greatly over the last 60 years
• President when WW2 ended in Germany and Japan
• Potsdam Conference/Declaration-(German consequences/Japan's surrender or else face destruction)
• Decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan
• Had to deal with transition from wartime economy to peaceful economy
• Helped organize and later join the United Nations
• Took a hard-line stance against communism and the Soviet Union-Policy of containment
• Desegregated the US military
• Truman doctrine and Marshall plan were passed
•  Created the CIA and the National Security Council

• The Fair Deal:

• Similar to FDR's new deal of the 1930's
• Aimed to promote economic development and social welfare
• Faced a lot of opposition from Southern Democrats and Republicans
• Most Fair Deal proposals did not get passed
• Civil Rights
• Housing
• Social Security
• Health
• Labor
• Education
• Agriculture

Truman:

• Recognized Israel as a home place for the Jewish people
• Berlin Aircraft
• NATO established
• Chinese Civil War ends
• McCarthyism
• The Korean Conflict and firing of General Douglas MacArthur

1948 Election:

• Truman(D) vs Thomas Dewey(R)
• Truman came from way behind to win
• Newspapers and polls all assumed Dewey would win easily
• First election that Truman won

Dwight Eisenhower:

• Famous WW2 General
• 34th
• 1953-1961
• Decided to join the Republican Party after WW2
• This all but guaranteed him a win in the 1952 election
• Richard Nixon was his VP
• Diagnosed with and had a while president
• Believed in laissez-faire
• Believed in balance budget

accomplishments:

• Dominated by the Cold War-Containment Policy
• Used CIA to do convert ops to disrupt communist governments abroad(Iran/Guatemala)
• Opened relations with Spain
• Ended the Korean Conflict as promised in his 1952 election campiagn
• Defensive alliances were signed with South Korea and Taiwan
• SEATO was formed
• Increased US involvement in Vietnam-US advisers meet
• Developed idea that nuclear weapons would be defensive weapons
• NASA created due to Soviet Sputnik launch
• US spy plane(U-2)was shot down over USSR
• Allowed McCarthy to do his thing but privately did not approve
• Eisenhower doctrine
• Deported around 1 million immigrants(Mexicans)
• Sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to help in desegregation of all public schools-1954-Brown case
• Helped pass the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which created the US' interstate Highways

JFK:

• 35th
• 1961-1963
• Served in WW2
• Was a US representative and Senator from Massachusetts before becoming President
• Married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier
• 1st and only catholic president
• Youngest elected president and second youngest president
• The reason why the US is afraid of having a catholic president is because they think that the pope will take over our country
• Assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald

1960 election:

• Ran against VP Richard Nixon
• 1st presidential debates took place
• Many say this helped JFK win the election
• JFK 303 electoral votes
• JFK only won the popular vote by .01%

accomplished:

• Cold War issues dominated Kennedy's presidency
• Berlin Wall was built in 1961
• Bay of Pigs invasion-1961
• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." JFK
• Cuban Missile crisis
• Alliance for Progress with Latin America
• Kennedy increased the # of helicopters, military advisers, and declared war.
• CIA helped with the new ba'ath party government overthrow communists in Iraq.
• This new party murdered large numbers of Iraq's educated people
• Saddam Hussein is said to have participated in this massacre
• big in getting into civil rights
• Nuclear test ban treaty was signed in 1963
• Established the peace corps in 1961
• Signed the Equal pay Act of 1963, a federal law aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex
• space race was very important to JFK

The New Frontier:

• promised federal funding for:
• 1. education
• 2. medical care for the ederly
• 3. economic aid to rural regions and
• 4. government intervention to halt the recession
• 5. end racial discrimination

Lyndon Johnson:

• 36th
• 1963-1969
• JFK's VP
• Took over as president after JFK was assassinated
• only won 1 election
• served only 1 1/2 terms

accomplishments:

• Put together the Warren Commission to investigate the JFK assassination
• Passed Civil Rights Act 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation
• Passed voting rights act (1965) which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing million of southern blacks to vote for the 1st time
• Started affirmative action laws
• Passed immigration act 1965 which allowed more non European people to immigrate to the US immigration which mire than doubled between 1965-1970

The Great Society:

• John's plan to:
• aid education
• attack disease
• medicare and medicad
• urban renewal
• beatification, conservation, development of depressed regions
• war on poverty
• control and prevention of crime
• removal of obstacles to the right to vote

ACTS

• Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965--For the first time, large amounts of federal money went to public schools and the focus was poor schools.
• Higher Education Act of 1965, which focused on funding lower income students, including grants, work-study money, and government loans.
• Set up the National Endowment for the Arts
• Economic Opportunity Act helped head start, food stamps, work study, medicare and medicad.
• Gun Control Act of 1968 regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners. Passed in response to the assassinations of JFK, RFK (Robert Kennedy), and MLK, (Martin Lutheran King.)

Johnson and Vietnam

• The Vietnam Conflict dominated much of Johnson's presidency.
• Believed in Domino Theory.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)- Congress gave Johnson power to wage war in Vietnam as he saw fit.
• Johnson could have ran for election again but turn it down.

Richard Nixon

• Vice president of Eisenhower.
• Lost the 1960 election to JFK
• The only person to be elected twice to both the Presidency and Vice Presidency.
•  Only president to resign from office.
• Vietnam Conflict dominated much of his presidency- war became very unpopular.
• Promised to end the war- "Peace with honor."
• Expanded the war to Cambodia and Laos-bombing Ho Chi Minh Trail.
• Started pulling troops out of Vietnam as promised.
• The Nixon Doctrine- "Victimization" of the war.
• Paris Peace Accords Signed in 1973 stopped the fighting and got the US out of war.
• Abortion was legalized during Nixon's presidency.
• US astronauts landed on the moon- 1969.
• Nixon approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program.
• In 1972, President Nixon traveled to China where the president was to have direct talks with Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai.
• This eased relations with the US and China and China not Taiwan was recognized as the official China.
• Nixon went to Moscow in 1972.
• SALT I was signed, limiting nuclear weapons.
• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles.
• This led to a new era of a peaceful co-existence and detente with the USSR.

Environmental Decade

• National Environmental Policy Act.
• Clean Air Act of 1970.
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
• Established many government agencies.
• 1. Environmental Protection Agency.
• 2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
• War on drugs-1971.
• Supplemental Security Income-- provides money to low income people who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled.
• Saw large scale integration of schools in the south.
• Supported
• Affirmative action.
• Signed Title IX (1972) prohibiting gender discrimination in all federally funded schools.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Act- Enforces laws against workplace discrimination based on an individuals race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence and disability.

Supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War 1973 where Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria.

This supported of Israel led to the 1973 oil crisis where OPEC countries did not trade oil with the US as a result

Nixon lowered the maximum, US speed limit to 55 mph to conserve gasoline during the crisis.

Nixon took US completely off the gold standard.