Yaolee Chen

HIS 359 Class Discussion

John F Kennedy & Lyndon B. Johnson

Robert McCoy

 

1.The reality of the Kennedy administration was often at odds with the image of Camelot.  The Age of Enlightenment in French, for example, Louis XV opened the courts to listen to what the people of the working class had to say about their disobedience to the policemen in 1750.  And a little later than 1750, in order to collect the national revenue from the peasants, the Moupeou parliament granted the lands to the memorial lords.  From the history of the 18th century enlightenment in French, though was not a good example, showed that a government should at least open an ear to hear and change the laws to stop the revolts.  John F Kennedy, on the other hand, played a role as the philosoph`e which enflamed the atmospheres of the revolts, and he also played a role like the Ecyclepedia in the French society of the 18th century that he granted the rights of the blacks to be equal to the whites.  Kennedy encouraged the young generation to pay any price for the liberation of  the black civil rights movement; and at the same time, a pro-hostile feeling from the southern whites, the congress passed Kennedy no federal protection for the blacks.  Some black young men had to shed their own blood while others were killed without the apologizing from the local government.

And on his foreign policy, like the French parliament in the early 18th century, the France caused the unnecessary wars with Russia and British, which cost the money from the poor; John F Kennedy invaded Cuba and created the missile crisis in 1963.  In the process, the “space” development cost the American money, and his burning desire of sugar led the US into the blinks of war with the Soviet Union.  Fortunately, Khrushchev let the US withdrew from Cuba, and the Soviet Union withdrew from Moscow in respond.  The war did not break out, but his intention caused the uneasy to the American people.  His administration was odd because, as Catherin criticized the French Revolution a brutish canebalism, Kennedy’s administration was worse than the French Revolution; by which administration, the blood of the innocent Americans were shed.

 

2. Kennedy set out his domestic program, known as the New Frontier: tax reform, federal aid to education, medical care for the aged under Social Security, enlargement of civil rights through executive action, aid to depressed areas, and an accelerated space program. He was almost immediately, however, caught up in foreign affairs crises. The first (Apr., 1961) was the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles trained and aided by the Central Intelligence Agency. Although the invasion had been planned under Eisenhower, Kennedy had approved it, and was widely criticized.

Many of Kennedy's domestic reform proposals were either killed or not acted on by Congress. In the area of civil rights and integration the administration assigned federal marshals to protect Freedom Ride demonstrations and used federal troops in Mississippi (1962) and a federalized National Guard in Alabama (1963) to quell disturbances resulting from enforced school desegregation. In June, 1963, Kennedy proposed civil-rights legislation, but this, like his tax reform program, languished until after his death.

 

3. The circumstances surrounded the assassination of President Kennedy was that, on Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Tex.  Kennedy thought it was impossible to be shot, and he did not wear the belt purposely, which would have prevented him from the assassination.  It was in Taxes where the southern withes hated him because he granted the equal rights to the blacks.  It was also a place where the blacks hated him because the domestic policy of the New Frontier was languished by the foreign policy and by the opposing from the congress.

 

4. My evaluation to Kennedy presidency was poor.  Not just his domestic policy had failed the blacks and the whites, his foreign policy had failed the American friends.  Already mentioned in the class about the missile crisis and the causes of  the Vietnam War, he also increased the bitterness in Iran.  Under his direction, the white revolution as an Iranian policy against the traditional culture of the Iranians that the Iranian government disallowed the women of Iran to dress their traditional clothing in the public places, and the government enforced “the white revolution” by its executive powers with the supports from the US.  Sovak (the Israeli policemen in Iran) killed whosoever disobeyed to the orders.  The dead bodies of the Iranian civilians were slain on the streets days without number.  I mean his putting a finger in others’ political policy embittered the people inside and outside of the American.  He had better left the Iranian reformation alone.

 

5. and 6. and  7. About the “War on Poverty”, Perhaps driven by Lyndon Johnson’s own humble beginnings, Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" as central to building the Great Society. In 1960, despite the prosperity of the times, almost one-quarter of all American families were living below the poverty line, and entire regions of the country, like central Appalachia, were bypassed by the economic growth of the postwar years. Moreover, technological advances in industry were also changing job requirements for American workers. The good-paying, unskilled jobs of the past were disappearing, and those without education and skills were being left behind.

The first piece of Great Society legislation, the Economic Opportunity Act 1964, tried to give people tools to get out of poverty. The bill created a Job Corps similar to the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps; a domestic peace corps; a system for vocational training; and Head Start, a pre-school program designed to prepare children for success in public school. The bill also funded community action programs and extended loans to small businessmen and farmers.

Johnson's landslide re-election victory over Republican opponent Barry Goldwater in 1964 added to the momentum of Great Society reforms. Over the next four years, Johnson enacted a flurry of legislation. One of the most ambitious efforts was the establishment of Medicare to provide health care for America's senior citizens.

In 1964, 44 percent of seniors had no health care coverage, and with the medical bills that come with older age, this propelled many seniors into poverty. In fact, more than one in three Americans over 65 were living below the poverty line -- more than double the rate of those under 65. Medicare was an important and big change in American health care -- it was called the "biggest management job since the invasion of Normandy" -- and it was up to John Gardner to make it work. He helped shepherd Medicare to reality, and the results have been extraordinary: virtually all seniors now have health care, and the poverty rate for the elderly has fallen to approximately one in ten -- a rate lower than that of the general population. Along with Medicare, the Johnson Administration established the Medicaid program to provide health care to the poor.

Others were like the equal educational opportunities to the poor while most of the poor was the blacks; many blacks became the social elites in the American societies after 1965.  And the other program of the War on Poverty was the urban development to end the poverty.  Lyndon Johnson through the legislative procedure completed the agenda of the Great Society. 

 "The Great Society" is an equal economic reformation by Lyndon John.  Many of the ideas were derived from the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the revision of Eisenhower’s economic policy, and John F Kennedy’s New Frontier.  It was to ended poverty, promoted equality, improved education, rejuvenated cities, and protected the environment. This became the blueprint for the most far-reaching agenda of domestic legislation since the New Deal.  In the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Crop, for example, federal fund paid to the young people who worked for the public projects and lived in the camp.  But the Great Society gave student loans directly to the poor young students.  The Great Society worked out less Communist-like and more Democratic-like.  Nevertheless, about the landscapes and the community programs, the government put a finger in the regulation unavoidably, which regulation ought to be the decision of the poor individuals itself.  The Great Society did not end the gaps between the rich and the poor.  The programs were critical.  And like the New Deal legislation, the Great Deal had a profound effect on American society.