Article Cycle Four - FINAL
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Dec 6, 2023
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Uploaded by JudgeBaboon2638
Stephen Kramer
Professor Mellinger Contemporary American History
10/22/2021
Article Cycle Four
President John F. Kennedy discussed his domestic agenda, which he called a “New Frontier for America” in his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination on July 15
th
, 1960,
in Los Angeles, California. President Kennedy stated that “The New Frontier is here”, where the possibilities of progression for the country were endless (
Kennedy, 1960
). Instead of branding “The New Frontier” as a list of what the United States government was going to do, rather a set of challenges for the American public (
https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6739
).
After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lydon B. Johnson took over presidency and during his Commencement Speech at the University of Michigan, President Johnson discussed his own domestic agenda which his called “The Great Society”, and in his plan he outlined the need to follow in Kennedy’s progressive political footsteps. The main concerns of Johnson’s domestic agenda were focused on providing aid to underprivileged Americans, the regulation of natural resources, and protecting the American consumer (
Germany, 2020
).
In 1959, the revolutionary army backed by Fidel Castro would commence a new era of
Cuban history after overthrowing the corrupt Cuban president Fulgencio Batista. President
Eisenhower and his administration were suspicious of Castro, as he began to implement leftist
economic policies revolve around agrarian restructuring, land redistribution, and the
nationalization of private organizations. By 1960 the United States enacted a near-total trade embargo, in order to economically
detach the Cuban regime, and in 1961 President Kennedy and his administration had broken off
formal relations with Cuba. The CIA operating under the false pretense that the Castro’s regime
lacked the popular support, with Cuban citizens revolting against him if presented the
opportunity, began to recruit banished Cuban nationals to take part in an invasion of the island as
President Kennedy gave the green light which would later be referred to as the Bay of Pigs. The
attempted coup to overflow Castro failed, as Cuban soldiers and citizens overpowered the exiles
(
Locke & Wright, 2021
).
After President Kennedy spoke with Soviet premier Khrushchev in 1961, relations
between the US and Soviet Union were furthered strained as Khrushchev revived the threat to
solve the long-standing problem in Berlin, President Kennedy would be forced to restore his
plans to respond to maneuvers with every possible resource available to the United States,
including nuclear weapons. Just two months after the meeting with Kennedy and Khrushchev did
the Soviets join arms with the East Germans to construct the Berlin Wall.
Another foreign policy crisis that Kennedy was obliged to face was the Cuban Missile
Crisis, where Khrushchev and the Soviets ordered a secret-deployment of nuclear missiles that
had the capability of reaching the United States within minutes. After consulting with his top
advisors over a number of days, Kennedy decided to implement the blockade of Cuba and the
threat of a full invasion if the Soviets and Cuba did not comply. After some back and forth
between the Soviets and the Kennedy administration to come to an agreement, but eventually
Khrushchev would back out of Cuba and President Kennedy promised to remove the nukes
aimed in the direction of Russia in Turkey (
Selverstone, 2020
).
President Johnson’s major domestic policy which he referred as the “Great Society” in his commencement speech in 1964, as stated above focused mainly on providing aid to disadvantaged Americans, but his agenda also addressed the inequalities in education, allocating aid to provide remedial services for impoverished districts which no other president at the time was able to do due to disagreement regarding aid that was given to Catholic schools. On July 30
th
, 1965, Johnson signed into law, a bill that established the Medicare and Medicaid programs (
Germany, 2020
), these programs continue to protect the health of Americans today in 2021.
The general argument that Henry Thoreau made in a speech given in 1849, that would later be known as “Civil Disobedience” was to advocate the need to focus on the individual’s conscience over imposed laws, as well as pointing out the injustices in American policies and institutions regarding slavery and the Mexican-American War (
https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/excerpt-from-civil-disobedience
). In Martin Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail in 1963, King states that he was
brought to Birmingham because of the injustices, that “injustices anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Dr. King explains that process of civil disobedience in his letter, stating “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: (1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive. (2) Negotiation. (3) Self-purification and (4) Direct Action (
King, 1963
). The importance of non-violent civil disobedience is how violence is removed from the equation, peaceful demonstrations can solidify an individual’s argument rather than forcing it down someone’s throat” (
King, 1963
).
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(
http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf
) Martin Luther King preached “The Drum Major Instinct” sermon on February 4
th
, 1968 in
Atlanta, Georgia urging the congregation of the Ebenezer Baptist Church to pursue greatness, but
only as a result of service and love. Dr. King stated that humanity harbored the want and need to lead, which could be used to support justice through the acts of service and love (
King, 1968
, http://bethlehemfarm.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/DrumMajorInstinct.pdf
, & (
https://theaterofwar.com/projects/the-drum-major-instinct
).
The goals and/or aims of the Black Power and Black Nationalist movements conflicted with MLK’s civil right movement as leaders like Malcom X encouraged African Americans to pursue freedom, justice, and equality “by any means necessary”, promoting armed resistance to protect their safety and well-being (
Locke & Wright, 2021
). I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s non-violent civil disobedience approach to the injustices that were occurring in America during this time period was the most effective, because the resistant that was provoked by the Black Panthers, Black Power and Black Nationalist movements were only met with violence if not more forceful violence by police. Imagining myself as an individual involved in the Vietnam War, being a white male at the
age where I would be required to register for the draft. The stake in Vietnam at the time was the threat of Communism from the Soviet Union, and usually if one country fell to the grips of Communism, soon after the surrounding countries would follow. If I’m considering myself as this character, I would not have burned my draft card because I despite the anti-war efforts I would have felt obligated to serve in my countries Armed Forces. In the perspective of a white male preparing for war, I believe I would view the cause of the Vietnam War to be the spread of Communism throughout the western hemisphere. Through the eyes of a soldier fighting against
“guerilla warfare”, the unorthodox fighting style of the Viet Cong. It does not seem that America is winning the War in Vietnam if you consider the mass amounts of causalities. I think the biggest fears related to the Vietnam War as a soldier would be dying in combat and Communism coming to the United States. I can also see some of the views of the far-left American politics aligning with the views of Communism, I would think that as a veteran returning home after risking his life would find this the most distasteful about those who oppose my views (
Locke & Wright, 2021
).
Sources
Address Accepting the Democratic Nomination for President at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California
. | The American Presidency Project. (1960, July 15). Retrieved October
30, 2021, from https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-accepting-the-
democratic-nomination-for-president-the-memorial-coliseum-los. Germany, K., (2020, June 16). Lyndon B. Johnson: Domestic affairs
. Miller Center. Retrieved October 30, 2021, from https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/domestic-affairs. King, M. L. (1968, February 4). The Drum Major Instinct
. Theater of War. Retrieved October 30,
2021, from https://theaterofwar.com/projects/the-drum-major-instinct. King, M. L. (1968, February 4). Drum Major Instinct
. Retrieved October 30, 2021, from http://bethlehemfarm.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/DrumMajorInstinct.pdf. Locke, J. L., & Wright, B. (2019). The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook
. Stanford University Press. Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and The Legacy of Redlining
. History Engine 3.0. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2021, from https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6739. Selverstone, M. J., Marc J. Selverstone (2020, May 27). John F. Kennedy: Foreign Affairs
. Miller Center. Retrieved October 30, 2021, from https://millercenter.org/president/kennedy/foreign-affairs. I could not access the source provided on D2L regarding T
he Drum Major Instinct
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