A look at the political history of the USA spanning the decade of the 1960s. This covers events such as the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race as well as the Cold War.

1. The 60s in Pictures:A Turbulent Decade in American History Visit: www.mrmcgowan.blogspot.com

2. 1960 President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon during prosperous times for America

3. 1960 WW2 War hero Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second term as President is coming to an end. His Vice President Richard Nixon is expected to become the 35th President. Civil rights are a major issue across America and mainly in the Southern states. The US is involved in a Cold War which costs billions keeping up in the arms race and the space race. The US is involved in containing communism, particularly in Vietnam formerly French Indochina Cuba has recently had a communist revolution bringing Fidel Castro to power.

4. February 1960 Winter Olympics Vice President Nixon opens the VIII Winter Olympiad at Squaw Valley, California. The USA win 3 golds. The USSR top the medal table with 7 golds.

5. John Fitzgerald Kennedy

6. John F. Kennedy Son of controversial Joe Kennedy, a wealthy businessman and disgraced former US Ambassador to Britain, Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts runs for the Democratic nomination for President, which he wins. Kennedy is handicapped by being a Catholic and the potentially the youngest ever President. He trades on his youthfulness and his record as a war hero in his own right. He is aided by his glamorous lifestyle and his beautiful wife, Jacqueline. His running mate is the Texan Lyndon B. Johnson.

7. Nixon v Kennedy: TV Debates A series of TV debates take place for the first time in US history. Kennedy is judged to have won. Radio listeners believe Nixon was the winner.

8. 8 November 1960 Election Kennedy defeats Nixon in the Electoral College by 303 to 219 votes. The popular vote was very close. JFK’s 34,226,731 to Nixon’s 34,108,157 Above, The Kennedy Family celebrate

9. 1961 John. F Kennedy’s Inauguration “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

10. 1961 JFK’s team Ford CEO Robert S. McNamara is appointed Defense Secretary Veteran politician Lyndon Baines Johnson is Vice President

11. 1961 Robert F. Kennedy Attorney General Kennedy appoints younger brother Bobby as Attorney General

12. “Camelot” President Kennedy and his children Caroline and John Jr

13. 1 March 1961 Peace Corps JFK creates the Peace Corp, sending young American volunteers to developing countries

14. 12 February 1961 First Man in Space Cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the First Man in Space aboard Soviet rocket Vostok 1

15. 5 May 1961 First American in Space Commander Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space

16. May 1961 Kennedy’s Moon shot Speech “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth”

17. May 1961 LBJ visits Vietnam Vice President Johnson visits South Vietnam. Shortly after US ‘advisors’ begin to flood South East Asia

18. The First Lady Jackie Kennedy is revered as a style icon and her glamour wins many friends

19. April 1961 Bay of Pigs A failed invasion force of 5000 US backed Cuban exiles causes embarrassment for the White House. Castro remains in power.

20. June 1961 Vienna Summit Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev meets Kennedy. Khrushchev believes JFK to be weak and inexperienced

21. August 1961 Berlin Wall The Soviet backed East Germany erect the Berlin Wall dividing Berlin

22. 12 September 1962 Kennedy speech at Rice University “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” The Apollo Program was well and truly born.

23. September/October 1962 Two people die during University of Mississippi riots

24. October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis A US naval blockade around Cuba – who have installed Soviet missiles - almost brings the USA and the USSR to nuclear war.

25. November 1962 California Governor Race Former Vice President Richard Nixon loses the race for Governor of California to incumbent Pat Brown

26. June 1963 Black students admitted to University of Alabama

27. 26 June 1963 Berlin Wall address “Ichbeinein Berliner”

28. Robert Kennedy’s war on organised crime The Attorney General waged a war on mafia and organised crime. Convictions rose some 800% during his term in office.

29. 28 August 1963 “I Have A Dream” Dr Martin Luther King addresses 200,000 people in Washington DC

30. 2 November 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated South Vietnamese President Diem is overthrown and murdered in a coup d’etat. The US Government knew in advance of the plot but declined to intervene.

31. 22 November 1963 Nightmare on Elm Street President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas Texas

32. The President is rushed to hospital, but after suffering severe head wounds is given the Last Rites by a priest and then pronounced dead.

33. CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite breaks down announcing President Kennedy’s death “From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time. 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago”

34. 1963 - LBJ LBJ is sworn in as 36th President of the USA aboard Air Force One.

35. Lee Harvey Oswald Former US marine and Soviet defector, Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested on suspicion of being the assasin who fired the fateful shots from the Texas Book Depository

36. 24 November 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered live on TV by Jack Ruby. This event fuels conspiracy theories that exist to this day.

37. 1963 JFK Funeral John F. Kennedy Jr salutes his fathers funeral cortege

38. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961-63) President Kennedy’s grave in Arlington Cemetery, Washington DC

39. May 1964 LBJ delivers speech on his ‘Great Society’

40. 1964 LBJ signs Civil Rights Act President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act which ended racial segregation in schools and in the working environment.

41. Vietnam The Vietnam conflict was similar in set up to Korea. The communist controlled North versus the US backed South. Hanoi was the capital of the North Saigon was South Vietnam’s capital.

42. August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin USS Maddox is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnam

43. Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh helped free North Vietnam from French rule. Becomes President of North Vietnam in 1945 Leader of the Vietcong – the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam

44. 3 September 1964 RFK quits Robert Kennedy resigns as Attorney General, amid rumours of a feud with President Johnson.

45. October 1964 Khrushchev's Removal Soviet Leader Khrushchev is ousted by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin

46. 1964 Election LBJ defeats Barry Goldwater by 486 Electoral College votes to 52

47. 1964 New York Senate Race Robert Kennedy wins New York senate seat with backing from President Johnson

48. 1965 Vietnam Escalation At the end of 1965 180,000 US troops were in South Vietnam. At end of 1966 it was 350,000. By 1967 500,000 men were stationed in South East Asia.

49. February/March 1965 Aerial attack on South and North Vietnam begins

50. August 1965 Watts Riots A 6 day riot in LA costs 34 lives. The causes are attributed to discrimination against blacks

51. August 1965 LBJ signs Voting Rights Act President Johnson passes into law the Voting Rights Act which outlawed discriminatory voting practices designed to prevent blacks from voting

52. 2 November 1965 Quaker Norman Morrison sets fire to himself in protest against US involvement in Vietnam outside Robert McNamara’s offices

53. 13 January 1966 Robert C. Weaver becomes the first black cabinet member

54. 15 May 1966 Thousands of anti war protesters demonstrate in Washington DC

55. 1966 Muhammad Ali “I aint got no quarrel with the Vietcong” World Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali comes out against the Vietnam War

56. October 1966 LBJ visits Vietnam President Johnson visits US troops in South Vietnam attempting to boost morale

57. 8 November New Governor for California Former actor, Ronald Wilson Reagan wins the race for California Governor.

58. 27 January 1967 The crew of Apollo 1 are killed in a fire during a test.

59. 4 April 1967 In New York, Dr Martin Luther King denounces the war in Vietnam

60. 8 June 1967 USS Liberty attacked by friendly Israeli aircraft killing 34 sailors

61. June 20 1967 Muhammad Ali jailed Muhammad Ali is jailed for 5 years for refusing the draft

62. 23 July 1967 Detroit Race Riots 43 people killed in race riots. Other riots have and will occur in Minneapolis, Newark, Tampa and other cities

63. August 30 1967 Thurgood Marshall is appointed the first black Justice of the US Supreme Court

64. 31 January 1968 North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, a series of attacks across South Vietnam

65. 1 February 1968 Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for President

66. 16 March 1968 My-Lai Massacre 347 civilians murdered by US troops in Vietnam

67. 16 March 1968 New York senator Bobby Kennedy announces he will stand for the Democratic Party nomination

68. 31 March 1968 LBJ not to run again President Johnson decides to withdraw from the Presidential race

69. 4 April 1968 Dr Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis by James Earl Ray

70. 4 April 1968 Fearing mass riots, in Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy makes an impassioned plea for unity after Dr Martin Luther King’s death. Major riots break out, but not in Indianapolis.

71. 11 April 1968 LBJ signs Civil Rights Act The 1968 version made it illegal to decline to sell or rent housing to a person based on religion or ethnicity

72. May 1968 McNamara resigns Robert S. McNamara resigns as Secretary of Defense, a post he held since January 1961

73. 5 June 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by SirhanSirhan in the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles

74. 16 October 1968 At the Mexico Olympics, 2 black athletes who win gold and bronze in the 200 metres raise their fists in a Black Power salute

75. November 1968 Richard Milhous Nixon is elected to the Office of the President of the United States of America

76. December 1968 “Earthrise” Apollo 8 send back a famous image of Earth

77. May 1969 A teenager dies of a mystery illness in St Louis, Missouri. This is the first known case of HIV/Aids.

78. 28 June 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York begin the Gay Rights movement

79. 18 July 1969 Edward Kennedy, younger brother of JFK and RFK is involved in the Chappaquiddick incident in which a young woman dies

80. 20 July 1969 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon. It cost $24 billion.

81. August 1969 Woodstock Music Festival occurs in upstate New York

82. September 1969 North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh dies

83. 15 October 1969 Hundreds of thousands more protest against the Vietnam war

84. 3 November 1969 President Nixon asks for the ‘Silent Majority’ to support the war

85. The final Vietnam War US casualty list is as follows: DEAD 58,159 WOUNDED 303,635 MISSING 1,719

86. Epilogue

87. November 17 1970 14 men charged over My Lai massacre. Only 1 was finally convicted, Lt William Calley.

88. In August 1974 Richard Nixon resigned as President facing impeachment over the Watergate scandal

89. 29 March 1975 US troops finally leave Vietnam. After the fall of Saigon, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City

90. Fidel Castro remained President of Cuba until standing down in February 2008.