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From Camelot to Watergate
Introduction
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John F. Kennedy's presidency found its defining moments in the global arena. Kennedy organized the Alliance for Progress, authorized the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuban, faced down Khrushchev in the Cuban missile crisis, and saw Khrushchev order construction of the Berlin Wall. Domestically, Kennedy did not deal effectively with Congress, which rejected his proposals for federal aid to education, urban renewal, a higher minimum wage, and medical care for the aged. After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson had more success with much the same agenda, which he expanded into his Great Society programs. Both Kennedy and Johnson, like Eisenhower before them, grappled with the civil-rights movement and the issues surrounding it; a major part of the Great Society comprised civil-rights legislation. Meanwhile, the United States became ever more deeply involved in Vietnam under Johnson, a move that was widely unpopular, divided Americans, and essentially led Johnson to decide not to run for reelection in 1968. The Democratic party was rent over the war issue and its national convention marred by violence; Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968 and considered his major challenge to be finding an acceptable, "honorable" resolution to the war. He pursued a policy of "Vietnamization," withdrawing American troops and turning the war over to the hapless South Vietnamese. However, revelations of American war atrocities and the president's decision to bomb Cambodia aroused even more antiwar feeling and protest demonstrations; students were killed at two colleges by National Guardsmen. Nixon in response increased the pace of withdrawal but escalated bombing of North Vietnam and ordered northern harbors mined. Although haunted by Vietnam, Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger pursued a more successful policy with regard to China and the Soviets. Called détente, or a relaxing of tensions, the policy treated each country individually rather than as part of a monolithic "communism," and sought to play them against each other. The oil crisis of 1973 also occurred during Nixon's presidency. Domestically, Nixon faced inflation caused by large war outlays and backed some liberal legislation such as the Clean Air Act, but was less active in supporting desegregation and many Great Society programs unliked by conservatives. Nixon was eventually brought down by the Watergate scandal, which forced him to resign before he could be impeached.
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