Romantic view of the 1960
One romantic view of the 60's is that is represented an idealistic picture of a Camelot that was succeeded by the tragedy of a paradise lost through lies, conspiracy and assassination. To what extent is that view justified by simple facts as we know them and to what extent is it simply a product of imagination?It is impossible to generalise a whole decade in the way that the above statement does. Although during the early sixties public opinion was high, Kennedy was a failure in American domestic policy, and the threat of the USSR culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis undermines the view of America as a 'Camelot'. In the latter years of the sixties despite the assassinations and disastrous Vietnam War campaign, Johnson was able to effect significant changes with landmark civil rights legislation and a legislative record which has not been matched since.The ethos that emerged at the turn of the decade, of conflict, protest and idealism the latter was personified by the newly elected president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. For the bulk of middle class Americans the fifties had been a very prosperous decade, although relatively quiet and conservative, and in entering the sixties the civil rights movement was in full swing and m
If as the question suggests that America in the sixties was comparable to a Camelot then John F Kennedy would have to have been its King Arthur. Using his years of experience which Kennedy had lacked Johnson was able to pass the first civil rights bill through congress shortly after, and as a testament to Kennedy. Throughout his years in power Johnson's domestic legislative record proved to be everything Kennedy had promised. At the time of Kennedy's assassination he did have a civil rights bill he was attempting to pass through congress but we will never know if he would have been able to pass it on its own merits. The assassination bred conspiracy after conspiracy and still to this day no definitive answer has been found and it is likely that none ever will. This attitude built up a feeling that a failure in Vietnam would be a failure for capitalism and the United States. Johnson had inherited Vietnam from Kennedy, who had previously inherited the problem form the French. When supposedly Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F Kennedy, a nation and the world stood still, and the idealistic Camelot was shattered. This feeling was compounded again and again throughout the sixties with assassinations of leading American figures; Malcolm X in 1965, Martin Luther King Junior and Bobby Kennedy in 1968. One of the most crucial factors in his election was his promise of civil rights legislation, on which he closely collaborated with Martin Luther King; in gaining the black vote Kennedy was able to beat Nixon by the narrowest of margins. On November 22nd 1963 this Camelot was destroyed when its King Arthur was assassinated in Dallas Texas. Johnson proved to be the opposite of Kennedy, as despite his unmatched record on domestic legislation, his failure came in foreign policy, more specifically Vietnam. The title to this essay generalises the sixties far too much, and although it is a nice concise romantic viewpoint based in fact, once you delve deeper into the sixties it becomes evident that nothing can be as black and white. His legislative record was very varied, Kennedy proposed an range of social programs in keeping with the liberal policies of past democratic presidents, including an expansion of the minimum wage, health care benefits for the old, federal aid for education, increased social security benefits and the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the umbrella term the 'Great Society' Johnson set about passing piece after piece of landmark legislation which included his 'War on Poverty', including the aforementioned civil rights legislation Johnson was able to further the cause of African Americans more than any president before and after.
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Acceptance Essays
