1960s Dbq

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At the beginning of the 1960s, many Americans were optimistic of the new decade. On January 20th, 1961, John F. Kennedy became president of the United States. John F. Kennedy had promised the New Frontier. It was a package of laws and reforms that sought to eliminate injustice and inequality in the United States. The New Frontier ran into problems right away because many of the Democratic Congress were southerners and did not support it. In 1964, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and he was replaced by President Lyndon B. Johnson. His idea of reform was to assist the poor. His proposals were Job Corps, Head Start, Medicare, and Medicaid. Job Corps that trained unskilled workers to be able to find jobs in the struggling economy. Head Start prepared young children for school. Medicare and Medicaid helped the elderly and low-income people pay for health care. …show more content…

The war in Vietnam was between the communists and the democrats. The communists which were North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The democrats which were South Vietnam. China and the Soviet Union supported North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The United States and the Philippines supported South Vietnam. The problem of poverty was expensive. It was too expensive to deal with when the war in Vietnam was the government's top priority. There was not enough money to fund the programs of poverty and the war in Vietnam. Toward the end of the 1960s, the nation fulfilled John F. Kennedy's statement about the Space Race. On July 20th, 1969, the United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. From the early 1960s to 1969, the top ten percent of Americans decreased from owning approximately 34% to approximately 33% of the nation's wealth. The top 0.1 percent of Americans increased from owning approximately 9% to approximately 10% of the nation's wealth. These problems followed in the

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