The sixties began optimistically, with Americans full of hope and expectation, voting to support a new, young, charismatic leader who promised to"move America forward." Tragically, something went wrong. Instead of finding its Utopia, America became a country struggling desperately to escape its Armageddon. President Kennedy's
New Frontier fell far short of its promise in tangible domestic legislation and his foreign policy decisions pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust, while President Johnson's dream of a
Great Society foundered in the quicksand of the
Vietnam War. This revealing history of the Kennedy-Johnson years begins with the presidential primaries of
1960 and concludes with Johnson's final weeks as a lame duck President. An expert and objective history of an exciting period -- its social, cultural, and economic facets as well as its political developments.
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Background Information
Lyndon Johnson launched the federal government into a wide variety of social programs that he termed the Great Society. The election of 1960 matched two World War II veterans and resulted in Democrat John F. Kennedy defeating Republican Richard M. Nixon to become the first Catholic president. After the French proved themselves unable to recover their Indonesian territory after World War II, the United States gradually took on their role and became mired in a land war.
