Ideals and Heroes
Former Secretary of Labor and university professor Robert Reich talks about growing up in the 1960's, during the height of the civil rights movement, with heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy. Secretary Reich also...
Nation Torn, A: Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1962 a U-2 spy aircraft discovers Russia is installing medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba just 90 miles from the U. S. mainland. President Kennedy convenes the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, and after a wee...
Nation Torn, A: Influences on U.S. Foreign Policy
The enduring images of the 1960s depict problems that have no easy solutions, at home or abroad. The Kennedy administration attempts to win the hearts and minds of less developed countries by initiating the Peace Corps, and yet most third-world nati...
Nation Torn, A: America's Relationship with Ngo Dinh Diem
From 1954 to the 1970s Diem fills jails with people in the South suspected of being Communist. People are tortured and killed. When several Buddhists are killed for demonstrating in 1963, Kennedy sends Henry Cabot Lodge to Vietnam to bring order to ...
Presidency, The: Challenges of Governing
Presidential advisor, political analyst and university professor David Gergen talks about some of the factors that have changed the fabric of political institutions in America and made governing more difficult than ever before. These factors include...
Restless Society: Johnson Assumes Presidency Upon Kennedy Assassination
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas in November of 1963. Just hours after Kennedy's death, Vice President Johnson is sworn as the nation's 36th president aboard Air Force One. Because of his mastery of Congress, Johnson is abl...
Restless Society: Republican Revival, The
By the late 1950s a growing restlessness lurks beneath the surface of American society. Anxiety about America's position in the world, growing pressure from African Americans and other minorities, and the increasing visibility of poverty are beginni...