Dreaming In The 1960s

In 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said his most famous words: "I have a dream." He was not the only one who felt this way. For many, the 1960s was a decade in which their dreams about America might be fulfilled. For Martin Luther

King Jr., this was a dream of a truly equal America; for

John F. Kennedy, it was a dream of a young vigorous nation that would put a man on the moon; and for the hippy movement, it was one of love, peace, and freedom. The

1960s was a tumultuous decade of social and political upheaval. We are still confronting many social issues that were addressed in the 1960s today. In spite of the turmoil, there were some positive results, such as the civil rights revolution. However, many outcomes were negative: student antiwar protest movements, political assassinations, and ghetto riots excited American people and resulted in a lack of respect for authority and the law. The first president during the 1960s was John F. Kennedy. He was young, appealing, and had a carefully crafted public image that barely won him the election. Because former President

Eisenhower supported the Republican nominee, Richard

Nixon, and because many had doubts about Kennedy's youth and Catholic religion, Kennedy only received three-tenths of one percent more of the popular vote than

Nixon. The first thing Kennedy did during his brief presidency was to try to restore the nation's economy.

Economic growth was slow in 1961 when Kennedy entered the White house. The President initiated a series of tariff negotiations to stimulate exports and proposed a federal tax cut to help the economy internally. John F.

Kennedy was known as one of the few presidents in history who made his own personality a significant part of his presidency and a focus of national attention. Nothing illustrated this more clearly than the reaction to the tragedy of November 22, 1963. Kennedy was driving through the streets of Dallas. The streets were full of cheering people watching him drive by. The President was surrounded by loud motorcycles driven by the Secret Service. One onlooker, looking into a sixth floor window, noticed another man with a rifle. "Boy! ," he said. "You sure can't say the Secret Service isn't on the ball. Look at that guy up there in the window with a rifle" (Pett 12). That man with the rifle was not a member of the Secret Service. A fraction of... ... middle of paper ...

...on. Another type of chemical, chemical pestisides, were also important in the

1960s. A book written by Rachel Carson described for the first time the dangers of using pesticides. Carson believed that the poisonous chemicals were taking a dreadful toll, and that the only way to fix the situation was to "let the balance of nature take care of the number of insects"

(Carson 17). Another poisonous chemical was being used on humans. Mistakes made in the past caused a great deal of health problems to children around the world when it was discovered that using a tranquilizer called thalidomide caused severe birth defects. Babies were born with hands and feet like flippers, attached to the body with little or no arm or leg. Every compound drug containing the sedative was taken off the market. The 1960s began under the shadow of the Cold War and ended under the shado wo fthe Vietnam War. What happened inbetween was a series of dreams, failures, and realities that have made the sixties one of the most tumultuous decades in the history of the

United States. From assassinations to Woodstock, the

1960s was an era of confusion in which every American tried to make his dream a reality.