Richard Bissell

Bissell was a man who worked for the CIA. He was an important figure during the Cold War. Bissell was to fly the U2 spy plane over Soviet Territory. Richard Bissell also had to take the risk of "committing 22 million from the CIA's secret fund to the skunk-works project. Bissell also had to manage the project secretly. Bissell went to Yale Today, we have many more mechanical systems, whereas back then human error was much more likely. That being said, the CIA was much more influential back than. Based on the CIA's four main functions, I think the anti-communist sentiment contributed to the agency's misstep's and failures because we were overaggressive and made moves we shouldn't have. All in all, Richard Bissell was a very important man in the Cold War era, and the CIA.

The Clockwork

1. JFK - President of the U.S., youngest president, portrayed the "ideal american family"

2. RFK- Attorney General, JFK's brother

3. Malcolm X - Civil Rights Leader (black power, black panthers), violent methods of peace

4. Linden B. Johnson - Vice President/ President after JFK's assassination

5. Fidel Castro - Dictator of Cuba

6. MLK - Civil Rights Leader (anti-violence, protests)

7. Nikita Krushev - Soviet Union Leader

8. Ho Chi Minh - President of North Vietnam

9. Che Guevara - Major figure of Cuban Revolution

10. Earl Warren - Chief Justice of the U.S.

11. Abbie Hoffman- Leader of the Haight-Ashbury District

12. John Lennon- Beatles lead singer, and cultural movement leader

13. Betty Friedan - Woman's rights activist, author of The Feminine Mystique

14. William F. Buckley - Conservative Author

15. Orson Wells- Director, Author, and Accomplished Artist

These influential people of the sixties shaped the way the era was transformed - they were the clockwork. "A mechanism of geared wheels driven by a wound spring." The wound spring was the energy of the 1960's and the geared wheels were the people.

War and Conflicts

And the War rages on...

The 1960's was filled with all sorts of conflicts. The biggest conflict was the Vietnam war.

The Vietnam war's conflict was that we were protecting South Vietnam, and North Vietnam was trying to spread Communism towards the South. To defend and honor our promise to protect our ally South Vietnam, we had to go to war for the sake of freedom. However, there was much protest to this war because of the anti-war movement, and teen soldiers were being enlisted.

Another conflict was the Cuban Missile Crisis. U.S. spy planes flew over Cuba and shot photographs of a missile base in Cuba. Long story short, Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missiles and return them to the Soviet Union. The United States was also not allowed to invade Cuba once the missiles were out.

Bay Of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt of American-backed Cuban exiles trying to overthrow the country's dictator, Fidel Castro. The CIA trained the Cuban exiles, and JFK approved it. The mission was a failure however, because U.S. troops did not move in to back up the exiles in their fight. Of 1,300 exiles, 90 were killed and the rest were taken as prisoners.

The Gulf of Tonkin was when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Gulf of Tonkin is off the coast of Vietnam. It was claimed that there were two attacks, August 2 and 4, 1964. However, the second assault is questioned, and may be fictional. The media said the USS Maddox was on a "routine" route, however we were really providing South Vietnam with help. This proves the "unprovoked attack" statement false.

In the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were two main enemies. It was called a "Cold War" because they didn't want to fight eachother directly. Instead, they used words that degraded the other side. The Cold War was the "major force in world politics" for about half of the twentieth century.

Nuclear War is war with the threat of nuclear weapons. During the 1960's, the world had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the whole entire world. Luckily, no bombs were dropped (excluding WW11)

POP CULTURE !

The Popular Culture

First and foremost, in the 1960's era, music happened. And sure, music was around back in the stone age, however in the 1960's, music happened. In the fifties, Elvis Presley was the big, rebellious musical leader. In the 60's though, rock and roll, the Brittish invasion and all sorts of new alternative music sprang up. The Beatle's sang songs like "A Day in the Life," which described a day in the 1960's era. Drugs were another new thing that just happened. They say if you lived in the true sixties spirit, you probably won't remember it.

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

Elvis Presley

Easy Rider

Psychedelics like LSD, or acid, marijuana and all sorts of other drugs were being used the youth that once obeyed everything their parents said. Their was a huge countercultural revolution. Flower Children, people who placed flowers in the the butts of rifles at protests, blossomed. The sexual revolution also erupted with the invention of birth control. The generational gap broadened furthermore. New movies like the Graduate, and Easy Rider were produced; movies that never dared be produced were out in public now. Woodstock was a three day concert in New York. Hundreds of musicians gathered and jammed for the muddy, drugged-out, not to mention naked, youth. All in all, the 60's era took a 180* turn from the generation before them. They were children of the revolution.

The Beatles (Brittish Revolution)

LOVE(Sexual Revolution)

Psychedelic Drugs

1960's Slang:

Dig? - Do you understand? Keen-O - Cool

Dude- Geek/Nerd Pad- House

Fink- Tattletale Fuzz- Police

502- Drunk Driving Scratch - Money

Fox- An attractive Woman Threads- Clothes

Assassinations

Great Men, Down

Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X

Robert F Kennedy John F Kennedy

During the 1960's, there were four main assassinations.

*John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

November 22, 1963

*Martin Luther king Jr.

April 4, 1968

*Malcolm X

February 25, 1965

*Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy

June 5, 1968

These four were all very important leaders of their time, and the assassinations were all over the media. Above are pictures of the leaders.

Technology

The 1960's Advancements

The Space Race was between the United States and the Soviet Union. We were both making advances in space, however it turned into a race; the space race. The Soviet's would be ahead of us, and then we'd be in the lead, and so on. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Edward Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the history making astronauts. As the years went on, both sides had their failures and their successes, and eventually the space race ended.
The computer was one of the biggest inventions of the 60's. The first computer in the 1960's took up a whole room, and was way too big for home or school use. Later in the 70's however, computers were being distributed to everyone who could afford it. The invention of the computer also lead to the inventions of video games, GPS, mini PC's and much more.
Birth Control, another one of the biggest inventions of the 1960's, lead to the Sexual Revolution. With Birth Control, the youth could experience what their parent's had at a much younger age. This caused a generational gap between the 60's youth and their parents. Birth Control was a very good invention in my opinion because now women had a choice too, which bolstered and sparked the Woman's Rights Movement.

The Movements

In the 1960's era, there were four main movements.

1. The Women's movement

2. The Civil Right's Movement

3. The Anti-War Movement

4. The Cultural Revolution

In a nutshell, the Women's Movement was women coming out of the dark and into the light. They joined the working force(although only earning 60% of what their partner's made), and started to show themselves to society. The Women's Rights Movement drew inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement. Another factor that sparked this movement was the sexual movement, and the invention of birth control.

The Civil Right's Movement was a movement for black rights and desegregation. Martin Luther King was the leader and he preached anti-violence ways of achieving peace. His works went far, however MLK was assassinated before his dream could be lived out. His famous speech, "I have a Dream," was highly regarded and remembered. Malcolm X was also big in the Civil Right's Movement, however he used violent methods of being heard. Sit Ins, Freedom Rides, and registering voters all helped in getting minorities equal rights.

The Anti-War movement erupted in the middle class youth. People their age were being sent to war, and they rebelled and tried to get us out of the Vietnam War. With people from different political, economical, racial groups, and cultural spheres, the Anti-War movement brought everyone together to fight for something they all opposed; in this case getting troops out of Vietnam.

Finally, the Cultural Revolution was one that left a permanent mark on the 1960's. The reputation the 60's era had was because of the cultural revolution. The Beatles, part of the Brittish Invasion, were a key figure in leading the Cultural Revolution. Songs like, Back in the U.S.S.R. , I want to hold your hand, and Get Back, defined the era.

"Freedom to explore one’s potential, freedom to create one’s Self, freedom of personal expression, freedom from scheduling, freedom from rigidly defined roles and hierarchical statuses...". Anders believed some in the counterculture wished to modify children's education so that it encouraged, "aesthetic sense, love of nature, passion for music, desire for reflection, or strongly marked independence."

Jentri Anders, Social Anthropologist who lived in a countercultural community and studied