Decade of disillusionment : the Kennedy-Johnson years / Jim F Heath; Indiana University Press.

Bibliogr. p. 304-320, index p. 321-332

Contents: Introduction --The torch is passed -- Opening the new frontier -- Ambivalence and action -- The unfulfilled promise -- Transition to the great society -- The years of triumph -- The years of frustration -- The legacies of disillusionment.

"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. 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. It shows that both Kennedy and Johnson carried the banners of New Deal liberalism at home and cold war containment abroad, and that, despite marked differences in background and personal style, their administrations were essentially pieces of the same cloth."--Page 4 of cover.