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By 1960 government had become increasingly powerful. The number
of civilians employed by the federal government stabilized at 2.5 million
throughout the 1950s. Federal expenditures passed $150 thousand-million in
the 1960s. Most Americans accepted government's expanded role, even as

they disagreed about how far that expansion should continue. In 1960, John
F. Kennedy was elected president. At 43, he was the youngest man ever to
win the presidency. Kennedy wanted to exert strong leadership to extend

economic benefits to all citizens, but a razor-thin margin of victory limited
his mandate and his policies were often limited and restrained.
In October 1962, Kennedy was faced with what turned out to be the
most drastic crisis of the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the

Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy decided on
quarantine to prevent Soviet ships from bringing additional missiles to Cuba,
and he demanded publicly that the Soviets remove the weapons. After

several days of tension, the Soviets backed down. Space was another arena
for competition after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. In April
1961, they capped a series of triumphs in space by sending the first man into

orbit around the Earth. President Kennedy responded with a promise that
Americans would walk on the moon before the decade was over and in July
of 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon's surface.

Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, did not live to see this achievement. His
successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, enacted a number of new laws from the
Kennedy agenda, establishing social reform programs that he described as
the "Great Society." The struggle of black Americans for equality reached its

peak in the mid-1960s. Although civil rights legislation was enacted, some
blacks became impatient with the pace of progress. Violence accompanied
militant calls for reform. Unrest in the cities erupted, as black leaders

criticized the nonviolent tactics of Dr. Martin Luther King. King's
assassination (вбивство з політичних мотивів) in 1968 triggered race riots
[’ra ət] in over 100 cities.
During President Johnson's six years in office, the United States

involvement in Vietnam escalated. Although politicians tended to view the
war as part of a necessary effort to check communism on all fronts, a
growing number of Americans saw no vital American interest in Vietnam.

Demonstrations protesting American involvement in the undeclared war
broke out on college campuses. Increasingly unpopular, President Johnson
decided not to run for a second full term.

Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968. Nixon negotiated a peace
treaty with North Vietnam and a number of other diplomatic breakthroughs.

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