Clockwise from President Kennedy:
- President Kennedy
- Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara
- Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Maxwell Taylor
- Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze
- Deputy USIA Director Donald Wilson
- Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen
- Special Assistant McGeorge Bundy
- Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon
- Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
- Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (hidden)
- Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson
- Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Director William C. Foster
- CIA Director John McCone (hidden)
- Under Secretary of State George Ball
- Secretary of State Dean Rusk
— The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. ST-A26-25-62 — License: Public domain
Cross-Cultural Connections: A Shrinking World
The revolutions of the 1960s were fueled by new technologies and cultural exports that crossed borders with unprecedented speed, creating a nascent global consciousness. The world was, in many ways, becoming smaller.
The Sound of Change: Music Goes Global
Music was the universal language of the 1960s youth culture. The “British Invasion” led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was a worldwide phenomenon, with their music reaching fans from Tokyo to Warsaw. But the flow of influence was not one-way. George Harrison’s interest in the sitar, learned from Indian master Ravi Shankar, introduced millions of Western listeners to the sounds of the East. From Brazil, the cool, sophisticated rhythms of Bossa Nova captivated audiences in North America and Europe. In Jamaica, the nascent sounds of ska and rocksteady were evolving into reggae, a genre that would soon carry its own message of resistance and spirituality to the world. Music became a powerful vehicle for cultural exchange and a shared soundtrack for a generation on the move.
The Medium is the Message: Television and the Global Village
The 1960s was the decade television came of age as a global force. The launch of Telstar 1 in 1962, the first active communications satellite, made live intercontinental broadcasts possible. Suddenly, events could be experienced in real-time by a global audience. The Vietnam War became the first “television war,” as its stark imagery challenged official government narratives. The whole world watched together, in awe, as Neil Armstrong took his “one small step” on the Moon in 1969, a moment of shared human achievement broadcast to an estimated 650 million people. This shared experience, envisioned by theorist Marshall McLuhan as a “global village,” fostered a new sense of interconnectedness, for better or for worse.
A Teenager’s World in the 1960s
So, what was life like for a teenager in the 1960s? The answer depends entirely on where they lived. A teenager in suburban California might be cruising in a car, listening to The Beach Boys, and worrying about the draft. In London, they might be embracing Mod fashion and the vibrant music scene. These are the images often found in collections of photos of everyday life in the 60s.
However, a teenager in rural China would have a vastly different experience, perhaps being swept up in the fervor of the Red Guards, denouncing their elders and destroying “old” culture. A teenager in newly independent Ghana would be part of a generation filled with the promise and challenges of building a new nation from scratch. A young person in East Berlin would live behind a wall, with their access to Western music and culture severely restricted, yet often sought out. A teenage girl in much of the world still faced a future limited by traditional gender roles, even as the first waves of a new feminist movement were beginning to challenge those norms in the West. The experience of youth was not monolithic; it was a reflection of the world’s immense diversity and its dramatic, often conflicting, transformations.
Major world history resources include the British Museum and the British Library. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre documents sites of global cultural significance.
