1. The New Frontier and the Great Society

2. The 1960 Election John F. Kennedy Richard M. Nixon
Born 1917 Brookline Mass.
Married Jacqueline Bouvier
Three children (Caroline, John, and Patrick)
Naval Officer, author, Congressman, Senator
Richard M. Nixon
Born 1913 Yorba Linda, Ca.
Married Patricia Ryan
Two children ( Tricia and Julie)
Lawyer, Naval officer, Congressman, Senator, Vice-President for Eisenhower

3. Issues of 1960 Election Both spoke of progress and change.
Kennedy talked of a "New frontier."
develop new technologies and make advancements in space exploration. 
confront poverty, war, and ignorance in order to provide for a brighter future. 
the need to strengthen the military, and other foreign policy issues. 

4. Issues of 1960 Election Nixon spoke of experience
the message of a brighter future,   themes such as increased emphasis on private industry
decreased government spending 
the need to strengthen the military, and other foreign policy issues. 
experience in foreign and domestic policy but,
  A reporter asked what major decisions the Vice-President had participated in making.  Eisenhower responded, "If you give me a week, I might think of one."
  A reporter asked what major

5. A Pro Kennedy Book on Labor

6. The Debate The influence of the media
Kennedy dressed correctly for the camera, while Nixon dressed in colors that made him look washed out. TV audiences thought Kennedy won while Radio audiences thought Nixon had won.
The Media had arrived

9. Inauguration
“In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. “
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

10. Ask not

11. Camelot Stalled A block of 101 Southern Congressmen held great power
Religious groups held power

12. Education
Asked Congress to spend 5.6 billion dollars to improve education
This would build public schools, raise teacher salaries, and provide college scholarship for needy students
IT FAILED!
Catholic Bishops tried to get Congress to include parochial schools, Kennedy refused, killed the bill

13. Social Programs
Medical aid for the elderly died because the AMA lobbied against it.
Tried to cut corporate and personal income tax, never passed in his lifetime
Civil Rights Act –never passed during his lifetime

14. Successes Urban renewal – rebuild inner cities The Space program
Alliance for Progress – economic development for Latin America
The Peace Corps – by executive order sent young men and women to underdeveloped countries to provide technical and educational assistance in health care and agriculture

15. Special Forces
Increased special service troops such as the Green Berets and Navy Seals who specialize in training and stopping insurgencies in under developed nations

16. Space Race

17. Kennedy Confronts Global Challenges
As President Kennedy entered the White House, the nation’s rivalry with the Soviet Union deepened.
Kennedy felt that Eisenhower had relied too heavily on nuclear weapons.
Instead, Kennedy supported a “flexible response” where he asked for a buildup of conventional troops and weapons.

18. Kennedy Confronts Global Challenges
Kennedy also supported the Special Forces, a small army unit established in the 1950s to wage guerrilla warfare.

19. Kennedy Confronts Global Challenges
To improve Latin American relations, Kennedy proposed the Alliance for Progress, a series of cooperative aid projects with Latin American governments.

20. Kennedy Confronts Global Challenges
The Peace Corps, created to help less developed nations fight poverty, trained young Americans to spend two years assisting in a country.

21. Kennedy Confronts Global Challenges
The Peace Corps is still active today and has become one of Kennedy’s most important and withstanding legacies.

22. Crises of the Cold War
Cuba and its leader, Fidel Castro, began forming an alliance with the Soviet Union and its leader, Nikita Khrushchev.
During Eisenhower’s presidency, the CIA had secretly trained and armed Cuban exiles known as La Brigada.
Kennedy’s advisers approved a plan to invade Cuba using La Brigada.
(pages 726–728)

23. Crises of the Cold War
On April 17, 1961, 1,400 armed Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.

24. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)
Disaster struck as Kennedy cancelled air support for the exiles in order to keep United States involvement a secret.
Most of the La Brigada were either killed or captured by Castro’s army.

25. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)
Kennedy and Khrushchev meet and the USSR demands that the U.S. back out of Berlin. The U.S. says no.

26. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)
The Soviet leader retaliated by constructing a wall through Berlin, stopping movement between the Soviet sector and the rest of the city.

27. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)

28. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)
(pages 726–728)

29. Crises of the Cold War (cont.)
(pages 726–728)

30. Thirteen Days in October 1962
After the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs invasion and looking weak at the Summit meeting with Khrushchev, President Kennedy needed a “victory” in Cuba.
Kennedy had given the CIA directions to “get rid of Castro” in Cuba because as long as Fidel Castro was in Cuba, so was communism.

31. Thirteen Days in October 1962
During the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union had begun to send short range nuclear missiles to Cuba for their “defense purposes” disguised in cargo ships.
These were very similar to U.S. “Jupiter Missiles” that Eisenhower had sent to Turkey during the 1950s.

32. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 14th, 1962 – U2 spy plane is sent over Cuba after the CIA has heard rumors of Soviet activity in Cuba.

33. Thirteen Days in October 1962
The photographs show these to be nuclear missile sites

34. Thirteen Days in October 1962

35. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 16th, 1962 – John Kennedy is briefed about the missiles and he calls on his closest advisors.
The Russians are now close enough to hit almost all of the United States with nuclear weapons.
Options discussed
Air strike
Land invasion
Diplomacy (UN)
blockade

36. Thirteen Days in October 1962
Kennedy is fearful that Cuba will be used as a bargaining chip for Berlin.
Kennedy has ordered the missiles in Turkey to be removed six months earlier, but could not remove them now under threat because he would look weak.

37. Thirteen Days in October 1962
Military tells Kennedy a full scale attack of Cuba could be launched by October 25th.
Kennedy tells his advisors to “come up with a consensus” that will solve the problem.

38. October 18th, 1962 – John Kennedy keeps a meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andre Gromyko.

39. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 21st, 1962 – Kennedy returns to Washington from campaign trips and the consensus is a naval blockade of Cuba.
The U.S. will search all Soviet ships headed to Cuba.
Gives Khrushchev the option of negotiation.
(pages 726–728)

40. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 22nd, 1962 – Kennedy addresses the nation.
Tells the American people of the missiles in Cuba.
Informs Americans (and the world) of the blockade.
States that an attack on the U.S. from Cuba will be regarded as an attack from the Soviet Union and the U.S. will respond with all of its forces.

41. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 23rd, 1962 – The Soviet Union replies that the blockade is “an act of war” and promise to run through it.
Cuba prepares 250,000 soldiers for a full scale land invasion.
Robert Kennedy is sent to talk to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin
JFK agrees to contract blockade line to 500 miles.

42. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 24th, 1962 – The Soviet ships reach the blockade line
American citizens rush to the stores to prepare for a nuclear war.
Soviet ships stop prior to reaching the blockade line.
Khrushchev sends a letter to Kennedy that the missiles will stay in Cuba.
US defense goes to DEFCON 2.

43. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 25th, 1962 – US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson shows the world the proof of the missiles.
Do not gain much sympathy from the European nations due to the fact that they live under this every day.
Kennedy increases U.S. forces in Florida for a land invasion.

44. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 26th, 1962 – Khrushchev sends a personal letter to Kennedy that agrees to remove the missiles if the United States promises never to invade Cuba.
“Let us not pull on the ends of the ropes that tie the knot of war”
Before Kennedy can agree to the terms a second letter is sent that includes the demand that the missiles in Turkey be removed as well.

45. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 26th, 1962 (cont.) – An American U2 plane is shot down over Cuba and the pilot is killed.
Kennedy orders that the military does not react to this.
Another American U2 plane is discovered flying over Soviet airspace, but Khrushchev orders that it is not to be shot down, but escorted away from the Soviet Union.

46. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 27th, – Robert Kennedy comes up with the idea of ignoring the second letter that Khrushchev sent that included the missiles in Turkey.
Robert Kennedy meets in secret with Dobrynin and states that the missiles in Turkey can be negotiated at a later time, but not during this crisis.
John Kennedy prepares to order the invasion of Cuba the following day.

47. Thirteen Days in October 1962
October 28th, – In a radio broad cast from Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev announces that the missiles will be removed from Cuba because the United States has promised never to invade.
There is no mention of the missiles in Turkey, that are to be removed later.
Fidel Castro finds out about this from the television and is very upset.
The crisis is over.
(pages 726–728)

48. Thirteen Days in October 1962
The missile crisis led to Nikita Khrushchev’s fall from power, and the new Soviet leadership was less interested in reaching agreements with the West.
The result was a huge Soviet arms buildup.

49. Johnson Takes the Reins
Lyndon Johnson took office during what seemed like a prosperous time for the United States.
In reality, however, away from the nation’s affluent suburbs were some 50 million poor.
Kennedy and Johnson made the elimination of poverty a major policy goal.

50. Johnson Takes the Reins (cont.)
Johnson differed from Kennedy’s elegant society image.
Johnson, a Texan, spoke directly and roughly at times.
He sought ways to find consensus, or general agreement.
His ability to build coalitions made him one of the most effective and powerful leaders in Senate history.

51. Johnson Takes the Reins
Johnson declared that his administration was waging an unconditional war on poverty in America.
By the summer of 1964, Congress had created the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), which focused on creating jobs and fighting poverty.
The election of 1964 had Johnson running against Republican candidate Barry Goldwater.

52. Johnson Takes the Reins
Americans were not ready for Goldwater’s aggressive message, and Johnson won in a landslide.

53. The Great Society
Johnson promised a Great Society during his campaign.
It was the vision of a more perfect, more equitable society.
Between 1965 and 1968, over 60 programs were passed, including Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare was a health insurance program for the elderly funded through Social Security.

54. Medicaid financed health care for those on welfare or living below the poverty line.
Johnson’s interest in education led to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and to the preschool program Project Head Start, which was administered to disadvantaged children.
VISTA put young people to work in poor school districts.

55. Johnson urged Congress to act on legislation dealing with the deterioration of inner cities.
Congress responded with the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1965.
Its first secretary, Robert Weaver, was the first African American to serve in a cabinet.

56. The Immigration Reform Act of 1965 played a key role in changing the composition of the American population
It kept a strict limit on the number of immigrants admitted to the United States each year.
It also eliminated the national origins system, which gave preference to northern European immigrants. Immigrants arrived in the U.S. from all parts of Europe and from Asia and Africa.

57. Legacy of the Great Society
The impact of the Great Society was felt by all aspects of American life and improved many lives.
Some Americans opposed the massive growth of federal funds and criticized the Great Society for intruding too much in their lives.
There is a continued debate over the success of the Great Society.
It did result in many Americans asking questions, questions Americans continue to ask today.