1. -President John F. Kennedy
“…ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.”
-President John F. Kennedy
January 20, 1961

2. Kennedy and the New Frontier: 1960-1963
Youngest man ever elected to the Presidency
Created the Peace Corps
“New Frontier”
Sought to use the federal government to solve the nation’s problems:
Proposed tax cuts
Created Medicare
Civil rights legislation
Increased aid to education
Increased Social Security benefits

3. Kennedy announced that America would put a man on the moon before 1970.
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon.
John Glenn
Space Race

4. Foreign Policy Under Kennedy-Cold War Tensions
Opposed Communism and pledged to contain it.
Greatest challenge was in Cuba.
Fidel Castro takes over Cuban government and sets up a pro-Soviet Communist government.
Castro nationalizes American business and throws opponents in jail.

5. Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
President Eisenhower approved a plan to overthrow Castro
The CIA trained a group of Cuban exiles in Guatemala to invade Cuba.
Kennedy continued with the plan, but refused to provide air support because it would tie the United States to the invasion.
The invasion failed and was an embarrassment for President Kennedy.

6. Alliance for Progress (1961)
Containment program that gave grants and loans to Latin American nations to promote economic progress, land reform, and trade.
The Berlin Wall (1961)
Soviet officials began construction of the Berlin Wall, cutting off access to the West for East Berliners.
kennedy/videos/kennedy-responds-to-berlin-wall

7. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Soviet nuclear missiles discovered in Cuba.
Kennedy refuses to resort to a Cuban invasion, but rather a naval quarantine.
Secret agreement between Kennedy and Khrushchev to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for removing American missiles in Turkey.

8. Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald
Oswald shot by Jack Ruby
Why? Conspiracy?
Warren Commission concluded no conspiracy

9. Lee Harvey Oswald
Jack Ruby

11. The Johnson Presidency (1963-1968)
Vice President Lyndon B Johnson became President after John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

12. The Great Society Proposed to transform American society.
Wanted to improve the quality of life for all Americans.
Programs included equality of opportunity, enrichment of urban life, restoration of natural beauty, expansion of education, ending poverty, health care for the elderly, and greater racial equality.

13. Great Society Programs
Civil Rights
War on Poverty
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Affirmative Action
Economic Opportunity Act (1964)
Job Corps
Medicare Act of 1965
Aid to Cities
Provided medical care, hospital insurance, and post-hospital nursing for people over age 65.
Money provided for urban planning, slum clearance, rental assistance for the poor, and reconstruction of buildings.

14. Johnson Immigration Policy
Since the 1920s immigration quotas favored Western Europeans
Asian immigrant quotas were very low
Immigration Act of 1965:
Each country given identical quota for its immigrants
Preference for immigrants with family already in the U.S. or valuable work skills
Restricted immigration from Latin America for the first time.

15. Failure of the Great Society
Many Americans remained in poverty.
The cost of the Vietnam War forced Johnson to withdraw funding from most of the programs.
Due to the division in the country over the war, Johnson did not seek reelection in 1968.