1. KENNEDY’S
PRESIDENCY

2. Kennedy’s Background Came from wealth and politics
Family expectation of public service
Harvard Graduate
Navy in WWII
43 years old
Roman Catholic
Charismatic, highly appealing to American public
Entered Navy after graduation from Harvard…
Irish Descent
Jack Kennedy
35 President (Youngest elected President, not youngest to serve, that honor belongs to Teddy Roosevelt who took office after McKinley was assassinated.
Returned and served in HoR and then Senate
Only Catholic President, only one to win a Pulitzer Prize
In 1940 wrote thesis “Appeasement in Munich” about British appeasement in the Munich Agreement. Was published bestseller under the title “Why England Slept.”

3. Election of 1960 “Get America Moving Again”
Democratic Nominee: Senator John F Kennedy
Republican Nominee: VP Richard Nixon
Economy was in recession
Cold War: Were we winning?
Well organized campaign, charismatic, handsome “a president you can image sleeping with his wife”…
Nixon believed he could ride the coattails of Eisenhower…
Worried that he would “take orders” from the Pope – assured US people his commitment to separation of church and state
Chose Johnson, the opposite of his youth as running mate
They were not close! Johnson: say Kennedy's and those around him as Ivy League “pin-striped” elitists.

4. Televised Debates 1st ever televised debate 70 million viewers
Kennedy appeared confident and at ease
Launched a new area of politics:
the television age
Nixon looked like a “sinister chipmunk” in comparison to Kennedy who looked cool, collected, and presidential
September 26, 1960 – first televised debate between presidential candidates
The candidates agreed on many domestic and foreign policy issues – two factors helped Kennedy win: Civil Rights and T.V.

5. Journalist Russell Baker said of the debates:
“That night, image replaced the printed word as the national language of politics”

6. The Results Won by fewer than 119,000 votes
Some talk of illegal voting methods (dead voters, multiple votes, bad machines, etc.) Nixon did not challenge, although feeling of stolen election remained.
Won by fewer than 119,000 votes

7. Kennedy Wins Close Election
Kennedy dominated in the South (civil rights) and Northeast (family). Nixon dominated in the West. It is all about the electoral votes.
Byrd actually received 15 electoral votes for President in the 1960 election, as unpledged electors from Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma cast their votes for him rather than Kennedy.

8. Inauguration Speech
“And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.”

9. LIFE: The Dawn of Camelot

10. Camelot Years
JFK’s youth, glamour and young, talented advisors were compared to the mythical court of Camelot and King Arthur
Wife, Jacqueline and young children:
Caroline and JFK Jr.
Called for hope, commitment and sacrifice
Invited young artists and celebrities to White House
Considered “American Royalty”
JFK could 1,600 words a minute (speed reader)
Jackie, fashion sense, very cultured, iconic
Advisors were the “best and the brightest” made youth feel like if these guys could advise the President than everyone had the duty and the ability to do their part too.

12. Civil Rights MLK Jr. arrested at a sit-in
sentenced to hard labor
Kennedy and his brother, Robert, persuaded judge to release MLK
Captured the attention of many African Americans and won their vote
Civil Rights Bill
Sit-Ins were non-violent protests over the policy of whites-only lunch counters in the South
Kennedy was not President at the time, it was during the campaign. The Eisenhower Administration refused to intervene, but JFK called King’s wife and worked with his brother, Robert, to get MLK released. This helped secure key votes in key states when Kennedy did run for election.
In his New Frontier program, discussed later, he wanted a national assault on the causes of poverty, and ordered his borhter, then Attorney General RFK to fight racial injustice in the South.
King
JFK

13. For those conspiracy theorists, all three of the men involved, JFK, MLK, and RFK – all assasinated in the 1960s.

14. New Frontier Vision for America
Economy
Education
Rebuild urban areas
Medical care for the elderly and poor
Space exploration
Bolster national defense
Increase international aid
Hard time passing his proposal through Congress because of a conservative coalition
Increased minimum wage, money for defense spending, supported tax cuts for economic growth (also stimulated by new defense programs and space exploration).
Also included Civil Rights agenda
Difficult with such small margin of victory, although democratically controlled houses, many were southern democrats with other agendas, not interested in Kennedy and some had seniority and therefore controlled powerful committees.

15. Cold War Crisis: Berlin Wall
Soviets threatened to take over West Berlin
In 11 years: almost 3 million East Berliners fled to West Berlin to escape Communist rule
City in turmoil
JFK reinforced the military presence in the area
Result: construction of the Berlin Wall
Soviets did not like the fact that East Berliners were fleeing their city for the democratic west. Hurt economy and prestige of USSR.
Just after midnight on August 13, 1961 Soviets began construction of a 90-mile wall separating E and W Berlin.
East Germany begins construction on the Berlin Wall, which becomes a primary symbol of the Cold War and Soviet oppression

17. Berlin Wall
Divided Berlin in half
Became an ugly symbol of oppression

18. Building up Defense JFK’s policy of Flexible Response
Build-up of the nation’s conventional forces (non-nuclear forces)
Created an elite branch of the Army
The Special Forces or The Green Berets
Tripled our nuclear capability
Increased troops, ships, and artillery

19. Peace Corps
1961
organization that trained volunteers to help underdeveloped countries by providing social and humanitarian services
Asia, Africa, Latin America

20. Alliance for Progress Offered economic aid to Latin American countries
$12 Billion dollars
An attempt to contain Communism.
Regularly visited South and Central American Countries to help bring the US together with them.
a 10-year, multibillion-dollar aid program for Latin Americain 1961, U.S. relations with Latin America were at an all-time low. The Latin American republics were disappointed with U.S. economic assistance after World War II. They argued that they had supported America during the war by increasing their production of vital raw materials and keeping their prices low--when the United States began massive aid programs to Europe and Japan after the war, Latin American nations protested that they also deserved economic assistance.
president stressed the need for improved literacy, land use, industrial productivity, health, and education in Latin America. The United States needed to help Latin America, where "millions of men and women suffer the daily degradations of hunger and poverty" and "discontent is growing."
"millions of men and women suffer the daily degradations of hunger and poverty" and "discontent is growing.”

21. Space Race Soviet successes:
Sputnik in 1957
First man in space
Kennedy pushed the race to put a man on the moon
Nicknamed the “Space Race,”
Encouraging growth in the studies of math and sciences in the public education system
Soviet Yuri Gagarin became first human in space
Launch in Cape Canaveral in FL and Mission Control in Houston, TX
June 20, 1969 landed Neil Armstrong

22. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

23. Bay of Pigs
April 1961
Kennedy learned of a CIA plan to overthrow Castro by Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs
Failed due to unanticipated military support of the Soviet Union
A humiliated Kennedy paid ransom to free exiles
Still affects US/Cuban relations today
1959 communist revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union.
Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.
President Eisenhower approved the program in March The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare.
By 1960 Castro had news of the plot
February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion plan. But he was determined to disguise U.S. support. The landing point at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide any U.S. involvement. Unfortunately, the landing site also left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went wrong.
Involved bombers, paratroopers, and 1400 people
Total disaster, plans missed targets, left Nicaragua late, US involvement discovered, landing forces attacked immediately
The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, as the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made personal pleas for contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food manufacturers, and Castro eventually settled on $53 million worth of baby food and medicine in exchange for the prisoners.

24. Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 U2 spy plane took pics of missile sites
USSR built
JFK imposed naval blockade
Remove missile, destroy bases
Intense standoff, nuclear war possible
Publically brokered deal
USSR remove, US pledge no Cuban invasion
Any secrets???
October 1962, American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the USSR on Cuba.
Met in secret w/advisors since he did not want Cuba to know they had been discovered.
Kennedy finally decided to send a naval blockade around Cuba. Aim was to prevent military supplies from reaching Cuba from the Soviet Union.
Demanded removal of missiles and destruction of bases
No one sure how Soviet leader would respond.
Both recognized power of a nuclear war
Publically agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge that the US would not invade Cuba.
Secret part of the deal, for 25 years no one knew, we also agreed to remove missiles from Turkey.
Soviets increased missle production. Missile crisis over, but not the arms race!

27. Easing Tensions (1963) Hot line: Limited Test Ban Treaty:
Direct phone line that linked the White House and the Kremlin.
Limited Test Ban Treaty:
Barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere

28. Tragedy in Dallas Assassinated on November 22, 1963
Still a source of controversy
Lee Harvey Oswald arrested
Assassinated too shortly after arrest
All work stopped for the funeral
The nation mourned
As with 9/11, Americans remember where they were when they heard the news
Jack Ruby shot Oswald

29. "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”
June, 1963