John F. Kennedy
Election of Kennedy
- Democratic Party
- Wanted to get the nation moving again
- US will have the strength to resist communism around the world
- Kennedy challenged Nixon to televised debates
- 78 million American watched the first debate
The Cold War
- Bay of Pigs 1961- failed military invasion of Cuba by CIA sponsored group
- The Cuban Missile Crisis- moment when Cold War almost became nuclear and 1st time mutual assured destruction is discussed .
- Pursued more moderate polices with Soviet Union
- Berlin Crisis- demanding withdrawal of Western troops from West Berlin; Last major politico-military European incident of Cold War
- Flexible Response- defense strategy; calls for mutual deterrence at strategic, tactical, conventional levels; gives US ability to respond to aggression across all warfare
Civil Rights
- Sit-ins in South 1960
- 1961 Freedom Ride was burned
- Washington protect the Freedom Riders
- Put in Voter Education Project to register blacks in the South
- Birmingham hosed down Civil Right Demonstrators
- Kennedy calls this a moral issue on television
- Wanted new legislation to protect blacks
- August, Martin Luther King Jr. led March on Washington
- King gave "I have a dream speech"
- James Meredith- 1st African American student admitted to segregated University of Mississippi
- Meredith motivated by Kennedy's inaugural speech
Assassination
- November 22, 1960
- Downtown Dallas, Texas
- Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
- Oswald arrested then shot by Jack Ruby
- Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson= President Lyndon B. Johnson