John F Kennedy
By Joseph An
Election of 1860 and the New Frontier
- Richard Nixon(Republican) vs John F. Kennedy(democrat)
- The Nixon-Kennedy debates were more based off physical appeal than the speech themselves. Kennedy appeared more young and dependable
- Kennedy won 303 to 219 in electoral votes and barely won by a hundred-thousand in popular votes
- Kennedy gave a more optimistic viewpoint of America in his New Frontier outline
-started the Peace Corps, which had Americans go to third world nations to teach and support the under-developed country
-expanding the House Rules Committee
-keeping prices low
Kennedy's Dealing with the Cold War
- Kennedy sent military advisers to Southern Vietnam to teach soldiers there how to fight
- Robert McNamara suggests American to use flexible response- using a variety of weapons to deal with the Vietnam Crisis
- Bay of Pigs Invasion- US trained Cuban exiles were suppressed and attacked by Castro's troops
- Further US intervention into Cuban led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which the USSR bluffed and showed pictures of nuclear missiles in Cuban. By the end of October 1961, the Soviet backed off
- The Berlin War was constructed by the Soviets to prevent Eastern Berliners association with the Western Berliners; the wall symbolized the iron curtain
Kennedy and Civil Rights
- Organized Freedom Riders, white men who went to the south to address the wrongs of segregation
- James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at University of Mississippi, due to the fact that Kennedy sent federal troops there
- Voter Education Project- registered southern black voters
- Martin Luther King Jr organized non-violent protests that were brutally suppressed by the authority. The cruel treatment of blacks created sympathy and understanding for integration
- King's March on Washington led to his "I have a Dream" speech with 200,000 non-violent protesters
The Assassination of Kennedy
- Kennedy goes to the South to gain appeal since most southerners supported segregation
- Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963 while a limousine down downtown Dallas
- Led to Lyndon B. Johnson taking over as president