President Kennedy
Furnish 2: Lilian Kao
Election
Election of 1960:
John F. Kennedy
- Democratic Party
- Running Mate: Lyndon B. Jonson
- Won with 49.7% popular vote
- Promised to "get America moving again"
- New Frontier: JFK's campaign to revitalize the economy and reform legslations in education, health, and civil rights
Richard Nixon
- Republican Party
- Running Mate: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
- Lost with 49.6% popular vote
- Promised to continue peace from Eisenhower
Key Events
Cold War
- Laos became more red... Civil War
- Geneva Conference: 1962 peace in Laos
- Along with Defense Sec. McNamara: designs and promotes "flexible response." Many different military options to choose depending on situation
- JFK increased spending on military... Special Forces (Green Berets): elite anti guerrilla, trained to survive on snake meat
- 1961 JFK ordered increase in forces (military advisers) in S.Vietnam... successful coup against Diem in 1963
- 1961 Kennedy Marshall Plan for L. America to help close gap b/w rich and poor (little impact)
- 1961: 12000 exiles on Bay of Pigs, Cuba. Ended up pushing Cuba more communist
- October 1962: JFK orders Cuba be quarantined
- Khrushchev agrees to pull missiles out of Cuba and in return America would remove quarantine
- Soviets construct Berlin Wall to separate W. and E. Berlin
- 1962: JFK in Berlin. Protect and support Berliners
Civil Rights
- Originally campaigned w appeal to blacks
- Pledged to eliminate racial discrimination
- Put off action for racial rights bc he was trying to pass medical and educational bills
- Freedom Riders aimed to end segregation
- Decent relationship with MLK Jr.
- SNCC
- James Meredith: attempted to enroll at U. of Mississippi. JFK forced to send troops to enroll him.
- 1963: MLK Jr. campaigned against discrimination in Birmingham
- June 1963: JFK televises a speech about the "moral issue" of racial discrimination
- MLK Jr. "I have a dream"
Assassination
- Shot in Dallas
- Nov. 22, 1963
- Lee Harvey Oswald (shot by Jack Ruby)