Kennedy
1960-1964
Election of Kennedy
When: 1960
Candidates: Richard Nixon (Democratic) & John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
Overview:
Candidates: Richard Nixon (Democratic) & John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
Overview:
- Nixon was considered young but experienced due his position of being Eisenhower's VP
- Nixon's success came from his televised debates
- JFK, former Massachusetts senator, was the youngest person elected President
- Kennedy was Roman Catholic and became the first Catholic to be elected into office
- Eisenhower won by a 100,000 votes of a 68 million total votes
- Electoral Votes: 303/522
- Total Votes: 34.221,344/68,328,015
Accomplishments:
The New Frontier
- minimum wage was raised from $1 to $1.25
- Cut tariffs for free trade with European Common Market
- sought to encourage mutual understanding between Americans and people of other nations and cultures
Cold War
T.V. Speech
- USSR demanded for attention with their weapons
- Coping method to keep missiles out is by issuing a naval blockade
- Closest call to Nuclear War
Khrushchev Calls Back Ships
- sends apology to JFK
- USSR remove missiles if US ends blockade
- US agreed to request and withdrew missiles in Turkey
"Flexible Response"
- Dealt with the USSR
- Crafted with the aid of foreign policy veteran Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara
- Allowed the president to combat Soviet advances around the world through a variety of means
- Kennedy could:
- send money or troops to fight Communist insurgents
- authorize the CIA to topple an unfriendly government
- use nuclear weapons.
Kennedy + Vietnam
- Kennedy first applied his new doctrine to the problem in Vietnam, causing greater problems than Laos had been.
- US was funding Ngo Dinh Diem’s corrupt South Vietnamese regime since Eisenhower first pledged support after the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954
- Most South Vietnamese, who hated Diem, also resented the United States for keeping him in power
- They threatened to overthrow him on numerous occasions
- To avoid problems, Kennedy increased American commitment by sending “military advisers” or about 15,000 U.S. servicemen to Saigon
- When anti-Diem sentiment continued to intensify, the US switched their views and allowed a 1963 coup to overthrow Diem.
- Kennedy’s decision to send “military advisers” to South Vietnam caused a drastic increase of U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese civil war following:
- Eisenhower previously funded the anti-Communist faction
- Truman funded Greece and Turkey in the late 1940s for similar reasons
- US troops presence issued a shift in war from South Vietnam to the United States
- The first group opened the floodgates, and spurred the addition of more troops soon following
- Eventually, Kennedy and future presidents would see the political impossibility to recall U.S. forces without first defeating the pro-Communist North Vietnamese.
- Kennedy’s decision = a costly mistake that entangled the US in the longest and least successful war in American history to date.
Cuba
Bays of Pigs Invasion (Apr 1961)
- Kennedy allowed the training of anti-Castro CIA officials left Nicaragua to end Castro's regime
- US's failure to materialize causes their capture by Cuban forces
- Kennedy accepts full responsibility for the failure but continues to try and assassinate Castro
Cuban Missile Crisis
- Controversy brewing between Cuba and US
- Castro turns to USSR for help
- US feels threatened by missiles being placed on Cuba
- Cuba rebuttals by saying its a safety precaution
- USSR points out US missiles in Turkey
- Everyone was ordered to:
- Put nukes abroad bombers
- Set up for missile launch
- Naval fleet and armed forces = on stand-by
Berlin
- Kennedy’s first foreign policy crisis occurred when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened to sign a treaty with East Germany that would cut off the city of Berlin from the United States and Western Europe
- USSR never signed any such treaty
- They still built a massive wall of concrete and barbed wire around West Berlin in 1961 to divide East and West Germany
- Made to prevent East Germans from escaping to freedom in the Western-controlled part of the city.
- Guard towers were installed
- the “no-man’s-land” between the inner and outer walls was mined and booby-trapped, which added difficultly for East Germans escape to West without death
- Came to be the most famous symbol of the Cold War
Kennedy and Civil RIghts
- 40 African American put into government
- Thurgood Marshall = Second Circuit Appeals Court
- creation of Committe on Equal Employment Oppurtunity
- JFK demands ICC to issue fines on Southern States who segregated bus stops
- an African American Air Force veteran
- denied admission to the University of Mississippi
- attempted to register four times without success
- Long telephone conversations between the president, the attorney general, and Governor Ross Barnett failed to produce a solution
- When federal marshals accompanied Meredith for registration, rioting erupted
- Two people died and dozens were injured
- JFK mobilized the National Guard and sent federal troops to the campus
- Meredith registered and attended his first class the next day, which caused the end of segregation at the University of Mississippi
Civil Rights Bills
- not passed by President Kennedy because of his passing
- left in the hands of Lyndon B. Johnson.
- Johnson used his connections, pre-VP, to pass the Civil Rights Act as a way to honor President Kennedy
- Provisions of the Act passed on July 2, 1964:
- protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests
- outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce
- authorizing the U.S. Attorney General's Office to file legal suits to enforce desegregation in public schools
- authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination
- outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding 25 people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints.
- crucial step in achieving the initial goal: full legal equality.
Kennedy's Assassination
When: November 22, 1963
Where: Dallas, Texas
Assassin: Lee Harvey
Overview:
- while the president was riding in a motorcade
- Assassin, armed with a rifle and hiding in a nearby book depository, shot Kennedy as he passed
- VP Lyndon Johnson = Kennedy’s successor
- Within an hour and a half of the assassination, Oswald was shot and killed two days later in a Dallas police station (and on live television) by Jack Ruby