Kennedy
Kennedy's Election
- 1960
- Democrat
- Ran against Nixon
- Ran with Henry Cabot Lodge Junior
- Was often assailed for his Catholic beliefs
- Won by around 100,000 popular votes and about 100 Electoral votes
- Spoke of a New Frontier approaching America of new questions to be answered and problems to be solved
- Called for creation of Peace Corps by youth to help underdeveloped countries
The Cold War Under Kennedy
- USSR constructs Berlin wall in 1961 to stop population flow from East to West Germany
- Decolonized areas such as the Congo began erupting into violence
- Laos in S.E. Asia released from French rule and falling to communists
- Kennedy sought more diplomatic means of peace as he lacked force to do otherwise effectively
- Moved from "massive retaliation" policy to "flexible response" which called for making many options available for different situations, created Green Berets as special forces unit
- More "military advisers" (read soldiers) sent to S. Vietnam to keep order against rising number of dissidents against Diems rule
- Eventually led coup against uncooperative Diem in 63
- Kennedy extended Marshall Plan to Latin America in 1961 with Alianza para el Progreso, was not very successful
- Attempted to overthrow Castro in Cuba with invasion of exiled anti-communists in 1961 at the Bay of Pigs
- Surrendered due to lack of support from U.S. at urgings of Kennedy
- U.S. aggravated Castro into further alignment with USSR
- USSR began arming Cuba with nuclear missiles, beginning Cuban Missile Crisis
- Kennedy ordered blockade of Cuba to cease further movement of arms
- Khrushchev, premier of USSR finally called off Soviet cruisers from approaching the blockade border maintained by US
Kennedy and Civil Rights
- Had promised in campaign to end segregation
- Slowed by lack of control over congress
- Freedom Riders begin working to end segregation in interstate busses in 1960
- Federal marshals were dispatched to protect them from violent riot reactions
- Helped MLK establishe a Voter Education Project to help blacks in the south to vote
- In Mississippi, 1962, a black veteran, James Meridith, was met with violence for trying to register at a University
- Kennedy dispatched federal marshals to enroll him
- MLK begins campaign for equality in Birmingham in 1963
- Kennedy promised legislation in support of the issue, and MLK led a march on Washington in support, but violent reactions bogged down the bill long after assassination
Kennedy's Assassination
- November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot in the head in Dallas by a concealed rifleman
- The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot to death by self appointed avenger Jack Ruby
- Official investigations could not pin down exact details of the cause of the assassination