JOHN F. KENNEDY
Election 1960
Election 1960
Kennedy (Democrat)
Running Mate Lyndon B. Johnson
Electoral Vote 303
Popular Vote34,220,984
Nixon (Republican)
Running Mate Henry Cabot Lodge, JR.
Electoral Vote 219
Popular Vote34,108,157
- Kennedy won the election in a pretty tight race
- New Frontier Campaign
The Cold War
His policy was a "Flexible Response" it was the defense Secretary's strategy to have options and could be ready to respond to the opposition
Vietnam
- In 1961, JFK increased the number of military advisers (Troops) in South Vietnam in order to help protect Diem from the communists long enough to allow him to enact basic social reforms.
- JFK wanted to continue Eisenhower's policy of minimal deployment of troops
Berlin
- After WWII Germany was split in two US controlled west USSR controlled East
- Soviets wanted Americans to leave but they wouldn't
- So in response the Soviets built a wall in Berlin separating the East and West called the Berlin Wall
- The Ultimate goal of the wall was to prevent western ideals spreading into the east half
Cuba and The Missile Crisis
- A US spy plane photographed nuclear missile launch sites being built in Cuba by the USSR, lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Kennedy responded with a Naval blockade, this made the Soviets back down
Civil Rights
- Kennedy gained the black vote by promising to pass civil rights legislation.
- In shock of the brutal events surrounding MLK's campaign in Birmingham, delivered a speech via T.V. and radio to the nation on June 11, 1963 in which he dedicated himself to finding a solution to the racial problems.
- In August of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. led 200,000 black and white demonstrators on a peaceful "March on Washington" in support of the proposed new civil rights legislation.
Assassination
- November 22, 1963
- Kennedy was riding in a ford Lincoln in Dallas
- Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald from a warehouse
- Jack Ruby killed Oswald
- Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president.