John F. Kennedy
1960-Nov.1963
Election of 1960
-Former VP Richard Nixon ran as the candidate for the republicans
-JFK gets slight victory over Nixon
-Famous quote "Ask not what your country can do for you: ask what you can do for your country" from inaugural speech
-Youngest president to be elected, coincides with his New Frontier spirit
-Leads charge to get rid of inflation, cuts taxes, funds plans to put america on the moon
Popular Vote
Kennedy only surpasses Nixon by 118,574 votes in the 68 million cast across the nation
Electoral College
Kennedy- 303
Nixon- 219*
Cold War
-Force rose in Vietnam along with the US military spending
-Kennedy increased the number of "military Advisers" or troops in South Vietnam to aid Diem
-In Nov. 1963 orders to overthrow Diem, and sent 15,000 troops to Vietnam, hard to prevent the political mess now
-In Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, 1,200 US trained rebels sent in to overthrow Castro, failed and surrendered
- Oct. 1962, Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet installment of missiles just off US in Cuba
-Kennedy chooses naval quarantine, Khrushchev withdrawals missile within a week
-Kennedy Khrushchev meeting in Vienna 1961, Kennedy stands firm, Soviets construct Berlin Wall.
-Preventing further movement from East Germany to West Germany
Civil Rights
-Freedom Riders traveling into the south to spread knowledge on racial segregation often times harshly attacked and injured
-May 1961 federal marshals called into Alabama to help torched freedom riders bus
-MLK jr. had close ties with his family and the Kennedy's as well
-Began his revolution in most segregated city of Birmingham
-Aug. 1963 leads over 200,000 white and black protesters of segregation in the "March on Washington"
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Assassination
-Shooter Lee Harvey Oswald was later killed in revenge by jack Ruby without jurisdiction to take his life.
-VP Lyndon B. Johnson was then sworn in, Preserving that Kennedy spirit along with many cabinet positions and ideals