John F. Kennedy
Brady Knippa
Overview
- Kennedy Served in the United States Senate from 1953 to 1960, when he ran for president.
- Kennedy was nominated by the democrats in 1960 with his running mate Lyndon B. Johnson, but his Catholicism cause skepticism in the Bible Belt.
- He gained support in the large industrial centers from workers, Catholics, and African Americans which led to his presidential victory.
- He proposed "Peace Corps" of young people that would usher in a "New Frontier" by providing aid to underdeveloped countries.
The Cold War Era
- The "flexible response" was created in 1961 to allow the US military to be able to respond in large numbers quickly around the world.
- Kennedy met Khrushchev at Vienna in 1961, and after many threats, the Soviets began constructing the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of people from East Berlin to West Berlin.
- In 1961, Kennedy increased the number of "military advisors" in South Vietnam to protect Diem from the communists.
- Kennedy's administration created a coup that killed Diem in 1963.
- In 1962, Soviet nuclear missiles were placed in Cuba which caused the Cuban Missile Crisis, creating a panic in the United States.
- For a week the US waited as the Soviets finally came to an agreement to pull out the missiles, but only if the US would stop its naval blockade and refrain from invading the island
The Civil Rights Movement
- Kennedy received the black vote in 1960 because of his promise to pass civil rights legislation.
- In 1963 he gave a speech to the nation about fixing racial issues in the South.
- Kennedy was appalled at the occurrences in Birmingham, Alabama.
- In August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful March on Washington in which about 200,000 participated.
Assassination in Dallas, TX
- On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was shot while riding in an open limo in Dallas, Texas by the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
- Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby as revenge for the killing of Kennedy.
- Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president and kept most of Kennedy's cabinet members during his presidency.