”One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
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Transcript of JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
JOHN FITZGERALD
KENNEDY“For One Brief
Shining Moment….Camelot”
ELECTION OF 1960• JFK VS. NIXONRecession/Soviet Fears
– Promised active leadership
– Candidates very similar in positions
– Close election
– TV & Civil Rights helped JFK win
Kennedy the Candidate• Wealthy family
• Organized campaign
• Handsome
• Charisma
• Would be youngest ever elected
• Inexperience• Roman Catholic
– Why would people be fearful of these things?
TELEVISED DEBATES• First ever
• Nixon hoped to make JFK look bad in foreign policy
• Camera loved JFK, not so much for Nixon
• TV audience = JFK• Radio audience =
Nixon
Civil Rights Leads to Victory
• King arrested in Alabama, sentenced to hard labor for minor traffic violation
• Bobby Kennedy got judge to release King on bail
• Votes helped carry key states
The Kennedy Mystique• First Family fascinated the
public
• Youth and vibrancy in the white house- modern day Camelot
• Invited artists, celebrities, scientists & poets into White House
• 1st lady- fashion icon
• Appealing young family
The Best and the Brightest• Surrounded himself with a team
of young group of advisors
• Robert McNamara-sec of defense
• Dean Rusk-sec of state
• Robert Kennedy-attorney general.
Kennedy Takes Over• Hard line on
Communism
• Redefine nuclear strategy– massive retaliation not
an option– flexible response
• strengthen conventional weapons
• provide more options• led to massive defense
spending• Created Green Berets
Bay of Pigs
• Fidel Castro takes over Cuba
• Friendly w/Soviets
• Ike had CIA train rebels for Cuban invasion
• JFK approves plan
• Disaster - Embarrassment
• JFK said he would resist further Communist expansion
Cuban Missile Crisis• Khrushchev
promised to defend Cuba
• Sent nuclear weapons to Cuba
• JFK warns we won’t put up with it!
Cuban Missile Crisis• U-2 spy planes
deliver photographic evidence
• Missiles could get to US in minutes
• Brink of nuclear war
Global game of chicken• US Navy quarantines
island - no more Soviet ships to Cuba
• Khrushchev offers to remove missiles if we agreed not to invade Cuba
• US agrees and also removes missiles in Turkey
• Castro closed Cuba’s door, many migrated while they could
Ich Bin Ein Berliner…OOPS
• Berlin Crisis– People trying to
escape to West Berlin
– Khrushchev builds Berlin Wall, with armed guards
– Symbol of oppression
– Finally came down in ‘89
Ways to Ease Tension• Hot Line
– Direct communication in time of crisis
• Limited Test Ban Treaty– no more testing of
nukes in atmosphere
The New Frontier• Difficult/couldn’t
gather enough votes from Congress
• Tended to “play it safe”
• Challenged people to volunteer– “Ask not what
your country can do for you;ask what you can do for your country.”
New Frontier Programs• Economy at home
– deficit spending by govt
– increase min. wage-$1.25
– pump $ into economy• Poverty Abroad
– Peace Corps• volunteer assistance
to developing nations– Alliance for Progress
• economic and technical help for Latin America
Race for Space• Yuri Gagarin
becomes 1st human in space
• US should commit to putting man on moon and returning him safely
From the Earth to the Moon
• NASA goes into overdrive-new tech
• Universities/industry• John Glenn orbits
earth 3x in 1962• 1969: Neil
Armstrong 1st person to set foot on moon
JFK Acts on Poverty & Civil Rights
• Called for “national assault” on poverty
• Ordered Justice Dept. to investigate injustices
• Proposed civil rights bill