John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States who served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. As president, Kennedy advocated for expanding civil rights and launched the "New Frontier" domestic program. In foreign policy, his administration escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam and had a major confrontation with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, leaving the country in mourning.
2. • 1960 Election
• John F. Kennedy v. Richard Nixon (VP of IKE)
• 1st televised presidential debates
• 1st Catholic ever elected
• YOUNGEST PRESIDENT
• “New Frontier”
• Inaugural address most remember in American
History
(Watch start to 2:00, then start again at 12:00)
Presidential Election of 1960
3. •35th President of the U.S., 1961-63
•VP: Lyndon B. Johnson of TX
•Served in WWII
•Senator from Massachusetts
•Popular president
ACHIEVEMENTS / EVENTS
•New Frontier
•Space race---put a man on the moon
•Berlin Wall built
•Alliance for Progress and Peace Corp
•Cuban Missile Crisis
•U.S. involvement in Vietnam
•Negotiates first nuclear test ban treaty with Soviets
•Assassinated, Nov. 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald?
4. Kennedy & “Camelot”
John F. Kennedy in oval office
with son
The Kennedy Family and Family Dogs, 14 August 1963, Hyannis
Port, Massachusetts
President and Mrs. Kennedy, 20 January 1962,
Washington, D.C.,
5. Kennedy's New Frontier
Domestic Program
•Federal funding for education
•Medical care for the elderly
•Government intervention to halt
the recession with tax cuts.
•End to racial discrimination.
•Established
•Alliance for Peace and Peace Corps
to help Third World countries
•President's Committee on Equal
Employment Opportunity to end
racial discrimination in hiring of
government employees.
6.
7. Kennedy’s Campaign for Medicare
• Basis of Medicare
• Men 65 years & older & women 62 years & older can receive
assistance
• Also the disabled can receive help
• Working people should start contributing now
• Inspired by & eventually tied to the Social Security system
8. “SPACE RACE”
NASA
In President Kennedy’s address to
Congress on May 25, 1961, he
urged the country to make
sending a man to the moon a
national priority:
“I believe that this nation should
commit itself to achieving the
goal, before this decade is out, of
landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth.
No single space project in this
period will be more impressive to
mankind, or more important for
the long-range exploration of
space; and none will be so difficult
or expensive to accomplish.”
• Address Before a Joint Session of Congress,
25 May 1961
Estimated cost:
$7 billion to $9
billion
9. “New Frontier” impossible to
complete
• Due to an extremely
conservative
Congress.
• Disappointed many
civil rights activists =
feared splitting
Democratic Party.
• New Frontier ideas led
to President
Johnson's "Great
Society
11. Letter From a Birmingham Jail
• King, wrote the letter after being arrested at a peaceful protest in
Birmingham, Alabama.
Defense of Civil Disobedience
The letter was in response to a letter sent to him by eight
Alabama Clergymen called, “A Call For Unity.”
The men recognized that injustices were occurring in Birmingham but
believed that the battles for freedom should be fought in the courtroom in
not in the streets.
12. FREEDOM SUMMERS AND RIDERS During the summers of 1961 to 1964, groups
of Civil Rights activists boarded buses bound for the South to register
civil rights
African Americans to vote.
15. The Freedom Rides
The Purpose of the Freedom Rides
• The 1960 Supreme Court case Boynton
v. Virginia expanded the earlier ban on
bus segregation to include bus stations
and restaurants that served interstate
travelers.
• In 1961, CORE and SNCC organized the
Freedom Rides to test southern
compliance with this ruling.
Violence Greets the Riders
• Although the freedom riders expected
confrontation, the violence which
greeted a bus in Anniston, Alabama,
was more than they had anticipated.
• A heavily armed white mob disabled
the bus and then set it on fire. As riders
escaped from the bus, they were
beaten by the mob.
GOVERNMENT ACTION on Civil Rights
•Attorney General Robert Kennedy had originally been opposed to lending federal
support to the Freedom Rides. However, he later sent federal marshals to protect
the riders.
•Kennedy also pressured the Interstate Commerce Commission to prohibit
segregation in all interstate transportation. The Justice Department began to sue
communities that did not comply.
16. James Meredith and
the Integration of Ole Miss
1962
• In 1962, James H. Meredith,
Jr., an African American Air
Force veteran, was denied
admission to the University of
Mississippi, known as "Ole
Miss."
• When federal marshals
accompanied Meredith to
campus to register for classes,
rioting erupted.
• Two people died and dozens
were injured.
• President Kennedy mobilized
the National Guard and sent
federal troops to the campus.
• Meredith registered the next
day and attended his first
class, and segregation ended
at the University of
Mississippi.
17. Integrating the University of
Alabama
• Alabama Governor George
Wallace had vowed at his
inauguration to defend
"segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, and segregation
forever."
• In June 1963, he upheld his
promise to "stand in the
schoolhouse door" to prevent
two black students from enrolling
at the University of Alabama.
• To protect the students and
secure their admission, President
Kennedy federalized the Alabama
National Guard. And on June 11,
the president addressed the
nation.
*Wallace would later run
for President and be shot
in the back.
18. •August of 1963, Civil
Rights March on
Washington, Martin
Luther King gives his
“I Have a Dream
civil rights
Speech”.
•Considered to be one of
the best speeches in
American History.
In August 1963, more than 200,000 Americans of all
races celebrated the centennial of the Emancipation
Proclamation by joining the March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom.
21. 1960
The U-2 Affair
• On May 1, an American high-altitude
U-2 spy plane is
shot down on a mission over
the Soviet Union.
• After the Soviets announce
the capture of pilot Francis
Gary Powers, the United
States recants earlier
assertions that the plane
was on a weather research
mission.
22. BAY OF PIGS- Cuba
• 1960
• C.I.A covertly supports a hostile uprising
in Cuba against Communist leader Fidel
Castro
• America supplies military needs to Cuban
exiles
• MASSIVE FAILURE
Castro & new Soviet Leader Krushchev,
23. U.S. Military Involvement in
Vietnam Begins
Kennedy elected 1960
Increases military
“advisors” to 16,000
1963: JFK supports a
Vietnamese military coup
d’etat – Diem and his
brother are murdered
(Nov. 2)
Kennedy was assassinated
just weeks later (Nov. 22)
President John F. Kennedy speaks
from podium during a press
conference; maps of Laos at left
identifies "Communist Rebel Areas"
as of 22 March 1961. State
Department Auditorium,
Washington, D.C.
24. The War in Southeast Asia
vn map
“Domino Theory”
Must “contain” communism and not
allow it to spread. If it does, it would
lead to more countries falling to the
communists.
25. 1961 -
Berlin Wall
• Soviet Premier:
Nikita Khrushchev
• On August 15,
communist
authorities begin
construction on the
Berlin Wall to
prevent East
Germans from
fleeing to West
Berlin.
Soviet and American tanks
face off. "Checkpoint
Charlie," August 1961
26. 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
• After Bay of Pigs invasion,
the Soviet Union installed
nuclear missiles in Cuba.
• After U-2 flights Kennedy
ordered a naval blockade
of Cuba on October 22
until the Soviet Union
removed its missiles.
• On October 28, the
Soviets agreed to remove
the missiles, defusing one
of the most dangerous
confrontations of the Cold
War.
35. • Kennedy Assassination
• (Nov. 22 1963)
• Lee Harvey Oswald from 6th
of Texas Book Depository
• Warren Commission Report
• Suspected Conspiracy?
• Leads to distrust of
government
