Chapter 19
The Kennedy and Johnson
Years
Section 1 Kennedy and the Cold
War
Presidential Election of 1960
Electoral
Vote
Popular Vote % Electoral
Vote
% Popular
Vote
John Kennedy
(Democrat)
303
34,227,096
56.4
49.7
Richard Nixon
(Rebublican)
219
34,107,646
40.8
49.6
Televised debates
First televised debate
–
–
–
–
Nixon was pale and exhausted
Watched by 70 million people
Those who listened by radio believed
Nixon won
Those who watched TV believed
Kennedy won
Kennedy supported African
Americans and the civil rights
movement
Nixon
– Struggling family
– Attended Whittier College
– Vice President under Eisenhower
Kennedy
–
–
–
–
Wealthy family
Family of politicians
Attended Harvard
Catholic
Similarities
–
–
–
–
Born in the 20th century
In the Navy during WWII
Congressmen
Supported fight against
Communism
Cold War
Fidel CastroCommunist leader of
Cuba
Cold war- intense
economic, political,
military, and
ideological rivalry
between nations that
stops short of military
conflict
Kennedy’s first goal
would be to build up
the military
“missile gap”- Soviet
Union had more
nuclear missiles than
the U.S.
“flexible response”prepared the U.S. for
war
Bay of Pigs
– April 17, 1961
– CIA recruited Cuban exiles
to overthrow Castro
Cuban Missile Crisis
– 1962 missiles built in Cuba
– Kennedy demanded
removal
– Blamed Soviet premier,
Nikita Khrushchev
– Blockade Cuba
– Removal of missiles in
Cuba and Turkey
– Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Third World- Developing
nations in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America
Soviet’s believed
communism promoted
equality and capitalism
created poverty and
inequalities
Peace Corps (1961)provided technical,
educational, and health
services
The Berlin Crisis
Conference in Vienna
– June 1961
– Khrushchev wanted
the U.S. to end military
presence in West
Berlin
– Kennedy refused
– Conference was
suppose to ease Cold
War tensions, instead
it increased them