JOHN F.
KENNEDY
&
THE NEW
FRONTIER
Objective…
• Summarize the significance of
the 1960 election..
John
Fitzgerald
Kennedy
Born
May 29,1917
Died
Nov, 22, 1963
JFK: Biography…
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Wealthy family
Graduated Harvard 1940
WW II vet - Purple Heart
1946-52 US House & Senate
1960 elected U.S. President
The Election of 1960
52) The candidates & issues…
• The Cold War & economy
• RMN: Maturity; experience (VP); anticommunist; well known
• JFK: Youthful; intelligent;
sophisticated; war hero
Election obstacles for JFK…
• Youth…youngest elected (43)
•Catholic
•Inexperienced
53) The impact of the televised debates?...
• JFK strengths…
- Looking at camera
- White shirt
- Youthful
- Handsome
- Confident
• RMN weaknesses…
- Looking at audience
- Blue shirt
- Unshaved
- Older looking
- Nervous
54) What gave the Kennedy
Administration its popular appeal
among the nation’s youth?
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Grace, elegance & wit
Inspires hope,
commitment & sacrifice
Beautiful young wife &
young children
TV loved him
Modern-day Camelot
The 1960 Election
Electoral Vote:
Percentage:
JFK
RMN
303
219
49.7% 49.6%
A difference of 100K votes out of 34M
Closest election of the century
Objective…
• Identify and explain the policies of
the New Frontier.
• Evaluate the performance of the
Kennedy Administration
The assignment….
Summarize & evaluate the performance of the
Kennedy Administration….
- Groups of 3 …Answer the assigned
question
- Poster + Graphic representation
- Explain/ Describe / Support key points
- Issue a letter grade (A,B,C,D, F) &
evaluate the outcome of the program or
event …Support your evaluation
Summarizing the Kennedy
Administration….
1) What were the overall goals of the New Frontier?
2) Why did Kennedy propose the Peace Corps?
3) How successful was the NF in advancing the status of
women?
4) How successful was the NF in advancing the space
program?
5) What was Kennedy's position on Vietnam? What
contribution did he make to the ongoing conflict.
6) Bay of Pigs: Who? - What? - Where? – When - Why?
7) Cuban Missile Crisis: Who? - What? - Where?- When Why?
8) How successful was Kennedy in reducing the threat of
nuclear war?
55) The agenda of the New Frontier…
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Improve the economy
Manage the Cold War
Anti-poverty
Urban renewal
Health care for elderly people
Aid to education
Raise min. wage
Raise Soc. Sec. / Unemployment
The space program
Advance civil rights
The inauguration of JFK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdA1ikkoEc
“Ask not what your
country can do for youask what you can do for
your country” - JFK
The New Frontier
57)
Success
Failures
Success vs. Failure
• Increase min. wage
• Public housing funding
• Higher Ed. Act (1963)…
• 58b) Pres. Com. on the Status of Women…
• 58c) Equal Pay Act (1963)…
• 58d) Revenue Act of (1962)…
• 58e) Expanded NASA…
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Social Security (Modest improvement)
Aid to public schools
Funding mass transit
Medical insurance for retired
56) Why was it difficult for liberal Democrats to
achieve the New Frontier agenda?
58a ) The Peace Corps…
• Goals of the Peace Corps.
1) Help people in foreign countries by
improving: Education; health; education; &
agriculture
2) Promote the understanding of Americans
in foreign countries
The Apollo Missions
"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."
-JFK 1961 address before Congress
• The program goal was to land a human on the Moon.
• Apollo 11 landed the first humans, Neil Armstrong & Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin on the Moon in July of 1969.
• Fulfilled JFK's goal of reaching the Moon before the end of the
decade and before the Soviets.
• The greatest accomplishment of our space program.
59) What do the authors of your text
view as Kennedy’s greatest domestic
achievement?…
An overall strengthening of the executive
branch…
• Direct control & decision making by JFK
• Kennedy’s White House staff made decisions
previously reserved for the Cabinet leaders.
Kennedy
and the
Cold War
Objective…
• Trace the continuing events and policies
of the Cold War through the Kennedy
Administration.
60) Special Forces/
Green Berets…
Motto: “Liberate from
oppression”
"... THE GREEN BERET ...a
symbol of excellence, a badge
of courage, a mark of
distinction in the fight for
freedom."
60) The Alliance for Progress
The Alliance for Progress was initiated by President
Kennedy to establish economic cooperation
between the U.S. and South America.
“Therefore I have called on all people of the
hemisphere to join in a new Alliance for
Progress …a vast cooperative effort,
unparalleled in magnitude and nobility of
purpose to satisfy the basic needs of the
American people for homes, work and land,
health and schools” - JFK March 13, 1961
Kennedy & Vietnam
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A worsening situation
Approves military aid
Approves 16,000 advisors
NO REGULAR TROOPS
“In the final analysis it is their war” - JFK
61) Kennedy & Vietnam…
a. How did Kennedy support the Diem regime…
b. Why did the regime fail to win support…
c. The policy shift in 1963…
d. The Vietcong…
Ngo Dinh Diem
President of South Vietnam
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Catholic dictatorship – Oppressive leader
Believed communism was evil
Ruthlessly crushed opponents
Buddhist monks committed suicide
Monks commit suicide in protest…
“…He never moved a muscle, never
uttered a sound.”
Kennedy & Vietnam
• Diem is an ineffective leader
• Nov, 1963 - CIA pays SV generals to
carry out a coup
• Diem is murdered
The assassination
of Diem
1961
The Cuban Revolution & the Bay of Pigs
62) Why did DDE establish and
economic boycott and sever
diplomatic relations with Cuban
1960?
Castro
&
Khrushchev
63) What was the
Bay of Pigs
Invasion?…
DDE & JFK discuss the Bay
of Pigs Invasion at Camp
David
The US executes an unsuccessful plot to
overthrow Castro…
- Eisenhower plans
- Kennedy approves
- A CIA operation
- 1,189 prisoners & 100 invaders killed
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
April, 1961
64) Why did the B of P invasion fail?…
Prisoners taken at the Bay of Pigs
The Missile Crisis
65) What led to the CMC?… How
was the CMC resolved?…
The U-2 spy plane that
photographed the Soviet
missile sites…
Completed missile site
Missile construction site…
Results of the CMC…
• Washington/ Moscow hotline…
• The U.S. withdraws missiles
from Turkey
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty…
The Soviets build the Berlin Wall to stop people from
escaping from East Berlin…
1961: The Berlin Wall
JFK: The Berlin speech
…“Ich bin ein Berliner”… “I am a Berliner”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6nQhss4Yc
The Assassination of JFK
The Texas
School
Book
Depository
Arriving in Dallas
The presidential motorcade
The JFK Assassination Zapruder Film (Digital version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q91RZko5Gw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfSXkfV_mhA&feature=related
71) Lee Harvey
Oswald…
The media announces the death of JFK…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8Q3cqGs7I&feature=related
The assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald
Live on television Jack ruby murders lee
Harvey Oswald…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awy3h5QK7WI&feature=fvst
Jack Ruby
Swearing in LBJ on Air
Force One during the
return trip from Dallas,
Texas …
JFK’s funeral march
.
The day JFK was buried it was
John-Johns third birthday.
JFK Memorial Video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZsCabQdnhk
The Warren
Commission…
Was the Commission merely
a cover-up? There is
controversy over the issue
even today.
The conclusion reached by the Warren
Commission was that Lee Harvey Oswald
was working alone. Oswald is said to have
fired three shots. The first shot struck
President Kennedy in the upper back,
passed through his body and then struck
Governor John Connally. The second shot
is said to have missed its target. The third
shot struck the President in the head. The
total time for the shots was 4.8 to 5.6
seconds
"THE WINK”
CONGRESSMAN ALBERT THOMAS KNOWINGLY WINKS AT A
SMILING LBJ AFTER THE ASSASSINATION
I forgot about
the test on
Wednesday.
President
Kennedy
&
Attorney
General
Robert
Kennedy
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy:
A hard focus on organized crime & the
Teamsters
• Relentless crusade against organized
crime & the mafia… 800% increase in
organized crime prosecution &
convictions
• Relentless pursuit of Teamsters Union
President Jimmy Hoffa… I.E. Union
corruption under his leadership.