John F. Kennedy and the New
Frontier
Chapter 27 Section 6
Notes 6.0
What were the results of the 1960
election?
Camelot….
Kennedy’s New Frontier..
• Higher minimum wage
• Greater federal aid to education
• Increased Social Security
• Medical care for the elderly
• Support for public housing
• Anti-poverty measures
Successes….
• Slight increase in minimum wage
• Modest expansion of Social Security
• Education acts supporting colleges and
universities
• NASA and the Space Programs
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
Failures of the New Frontier
• Over 300 bills sent to Congress – less
than 50% passed
• Congress rejected federal aid for :
– Medical care for the elderly, education,
cities, and mass transportation
• Reasons: Close election – Kennedy
faced opposition from southern
democrats and conservative
republicans
JFK and Civil Rights
• At first wanted to avoid the issue – too
controversial
• RFK was ordered to investigate racial
injustices in the South
– desegregate Old Miss (James Meredith)
• Sent a Civil Rights bill to Congress in
1963 (becomes the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/1964-civil-rights-act.htm
JFK’s Domestic Legacy?
• Strengthened executive branch
• White House staff appointed by
the President made many key
decisions…
Kennedy’s Foreign Policy?
• Shifted from aggressive containment to efforts at
easing tensions
• Built up nuclear / conventional weapons and
furthered covert operations
• Increased defense budget
• Created elite force – Special Forces – Green
Berets to supplement CIA covert operations
Peace Corps
• Young volunteers
sent to third world
nations for 2 years
• Provide technical
support and
educational
assistance
• 35,000 volunteers in
60 nations
Alliance for Progress –
offered economic and technical assistance to
Latin American countries ($20 billion in aid) –
A Marshall Plan for Latin America
Kennedy and Vietnam…
• Pursued containment
• Supported the Southern Ngo Dinh Diem gov’t
against communist insurgents – Vietcong
• Sent Green Berets and military advisors
• In 1963, sent 16,000 combat troops to support
Diem
• Diem’s regime corrupt – failed to win support
of the people and he was assassinated
Buddhist monk
burning himself
to death in
protest over
Diem’s
repressive
regime.
Kennedy and Vietnam, cont.
• South Vietnamese army continued to
disintegrate
• 1963: with CIA help – a group of
Vietnamese generals
assassinated Diem and
his top advisers
• South Vietnam be ruled by generals for
the duration of the war
Berlin Wall?
• 1961 – JFK met with Khrushchev in Vienna to
discuss the future of Germany
• Khrushchev wanted a permanent division and to
force U.S. out of W. Berlin
• 3 million East Germans had fled
to W. Berlin since end of WWII
• Soviets built the wall
•
•
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6nQhss4Yc
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/speech-3376
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
The Bay of Pigs…
• Jan. 1, 1959 – Fidel Castro seized power
in Cuba
• Many were sympathetic…
• Eisenhower and CIA
– Suspicious of land reforms
– Revoked U.S. aid
• Castro turned to the S.U.
• U.S. severed diplomatic relations
The Invasion?
• CIA trained and armed Cuban exiles for an
invasion
• Kennedy inherited the plan – but decided
against air force cover
• CIA thought there would be a popular
uprising
• It was a disaster and an embarrassment to
Kennedy
Cuban Missile Crisis…
• Most serious confrontation of the Cold War
• Castro fearing U.S. invasion asked for
Soviet assistance
• S.U. sent intermediate range nuclear
missiles to Cuba
• U.S. U-2 flights took pictures of missile
silos –
• U.S. saw this as a direct threat to
American cities
October 22, 1962 – Kennedy
addressed the nation…
• Informed the nation
of danger
• Demanded
removal of all
missiles
• Ordered a strict
naval “quarantine”
of Cuba
The Brink of War…
• 100,000 US troops readied in Florida to
invade Cuba
• Oct. 26-27 Khrushchev ordered 25 Soviet
ships away from Cuba – avoided
confrontation
• Khrushchev offered to remove missiles if
U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba
• Also wanted removal of American weapons
in Turkey
• We complied – crisis over
Soviet ships on the way to Cuba…
Outcome of the Crisis…
• Khrushchev’s prestige hurt – Kennedy’s
bolstered
• Hot Line set up between the two countries
• Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
– Prohibited above ground, outer space, and
underwater nuclear weapons tests
– Underground testing – O.K.
The Assassination of JFK…
• Dallas, Texas – November 22, 1963
• Accused killer – Lee Harvey Oswald
• Two days later – Oswald shot and killed
on national T.V. by Jack Ruby
• Chief Justice Earl Warren appointed to
head a commission to investigate the
killing – Warren Commission said Oswald
was the lone gunman
The Kennedy’s Arrive
in Dallas
LBJ, Jackie Kennedy,
and JFK
This well-known Polaroid picture was being taken at the moment of the
assassination by Mary Moorman who stood on the south side of Elm Street. Blowups show two figures behind the fence next to the Grassy Knoll resembling a man
with a rifle (The Black Dog Man) and a police officer (The Badge Man). The two
men never have been found.
6.5mm Italian-made Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action rifle with a 4 power Japanese-made
telescopic sight--While the FBI examination of the rifle showed no fingerprints, the DPD
allegedly found a palm print belonging to Oswald.
The mysterious path of the bullet according to the Warren Commission.
The image at right is one of the
X-rays of John Kennedy taken at
the Bethesda autopsy. It’s the
"AP" (anterior-posterior) image
of the head.
House Select Committee
Medical illustrator Ida Dox,
working for the House Select
Committee's Forensic Pathology
Panel in the late 1970s,
produced the drawing at right. It
faithfully reflects what the
autopsy photos and x-rays
show, although it is simplified a
bit and the fragments aren't
drawn to scale. You may click on
the image to see a larger
version.