John F. Kennedy
Election of 1960
First T.V. debate!
Issues:
Communism & the Missile Gap
Civil Rights
Age (43)
Religion (Catholic)
Candidates

Party Vote

States
Kennedy (Mass)
Dem
34,227,096
22
Johnson (Tex)
Nixon (Calif)
Rep
34,108,546
26
Lodge
Domestic Policy -- New Frontier
Youngest President ever elected
Youngest Cabinet
Robert McNamara
. . . . . . . . Sec. of Def.
(Pres. of Ford)
Dean Rusk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sec. of State
(Pres. Rockefeller Foundation)
(Teacher UGA)
Robert Kennedy. . . . . . . . . . .
Attorney General
(Pres. Brother)
McGeorge Bundy . . . . . . . . . .
National Security
Camelot
Kennedy vs. Congress
Trouble with:
Fed. Aid for Education
Rep. Congress
Dept. Of Urban Affairs
Conservative Dem.
Limited Success with:
Social Security Benefits increase
Federal waters Pollution Control Act
Econ. Problems -- Recession & Creeping Inflation
Wanted to stimulate the economy by:
Project Grants
Minimum wage increased $1.00 to $1.25
Lowered tariffs with Europe
Problems with the Steel Industry
Labor held wages down
Steel Companies raised prices anyway
Upset JFK--He Threatened:
Boycott companies that supplied defense
Promised Tax investigation
Civil Rights
Kennedy had to overcome some major problems.
Southern Conservatives
Freedom Riders / Sit Ins / Birmingham
James Meredith /University of Mississippi
Ross Barnett / M.L.K. Jr. / March on D.C.
Foreign Policy
1. Peace Corps -- Help poverty stricken areas of the world
2. Flexible Response vs. Massive Retaliation
3. Bay of Pigs
Plan -- made by the CIA
Anti-Castro Cubans
Trained by our CIA in Guatemala
Future Foreign Policy Implications?
A great embarrassment to JFK and the U.S.
4. Vienna Summit -- Meeting between Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev.
Khrushchev abused Kennedy about Cuba.
5. Berlin Crisis -- 2 months after the Summit, the Soviets built the Berlin Wall.
6. Alliance for Progress --
Charter between U.S. and 19 Latin Am. countries
Program to improve social and econ conditions in Latin America
Basically a failure
7. Viet Nam -- French Indochina:
Dien Bien Phu
Ho Chi Minh - North/Communist
Ngo Dinh Diem - South Leader
1954 - 61 U.S. pumped $1 billion into South VN
Diem/Catholic
The People/Buddhist
*Authoritarian Rule*
Diem Assassinated -- U.S. Advisors
Guerrilla War
8. Cuban Missile Crisis
U. S. discovered missiles in Cuba -- U.S. blockaded worked -- But ...
9. Death in Dallas Nov. 22, 1963 --
Warren Commission Report
Lee Harvey Oswald
Texas School Book Deposit
Dallas, Texas -- Parkland Hospital
Single-Bullet Theory
Gov. John Connally
Jack Ruby