Megan Haddad Emily Lepas Sarah Pramono Kellie Hall Cassandra Quijada Terms #1 Megan Haddad Emily Lepas Sarah Pramono Kellie Hall Cassandra Quijada

1960 Election: Nixon and Kennedy The democratic candidate was John F. Kennedy and the republican candidate was Richard M. Nixon Both candidates believed in foreign affairs, the fight against communism, and civil rights. Kennedy seemed more involved with current issues and liked to discuss the Civil Right’s Movement, while Nixon didn’t really bring up many of these topics. The election was close, but Kennedy ended up winning.

First Televised Debate Between Nixon and Kennedy Nixon refused to wear makeup and looked exhausted Kennedy was relaxed and charming Those who listened to the radio debate pegged Nixon as the winner, but Americans who watched the televised debate declared Kennedy the clear winner It is said that the debate won Kennedy the election

Initiatives of the Kennedy administration Domestic reforms: Kennedy’s New Frontier plan aimed at improving the economy, fighting racial discrimination, and exploring space. Kennedy tried stimulating the economy by: proposing tax credits to encourage business Increasing military spending to create new jobs Accepted the concept of deficit spending Having dramatic middle class tax cuts and taxing the wealthier At first Kennedy took a passive approach on the civil rights movement, but later approached the problem directly by proposing new bills that ended discrimination

Initiatives of the Kennedy administration International involvement The Peace Corps is created in 1961 to send American volunteers around the world to assist developing countries by providing technical, health, and educational services. Kennedy responds to any communist threat, like the Cuban Missile Crisis, and builds the nation’s army so that it would be prepared to fight any type of conflict

Bay of Pigs Invasion The turn of Cuba to communism scared many Americans During his Presidency, Eisenhower had begun to organize an undercover CIA operation to train Cuban refugees and send them back in to retake the island Kennedy became President before the operation was put in motion Under pressure from the CIA and his brother, Kennedy authorized the invasion, but withdrew the air support The operation was a complete failure, and all but 300 of the 1,400 invaders were either killed or captured

Cuban Missile Crisis In August and September of 1962, the United States Intelligence discovered that the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile sites in Cuba Major east coast cities and the Panama Canal were in range of the missiles Kennedy demanded to have the missiles removed and approved a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent the Soviets from completing the bases Kennedy said he would remove American missiles from Turkey and Italy if the Soviets removed theirs from Cuba The Soviets agreed and in 1963 the U.S., U.S.S.R., and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which would end aboveground nuclear tests

Space Race Competition between the USSR and the United States to develop technology to successfully land on the moon The Launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 in 1957 made the Americans question their technology and see they were behind NASA was created shortly after in 1958 May of 1961 NASA put astronaut Alan Shepard into a suborbital space flight aboard the Project Mercury Space Capsule Freedom 7 July 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the moon and accomplished Kennedy’s hopes of winning the space race.

Assassination of Kennedy Kennedy was campaigning in Texas, riding through the streets in an open air car. The assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, fired three times The Warren Commission was a government team assigned to investigate the assassination; they named Oswald “the lone killer” Many conspiracy theories have arisen in regards to the assassination, including one that blamed the mafia Lee Harvey Oswald was killed in jail before he could be questioned