1. Does the myth reflect reality?
John F. Kennedy
Does the myth reflect reality?

2. JFK’s New Frontier 1960 Presidential Election Domestic programs
Television Campaign
Debate, Kennedy Commercial, Nixon Commercial
Major issues: Cold War, arms race, space race, poverty, Civil Rights, economy, etc.
Kennedy wins narrowly, promises progress
Domestic programs
Most languished in conservative Congress
Tax cuts, defense spending, space exploration
Peace Corps
Foreign Policy
See notes on Eisenhower and Kennedy Cold War Policies

3. 1960 Election: Kennedy vs. Nixon
Nixon had been Vice –President for eight years
JFK began his political career in Congress in 1946 then moved to the Senate in 1952.
Kennedy only second Catholic to run for President
Mythology of first televised debate
Kennedy wins
Inaugural address struck a hopeful message

4. Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon
Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon during the second of three televised debates held during the 1960 election campaign. Moderator Frank McGee sits at a desk upstage, facing a panel of newsmen. Eighty-five million viewers watched at least one of the first-ever televised debates, which both reflected and increased the power of television in the electoral process.

5. MAP 27.2 The Election of 1960 MAP 27.2 The Election of 1960
Kennedy’s popular vote margin over Nixon was only a little over 100,000 votes, making this one of the closest elections in American history.

6. John F. Kennedy and the Cold War
Addressed Americans’ concern about the “missile gap”
Soviet government under Nikita Khrushchev felt Kennedy was young and inexperienced
The two leaders met once in Vienna – Kennedy refused to allow West Berlin to be turned over to East Germany – 82% of Americans supported a war if necessary
JFK speaking in Berlin

7. Bay of Pigs Castro leads successful revolution in 1959
Eisenhower breaks off relations and imposes economic sanctions(still in effect today)
CIA planned covert operation - Bay of Pigs invasion
1400 Cuban exiles killed or captured
Public relations disaster for Kennedy

8. Berlin Wall
August 13, 1961 – put barbed wire up to cut off West Berlin
Overtime a full-scale war was erected
Kennedy- “A wall is better than a war”
Kennedy visited Wall in June ’63 “Ich bin ein Berliner”

9. 24.17 Berlin Wall
Two sisters living in West Berlin chat with their grandparents across the barbed wire that divided East and West Berlin. Before East Germany replaced the barbed wire with a concrete wall, many East Germans escaped to the West by jumping over the flimsy barricade.

10. Cuban Missile Crisis Oct. 1962 – “13 Days”
Soviets building missile launching pads in Cuba for short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles
Estimated to be operational in two weeks
U.S. had bases in Italy, Britain and Turkey aimed at the Soviet Union

11. Distance between Cuba and Major U.S. Cities, 1962

12. Cuban Missile Crisis

13. Cuban Missile Crisis
U.S. places a “quarantine”, a naval blockade to prevent Soviet ships from arming the launching sites with nuclear missiles
Soviet ships turn back, missile bases dismantled
U.S. secretly agrees to remove missiles from Turkey, pledges to not conduct another invasion attempt
1963 – Britain, U.S. and U.S.S.R. sign Limited Test Ban Treaty

14. Kennedy Assassination
Killed in Dallas Nov. 22, 1963
“Where were you when Kennedy was killed”
Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald(“Lone Gunman Theory”)
Warren Commission investigates conspiracy
Zapruder film