Kennedy’s Thousand DaysKennedy’s Thousand Days

Chapter 27Section (1 &) 2

The New Frontier & the Great SocietyRiddlebarger

The Great Debates

Legacy of this debate?

Kennedy Becomes President

• Contrasting candidates– JFK: from wealthy, political

family in Massachusetts.– Nixon: self-made from

small town in S. California

• Same age but JFK creates image of youth: America’s future

• Nixon seen as the past: IKE’s VP

New Frontier

• JFK emphasized this with his “New Frontier” campaign

• Claims US is falling behind Soviets; poor not realizing US prosperity.

• Nixon defends IKE• Catholic effect• Election is one of closest

in US history

1960 Election Results

*less than 120,000 popular votes separate the candidates out of 69 million

Electoral: JFK: 303 Nixon: 219 Byrd: 15

Kennedy’s New Frontier:Image & Reality

• Use of media to portray image of young, active president– Reality was lots of health

issues.– Young, beautiful wife and 2

young kids shape image.– Jackie Kennedy

• Politically, JFK finds lots of opposition in Congress to his idea– Was successful raising min.

wage & helping poor areas.

Space Program• Space program will come to

symbolize New Frontier• April 1961: Soviets put 1st

man in space & orbits earth– 1st satellite in orbit too:

Sputnik

• Less than year later, U.S. responds with orbit of Earth: John Glenn

• Soviet leader says them beating us shows communist superiority

Kennedy’s Response•US will put a man on the moon•Funding for unmanned space exploration

“This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single project …will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space…But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon…it will be an entire nation.”

- May 25, 1961

The Warren Court

• During Kennedy presidency, a number of Supreme Court rulings shape American society

• Earl Warren, is Chief Justice of the Court• Rulings extend individual rights & freedoms:

– Free lawyers for poor– Search & seizure at local levels– Religious freedom/sep. of church & state– State district voting lines

The Kennedy Assassination

• As 1964 neared, JFK is thinking about his re-election

• Trying to build Southern support, he travels to Dallas, TX in November of 1963

• He road through the city in an open motorcade.

Zapruder Film

Aftermath• Kennedy was fatally

wounded• LBJ sworn in hours later• Shocks the nation & the

world– Many will remember that

moment for years.

• Lee Harvey Oswald arrested within hours– Shot 2 days later by Jack

Ruby

Helen Thomas: White House Press Correspondent

“The legacy of hope died with him. You never had that same sense again that we were moving forward.”

Warren Report

• Chief Justice Warren appointed to investigate– Concluded no conspiracy; lone gunman

• Great efforts to build a lasting legacy for JFK– Funeral; Burial at Arlington

• Kennedy had built better relations with Soviets and established the Peace Corps– A program that trained and sent volunteers to poor nations to serve as educators,

health care workers, agricultural advisors and other jobs.

• Much work still to be done at home but now up to LBJ.