JFK: Camelot and its Fall
Libertyville HSUS Honors
Election of 1960• GOP candidate – Nixon• Democrats had bruising
primary– Kennedy (great org) (MA)– Lyndon Johnson (TX)
• General election– Nixon: 50 state pledge– JFK: LBJ in South, family
in East– Televised debates
ResultsJFK: 303 ECV / 34.2 millionNixon: 219 ECV / 34.1 millionHarry Byrd (VA): 15 ECV / ---
IL, TX vote fraud claims; HI recount = NixonMob involvement, in Chicago?
John F. Kennedy• Born in Massachusetts,
family moved to NY• Sickly as child• WWII Service
– PT Boat in Pacific story• 1946: Elected to House• 1952: Elected US Senator• “Profiles in Courage”: 8
senators risking careers for their beliefs (1957 Pulitzer Prize)
“Camelot”
• Glamour of young president, wife captivated nation – rock stars!
• Bobby Kennedy - AG• Teddy Kennedy – Senator• Referred to as “American
Royalty”
“Camelot”
Kennedy’s “New Frontier”• Promised federal funding
for education• Health care for the elderly• 23rd Amendment (DC vote)• Tax reform (tax cuts)• First gov’t budget over
$100 billion• First non-war, non-
recession budget deficit
Kennedy’s “New Frontier”Civil Liberties
– Authorized wire taps of civil rights leaders
– J. Edgar Hoover (FBI Chief): thought MLK was a communist
• Immigration– Change of policies decreased
immigration from N, W Europe to Latin American, Asia
Kennedy’s “New Frontier”
• Established Peace Corps (1961)– “Missionaries of democracy”– Work in gov’t, schools, NGOs
in over 70 countries• Established National
Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)
Orange = currently workingPurple = previously worked
Kennedy’s “Space Race”• America was behind the
USSR in the space race– 1957: Sputnik– 1957: 1st animal in space
(Laika)– 1959: 1st lunar probe (Luna 1)– 1960: 1st animals to return
from space trip (Belka, Strelka)
– 1961: 1st human into space (Yuri Gagarin)
• How would US catch up?!?!
Kennedy’s “Space Race”• Space race: informal
competition between US, USSR– Technological benefits– Military benefits– Nationalist (ideological)
benefits• Kennedy, 1961: America
would be first to the Moon– Apollo program: $25 billion
invested in program
Assassination of Kennedy• November 22, 1963 in Dallas
– Political trip in preparation for presidential campaign of ‘64
– Shot three times with a high powered rifle
– TX gov. Connally also shot in back / chest, wrist and thigh
• JFK pronounced dead at hospital that day
• Lee Harvey Oswald arrested, charged with the shooting
• Oswald killed by Jack Ruby
JFK Funeral
Conspiracy Theories• Official investigation: Warren
Commission (1964)• Two gunmen theory• CIA Plot? (discredited)• Mafia hit?• Soviet plot?• Cuban plot?• LBJ plot?
JFK’s Legacy
• Television cemented as public’s primary means of information gathering
• Assassination and conspiracies led to dramatic decline in faith of government
• Continued involvement in Vietnam