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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”
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
Conspiracy Theories• Official investigation: Warren
Commission (1964)• Two gunmen theory• CIA Plot? (discredited)• Mafia hit?• Soviet plot?• Cuban plot?• LBJ plot?