Kennedy and the Cold War

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Kennedy and the Cold War
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John F. Kennedy

• 35th President of the United States
• Senator from Massachusetts
• World War II Hero
• Injured on PT Boat 109

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Election of 1960

• Kennedy runs against VP Richard Nixon
• Americans afraid of falling behind USSR
• Sputnik, Soviet missiles
• U-2 incident
• Cuba aligned with USSR

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Kennedy and Nixon

• Eisenhower is popular
• Nixon hopes itll help him
• Kennedy is young, smart, and handsome
• Promises to Get America going again
• Both have very similar positions

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TV Debates

• Kennedy coached by TV executives
• Looks better
• Images become as important as words

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Civil Rights

• MLK is arrested and put in jail
• Eisenhower does nothing
• Nixon has no public statement
• JFK calls MLKs wife
• Robert Kennedy gets MLK released on bail

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Kennedy Wins

• Closest election since 1884
• Fewer than 119,000 votes
• Shenanigans in Chicago
• Picks a young, intelligent advisors
• The best and brightest
• Brother Robert as Attorney General

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Cold Warrior

• Increased defense spending
• Troops and ships
• Tripled nuclear capabilities
• Promised to fight in our hemisphere

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Cuba

• Fidel Castro comes to power in 1959
• Seized American oil refineries
• Castro turns to the USSR
• Massive Cuban immigration to US

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Bay of Pigs (April 61)

• CIA trains Cubans in America
• Planned invasion of Cuba
• 1,500 Cubans land at Bay of Pigs
• No air cover
• Face 25,000 Cubans
• Disaster for Kennedy and US

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Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct 62)

• Soviets sneak nuclear missiles into Cuba
• US blockades Cuba
• Country is freaked out
• Russian ships turn back
• Kennedy strikes deal with USSR
• No invasion of Cuba by US
• Soviet missiles out of Cuba

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Assassination

• On Nov. 22, 1963, JFK was shot and killed in
  Dallas, Texas
• Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime
• Shot on national TV by Jack Ruby
• Warren Commission determined that Oswald acted
  alone
• Conspiracies arise
• Nation mourns as their hope fades
  away

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Assignment

• Create a Newspaper article about JFKs presidency
• It can cover his domestic or foreign policies
• Must include
• Headline
• Picture of event
• Description of event
• How the nation was
• effected.