PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY

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PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY
Henry Box School Witney - Oxfordshire

• The New Frontier

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President F D Roosevelt
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President Harry S Truman
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President Dwight Eisenhower
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President John F Kennedy
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In January 1961 John F Kennedy became the USs
youngest president at the age of 43

• He was a glamorous leader - attractive, wealthy,
  well-educated and witty.
• He was also married to a beautiful and cultured
  woman, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.
• He had served in World War Two and been decorated
  as a hero.

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JFKs Election

• JFK was a Democrat. His Republican rival,
  Richard Nixon, was much more well-known than he.
• Kennedy had charm and charisma, and he performed
  well in his televised debates with Nixon
• He also spent a lot of time meeting ordinary
  people important for an upper class politician
  like Kennedy.
• JFK won, but only just! A mere 120 000 votes
  separated the two candidates.

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Problems facing JFK at home

• Unemployment was rising. It had more than
  doubled in the years since the early 1950s
• Youth rebellion was hitting the country
• Women were increasingly resentful about their
  place in society
• Black people resented the fact that the
  government seemed to be doing little to address
  the civil rights issue.

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Problems facing JFK abroad

• The Cold War was continuing, and the USA faced a
  Communist Soviet Union whose military might was,
  the Americans thought, equal to, if not greater
  than, its own.

Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader
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Kennedys New Frontier

• In his acceptance speech as Democratic candidate,
  JFK promised the American people a New
  Frontier. He said
• We stand on the edge of a New Frontier the
  frontier of unknown opportunities and perils a
  frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams..The
  New Frontier would deal with unsolved problems of
  peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance,
  unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

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Attitudes towards J F Kennedy

• Some Americans despised JFK because of his
  privileged, upper class background. They
  believed that his millionaire father had bought
  his political success.
• Some believed that his willingness to seek
  agreement with the USSR, and to sell it wheat as
  a friendly gesture, meant that he was soft on
  communists.
• He was particularly hated in the south because he
  was a northerner who sympathised with the plight
  of black Americans.
• He was the USAs first Roman Catholic president,
  and some disapproved of his religion.
• On the other hand, he was an inspiring and
  charismatic leader. He had great charm and
  offered hope for the future during the
  uncertainties of the Cold War.

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So, what did JFK actually achieve?
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JFK and Civil Rights

• Kennedy was keen to enhance civil rights, but he
  knew he would face opposition in Congress.
  Congress was dominated by Democrats, but the
  southern Democrats would not support civil rights
  legislation.
• He did, however, make gestures of support towards
  black people. He appointed five black federal
  judges including Thurgood Marshall. He also
  sent troops to the University of Mississippi so
  that a black student, James Meredith, could take
  up his studies.

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JFK and Civil Rights cont.

• In February 1963, JFK decided the time was right
  to propose a new civil rights bill to Congress.
  There were many objections to it. In August,
  Martin Luther King led a march of 200 000 through
  Washington in support of the bill, but it was
  still rejected by Congress.
• However, on 22 November 1963, JFK was
  assassinated. Congress rapidly changed its
  attitude to his civil rights proposals as a wave
  of sympathy for the dead president swept the
  country.
• A tougher version of the bill was passed in 1964.
  It gave black people greater voting rights and
  equality in public housing and education.

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Social Justice

• Kennedy planned to help other underprivileged
  groups within the USA, as well as black Americans
• He aimed to provide free medical care for the
  elderly, more federal money for housing and
  education, and a rise in unemployment and social
  security benefits. However, his Medicare Bill,
  which would have provided free medical care for
  the elderly, was thrown out by Congress. Neither
  was he able to spend more money on education.

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Successes in Social Justice

• Social Security benefits were extended to each
  child whose father was unemployed
• The minimum wage was raised from 1 to 1.25 an
  hour, and three million more workers were
  entitled to by paid it
• Federal loans were given to low income families
  to help them buy their own homes
• The government provided grants to the states so
  that they could extend the period covered by
  unemployment benefit.

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JFKs Speech on the day he became president in
January 1961

• The torch has been passed to a new generation of
  Americans born in this century, tempered
  strengthened by war, disciplined by a hard and
  bitter peace..The speech asked Americans to
  pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
  hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to
  assure the survival and the success of liberty.

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Why did Kennedy not achieve more?

• Some Democrats, and most Republicans, in Congress
  thought his New Frontier programme was socialist
  and therefore un-American
• Many in Congress still believed in rugged
  individualism that Americans should stand on
  their own two feet and not rely on the state for
  hand-outs
• Kennedy made little effort to encourage leading
  members of Congress to support his New Frontier
  policies.

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Why did Kennedy not achieve more?

• Foreign affairs were his real passion
• Southern Democrats, as well as Republicans,
  opposed his civil rights policies. They thought
  that if they did support civil rights, then they
  would lose the votes of whites in the south.
  Moreover, some of the Southern Democrats were
  racist themselves. Kennedy knew he needed the
  support of these Dixiecrats, as they were often
  known, to help his 1964 re-election campaign.

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Why did Kennedy not achieve more?

• His policies would have been expensive, and would
  have led to an increase in federal taxes.
  Congress was reluctant to sanction this
• Kennedy died with a year of his term as president
  still remaining. Had he lived, he may have
  achieved more.