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