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