JFK's Presidency

live televised

Kennedy was the first president to have a this kind of presidential debate

Richard Nixon

known for his involvement in HUAC and being Eisenhower’s vice president, he was JFK’s opponent

1960 presidential debate

over both radio and live-TV for the first time. People who only listened to the radio supported Nixon, but those who watched this live rooted for Kennedy

Kennedy’s appearance on TV

youth and attractiveness, had television experts on how to debate on TV -- dark suit, make up, looked directly at the camera. Sets the norm on the physically of TV debate

Nixon’s appearance on TV

hospitalize the week before, so he looked haggard, sweaty, nervous, and blinking a lot. He also wore a gray suit and blended in with the background

JFK

winner of the 1960 election by a slim margin

Republican block

the 1960 election was the start of the South abandoning Democrats and becoming what we see today.

South

strongly opposed civil rights

Democrats

win majority in Congress, so for his first two years, JFK has a Congress that will pass whatever he wants

Camelot

nickname for Kennedy and his family. He had a young and beautiful wife, Jackie, and two young children, Caroline and Jack. People were impressed with their youth, beauty, and saw themselves in the Kennedys

style

the American public was obsessed with Jackie Kennedy’s _____

celebrities

the Kennedys were close friends with many __________, such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe

MLK Jr.

Kennedy openly supports Civil Rights. After ____ is arrested after a protest, JFK sends his brother (RFK) to bail ____ out of jail. He pledges to his wife to support _____and the Civil Rights Movement -- becoming the first president to openly support civil rights

Robert Kennedy

RFK; JFK’s brother. Most Americans loved the relationship between JFK and his brother, who was his closest advisor and was appointed Attorney General

LBJ

vice president of JFK (wise decision). He had been senator for a long time, so he was very experienced in politics. He hailed from an important state: Texas. JFK was trying to grasp the South back into the Democratic Party, so this man being VP helped

LBJ Treatment

when he wanted to get his way, he would have a total lack of understanding of personal space and get closer and closer to his opponent until they agreed so he’d move. He was tall, heavyset -- the pit-bull of JFK.

“best and brightest”

JFK would appoint people in advisory positions that were ___________________________ in their fields. Their positions would be jobs they were very experienced in, their life careers

man on the moon

In the Space Race, JFK makes a bold promise that by the end of the decade, America will put a ___________________________. This statement enhanced the Space Race between the US and USSR

New Frontier

JFK’s domestic programs. He was asking Americans to expand to space and expand understanding of society (civil rights). His promises included: 1) ending/reducing job discrimination against minorities and gender discrimination; 2) see increase in social welfare programs; 3) offer more educational opportunities; 4)improve cities that were rundown after white flight

Peace Corps

volunteer organization that was sent out to third world nations for community building, to teach English and basic classes. Their real objective was that the US believed third world nations were more susceptible to communism - trying to stop spread of communism

Alliance for Progress

program that granted $20 million to Latin American countries gradually over a ten year span. Meant for land development, economic reform, and to better the relationship the US had with them

JFK’s domestic goals

lower taxes (middle and lower classes), pursue higher minimum wage, and funds for urban renewal (bipartisan issue -- just cities)

Area Redevelopment Bill of 1961

gave funds to areas bypassed by suburban development -- broader (rural, etc) than urban renewal

Equal Pay Act of 1963

huge deal in women’s rights -- made it a federal crime to pay a woman less than a man doing the same job strictly because she is a woman -- there were loopholes because it had to be proved definitively

Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

appoints to lead Eleanor Roosevelt; data collection on job discrimination in US to report to the president or Congress

flexible response

instead of massive retaliation, JFK’s policy would match the aggressor, so the US would match the USSR with similarly aggressive response. This was trying to make the world safer.

military assistance programs, informational initiatives, and covert operations

flexible response called for an increase in these (not our own military fighting for another country, but help train, arm, etc others) and these to gather info, and these -- CIA involvement

Cuba

Eisenhower’s failure here led to a big push in Southeast Asia. This was lost to communism

Vietnam

losing this nation to communism was not an option after Cuba

Diem and his shortcomings

internal strife, people rising against him -- Catholic who persecuted Buddhists in South Vietnam

National Liberation Front

opposing, massive group to Diem who wanted to topple him -- communist organization

Minh

sends aid to the South/NLF because they are communists. Organizes a secret trail to transport supplies

Ho Chi Minh Trail

secret trail through Laos and Cambodia that would transport money, weapons, resources needed to take down Diem.

Vietnam

test of flexible response

Green Berets

JFK sends in this counter insurgency group that were tasked to eliminate the threat of the NLF

social scientists and experts

help with nation building; they sat down with Diem and tell him to not kill Buddhists and they’ll like you. Meant to make him a good leader and teach him how to have a good government

US troops in Vietnam

sent in, but no direct combat -- meeting with the South army for training, giving them weapons, and giving tactics to stop the NLF, basically coaching on how to win the conflict

ignoring

JFK doesn’t grasp how inept Diem is, how he is ________ the advise he is being given. Diem’s people despise him and the teaching program is not working.

Topple Diem

JFK give the ok to remove Diem from power -- Diem is killed by soldiers/assassinated

domestic affairs

JFK was seen as an expert on this

Diem

corrupt leader of South Vietnam who persecuted Buddhists in his own nation

New Frontier

Kennedy’s domestic programs that promised to conquer space and to bridge the gaps in society

Texas

LBJ was previously a senator from this state

Alliance for Progress

Program that granted $20 million in loans to Latin American nations over a ten year period for land reform and economic development

Cuba

Kennedy believed our failure here was enough reason to be more aggressive in Southeast Asia

Eleanor Roosevelt

JFK placed ___________________ as the head of his Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

LBJ

Kennedy’s vice president

Peace Corps

volunteer program that sent young Americans to third world nations to help undercut leftist influence

Area Redevelopment Bill

this granted aid to areas that had been bypassed by suburban development

Ho Chi Minh

Minh has his people funneling in supplies to South Vietnam through this that ran through Laos and Cambodia

National Liberation Front

communist opposition group in South Vietnam

foreign affairs

Nixon’s expertise was this (Kitchen Debate, NSC)

Flexible Response

new policy in which the United States would only match the aggression of the Soviets

Democratic Party

the ____________________ won the majority in Congress in 1960

Equal Pay Act

this made it a crime to lower wages for women doing the same work as men

LBJ Treatment

Kennedy’s vice president was known for this persuasion skill

RFK

Kennedy’s brother, Attorney General, and closest advisor

Camelot

Nickname given to Kennedy’s family by the press due to their picture-esque family life

Space Race

Kennedy enhanced this by promising to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade

MLK Jr

During the 1960 presidential campaign, JFK called the wife of ________ to offer his support

Operation Pluto

the initial plan to invade Cuba, this was formulated by Eisenhower

plan for the invasion of Cuba

CIA going to train Cuban exiles to go back to Cuba and land on the beach at the Bay of Pigs. From there, two airstrikes would hit the Cuban military so the Cuban exiles could march to Havana and topple Castro and install a non-communist government

plausible deniability

the US wanted the attack on Cuba to happen, but they wanted it to be believable that the US had nothing to do with it. The Eisenhower administration did not pursue the plan because they had no ____________________________; aka there was no way the US could wiggle their way out of the blame and deny their involvement

Bay of Pigs Invasion

when the CIA trained forces arrived here, the Cuban exiles were immediately surrounded by the Cuban military. The airstrikes never showed up, so the exiles were all arrested, proving this to be an epic failure.

outcome of the Cuban invasion

Kennedy was forced to publicly take blame for the failed attempt, and Castro demanded that Kennedy pay millions of dollars to Cuba for healthcare and food for the exiles, but the money did not actually go there.

Operation Mongoose

even after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Kennedy chose to pursue this plan, which aimed to destabilize the economy in Cuba and assassinate Castro

Khrushchev’s response to the Bay of Pigs

wanted to reunite Berlin under USSR control, but Kennedy refused. So, the Soviet Union constructed the Berlin wall separating the Democratic West from the Communist East

Cuban Missile Crisis

Occurring in October 1962, this happened when the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles and launchpads in Cuba that were pointed at the US -- American people terrified that nuclear war is here.

Turkey

secretly, the US had nuclear weapons in this nation pointed at the USSR

quarantine and naval blockade

these tactics were used against the Soviets in Cuba so their supply ships could be stopped

13 days

the Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for this long

compromise that ended the missile crisis

USSR sent their ships back home and took their missiles out of Cuba, and the US publicly agreed not to invade Cuba and secretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey

direct telephone line

The USSR and the US agreed to set this up between Moscow and Washington DC after the Cuban Missile Crisis

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, focused its efforts on citizenship schools and efforts to desegregate individual cities. Lead by Martin Luther King, Jr. 

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, made up of mostly Black college students who practiced peaceful, direct action protests. Founded by Ella Baker at Shaw University 

CORE

Congress on Racial Equality, used sit-ins, freedom rides, and other forms of civil disobedience to challenge segregation. They orchestrated the first major successful sit-in protest

impact of Montgomery Bus Boycott

Showed African Americans could unite and organize successfully, King is in charge, nonviolence was the way to achieve their goals

February 1960 in Greensboro, NC

African American students sat down at a segregated lunch counter and politely asked to be served in the same manner as white customers. It was the beginning of the sit-it movement in restaurants, bus and train stations, and other public places all over the US. Very first sit in protest at lunch counter occurred here

freedom rides

White and African Americans activists rode segregated buses in protest of state laws requiring segregation on interstate buses. They would stop at various bus stops and were met with extreme violence -- bats, beatings, firebombings, etc.

US Marshals and National Guard

Kennedy eventually dispatched these two groups to protect the freedom riders on the rest of their journey.

James Meredith

Black man who was denied admittance into the University of Mississippi. He eventually became the first African American to be admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi. Kennedy was forced to act and he ordered in US marshals to escort him into class everyday.

Birmingham, Alabama

known to be the most segregated and racially hostile city in the country

Eugene Connor

police commissioner of Birmingham who ordered use of attack dogs and fire hoses on the Children’s Crusade

Letters from a Birmingham Jail

MLK Jr. writing to white clergymen (his colleagues) who had openly criticized nonviolent civil disobedience methods of King and his followers in jail. He was saying that it was the people's moral responsibility to break unjust laws and take action. Civil disobedience is the only way to meet this kind of violence. Points to examples of civil disobedience: Jesus, Thomas Jefferson, etc.

Children’s Crusade

Police used dogs and high pressure hoses on demonstrators, including children. Four girls died in a bombing in Birmingham, two kids killed by police officers. Thousands of school children protested segregation in schools. All the adults who were marching were arrested, young kids/teens decide to finish march and they continue march next day.

University of Alabama

In 1963, this was desegregated after JFK ordered the National Guard to force desegregation. Governor Wallace stood at the doors to stop Black students from attending school that day.

March on Washington in 1963

200,000 people marched through Washington DC, MLK Jr. gave his “I have a dream speech”, Kennedy's initiatives were applauded–higher minimum wage and federal programs to guarantee jobs. overall goal was trying to pressure congress to pass civil rights legislation

A. Philip Randolph

This man inspired MLK Jr. to launch this march and even helped him plan it

“I Have a Dream” at the Lincoln Memorial

MLK’s speech at the March on Washington

Civil Rights Act of 1964

It outlawed discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color. Banned segregation in schools, buses, restaurants, hotels, and more. Federal agencies were made to enforce the bill. Created the EEOC, granted the federal government the responsibility to find and address discrimination and banned discrimination by race, gender, ethnic origin, or religion

voting

unaddressed by the Civil Rights Act and still an issue for African Americans

Children’s Crusade

after all adults were arrested, many teenagers decided to carry out the peaceful march through the Alabama city

Berlin

Prior to the construction of the wall, Khrushchev reached out to Kennedy and demanded the reunification of this city

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba

Montgomery Bus Boycott

the impact of this is that it showed African Americans could unite and organize successfully, Martin Luther King Jr. is the power behind the movement, and nonviolence was the way to achieve their goals

quarantine

Kennedy ordered this on Cuba after discovering Soviet missiles on the island

13 days

the Cuban Missile Crisis was a stand-off between the US and USSR that lasted this long

Birmingham

this city was notorious for being the most violent and racially hostile city in the United States

Civil Rights Act of 1964

this outlawed segregation in public accommodations, created the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), granted the federal government the responsibility to find and address discrimination and banned discrimination by race, gender, ethnic origin, or religion.

George Wallace

Governor of Alabama who tried to refuse African American students’ entry in the University of Alabama