The Kennedy Administration Notes
The Kennedy Administration
"The New Frontier", 1961-63
Overview of Kennedy's administration.
Economic Policies
Kennedy assumed office during the fourth major recession since World War II.
Business bankruptcies were at their highest since the 1930s.
Farm incomes had decreased by 25% since 1951.
5.5 million Americans were unemployed.
Kennedy's economic stimulus plan included:
Lowering taxes.
Protecting the unemployed.
Increasing the minimum wage.
Energizing business and housing sectors.
Kennedy believed these measures would lead to an economic boom lasting until the late 1960s.
Kennedy faced congressional resistance due to a lack of deep support.
Achievements:
Increase in the minimum wage.
Regional development in Appalachia, which significantly reduced poverty over three decades.
Failed initiatives:
Major medical program for the elderly.
Attempts to cut taxes and broaden civil rights were weakened.
Southern Democrats blocked the Department of Urban Affairs due to concerns about the appointment of an African American secretary.
The education bill failed due to disagreements over aid to parochial schools.
JFK & Civil Rights
Civil rights was the most volatile and divisive domestic issue.
African Americans were actively challenging social and economic hardship caused by centuries of racism.
Activism against legalized racism was growing, causing concern among many whites, especially in the South.
Kennedy focused on enforcing existing civil rights laws rather than passing new ones initially.
James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi:
James Meredith, a black Mississippian and Air Force veteran, sought to enroll at the traditionally white University of Mississippi in September 1962.
Governor Ross Barnett defied federal court rulings allowing Meredith's enrollment.
Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard and ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to campus.
Meredith enrolled on October 1, 1962, amidst violent riots.
The riots required thousands of guardsmen and soldiers to quell, resulting in hundreds of injuries and two deaths.
JFK & Civil Rights - cont’d
The civil rights struggle intensified in 1963, accompanied by increasing violence.
Images of black citizens being attacked in Birmingham, Alabama, shocked the nation.
African American activists, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., expressed impatience with “tokenism and gradualism.”
Key events:
Freedom Riders in 1961 sought to desegregate buses in the South, facing great personal danger.
The March on Washington in August 1963, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to 250,000 people, demonstrated the movement's strength.
The racially motivated bombing of a church in Birmingham in September 1963, which killed four children, prompted Kennedy’s intervention.
JFK & Civil Rights - cont’d
Kennedy's initial political strategy was to delay civil rights legislation until his second term.
He believed that pushing the bill in his first term would jeopardize his broader agenda.
African Americans demanded immediate action.
Following confrontations, including the one with Alabama Governor George C. Wallace over university integration and the murder of Medgar Evers, Kennedy submitted a civil rights bill to Congress.
The bill became law after Kennedy's death.
In a televised speech, Kennedy highlighted that the descendants of slaves were still not free from injustice.
The Bay of Pigs
Cuba became an immediate crisis point early in Kennedy's administration.
Kennedy implemented a covert CIA plan inherited from the Eisenhower administration to topple Fidel Castro.
The plan involved 1,500 anti-Castro Cuban refugees landing at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961.
Assumptions about the plan's success proved false, and Castro's forces quickly defeated the refugee force.
The Kennedy administration's cover story fell apart, revealing US involvement despite denials.
The failed operation cost Kennedy dearly.
The administration continued efforts to oust Castro through the CIA-backed Operation Mongoose, launched in November 1961.
Vienna and Berlin
Kennedy met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961, still affected by the Bay of Pigs failure.
Khrushchev threatened to unilaterally resolve the Berlin problem, prompting Kennedy to pledge a response with all available means, including nuclear weapons.
In August 1961, the Soviets and East Germans constructed the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the Iron Curtain.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuba once again became central to the Cold War in the fall of 1962.
Khrushchev secretly deployed long-range nuclear missiles to Cuba, along with 42,000 Soviet troops and other weaponry, to:
Protect the Castro government.
Compete with China for influence among revolutionaries.
Neutralize the US advantage in nuclear weapons, particularly concerning Berlin.
The Soviets successfully hid the buildup for months despite American surveillance.
US aerial reconnaissance detected the deployment of Soviet ballistic nuclear missiles in Cuba in mid-October.
These missiles could reach most of the continental United States within minutes.
The Cuban Missile Crisis - cont’d
Kennedy consulted with his top advisers in the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) in utmost secrecy.
Options considered included:
Air strikes on missile bases.
A full-scale invasion of Cuba.
A naval blockade of the island.
Kennedy chose a naval blockade (quarantine) of Cuba, backed by the threat of military action.
In a televised address on October 22, 1962, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missiles and warned against their nuclear strike capability.
The world stood on the brink of nuclear war.
Cuban Missile Crisis - Resolution
After intense negotiations, a deal was reached:
Khrushchev agreed to withdraw offensive missiles from Cuba.
Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba and secretly agreed to remove American ballistic nuclear missiles from Turkey.
Finalizing the deal and verifying its implementation took several weeks.
On November 20, 1962, Kennedy lifted the naval blockade of Cuba.
The Developing World
President Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961 to counter Communist influence and promote modernization.
Peace Corps volunteers worked to improve social and economic conditions worldwide.
The first volunteers were sent to Ghana in September 1961 to teach English.
Aid workers were later sent to Tanzania and India.
The Alliance for Progress was launched in March 1961 to improve social and economic conditions in Latin America and counter the appeal of Cuban communism.
The program included financial aid but faced limited cooperation due to disagreements over the US embargo on Cuba.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam became a significant and dangerous challenge for Kennedy.
The US had been sending military advisers to Saigon since the early 1950s to support France against Vietnamese Communists.
In 1961, Kennedy increased the number of advisers and deployed the Special Forces to train the South Vietnamese in counter-insurgency warfare.
By the end of Kennedy's presidency, 16,000 American military advisers were serving in Vietnam.
Kennedy announced plans to reduce the number of American advisers in 1963.
This was partly to pressure the Saigon regime to make reforms.
The Diem regime continued to repress political opponents.
Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in a military coup in November 1963, exacerbating political instability.
Limited Nuclear Testing
Kennedy secured an agreement with Britain and the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons testing in space, underwater, and the atmosphere shortly before his death.
The agreement aimed to reduce nuclear fallout and reduce Cold War tensions.
Kennedy considered this agreement his greatest accomplishment as president.
The Kennedy Assassination
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy visited Dallas on a campaign trip.
While in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza, Kennedy was shot twice and mortally wounded.
He was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a warehouse employee and former Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union, was arrested for the assassination.
Two days later, Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner.
Ruby was convicted of murder in Oswald's death and died of cancer in prison in January 1967 while awaiting a retrial.