Professional Documents
Culture Documents
King arrested
Nixon took no public
position
JFK telephoned Coretta to
express sympathy
Bobby Kennedy (RFK)
persuaded the judge who
had sentenced King to
release him on bail (helps
JFK appeal to the AfricanAmerican community)
JFK won by fewer than
119,000 votes
Flexible Response
Challenged
Eisenhowers idea of
massive retaliation
Pushed for the use of
conventional
weaponry and military
to combat
Communism
U.S. couldnt rely on
nuclear arsenal to
protect itself
Operation Mongoose
JFK goes ahead with a plan called
Operation Mongoose in which govt
agents worked to disrupt the islands
trade and continued working with
mobsters to assassinate Castro
Castro survives more than 600
assassination attempts created by the
CIA
Examples: Exploding cigar, poisoned
wetsuit, poisoned milkshake, exploding
conch shell, etc.
Nuclear Chicken
JFK pushes for naval
blockade
Goal:
Seize any ships going into/out
of Cuba
Force the immediate removal
of missiles
The Problem:
A direct attack on Soviets
would be an act of war
The existence of the missiles
were an act of war
13 DAYS
For 13 days in October, 1962
the world stood still as the
threat of nuclear war gripped
the planet
War seemed imminent
The first break in the crisis
occurred when the Soviets
ships turned back from the
blockade
The Fallout
Russia blinks!
Russia removes missiles from
Cuba
U.S. removes missiles from
Turkey
Quarantine ends, but embargo
begins
The Problems:
Khrushchev forced from office
Kremlin begins nuclear
expansion
U.S. and Russia agree to test ban
treaty
Establish direct communication
link: the red phone
Education
Welfare
Health Care
Elderly Assistance
Inner-Cities
Continue FDRs social
action
JFKs Problems
Small Democratic majority in
Congress
Barely won the presidency
Congress didnt support policies
Christian Southern Conservative
Democrats didnt like him
Republicans werent supportive
either
Battled high inflation
Contending in conflicts in Cuba,
Berlin, and Vietnam
Most legislation would NOT
pass
A MAN ON
THE MOON
By July 20, 1969, the U.S.
would achieve its goal
An excited nation watched
as U.S. astronaut Neil
Armstrong took the first
steps on the moon
Space and defense-related
industries sprang up in
Southern and Western
states
Kennedys vision succeeded
Armstrong
JFK SHOT TO
DEATH
As the motorcade
approached the Texas
Book Depository, shots
rang out
JFK was shot in the neck
and then the head
His car was rushed to a
nearby hospital where
doctors frantically tried
to revive him
President Kennedy was
dead (11/22/63)
Assassinated
Assassinated November 22, 1963 in Dallas,
Texas, in an event that shook the nations
confidence and began a period of internal strife
and divisiveness, especially spurred by divisions
over US involvement in Vietnam.
24 September, 1964
After ten months of secret hearings, Chief Justice Earl Warren presented the
Commissions report to President Johnson. The Commission found that Oswald, acting
alone, had assassinated President Kennedy. Mainstream media hailed it as the most
massive, detailed and convincing piece of detective work ever undertaken, unmatched
in the annals of fact finding.
24 November, 1964
The US government releases
26 volumes of testimony and
exhibits which contained the
evidence on which the
Warren Report was
purportedly based.
The New York Times reported
that the 26 volumes
overwhelmingly supported
the conclusions [of the Warren
Commissions Report] that the
assassination was no
conspiracy but the work of one
unhappy man, Lee Harvey
Oswald.