• On October 11, 1960 ( before JFK was elected) Khruschev addressed a UN assembly with this statement. “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you" .

• The phrase may well have been intended to suggest "we will outlast you"

• Created tension…

JFK“Ask not what your country can do for you but

what you can do for your country”

Kennedy and Nixon go Head to Head

“That night image replaced the printed word as the natural language of politics.”

-Russell Baker (journalist)

Kennedy wins the presidency in the closest election since 1888

Two factors helped him win 1.First televised debate 2.Kennedy and his brother Robert

helped persuade a judge to release MLK. News captured the attention of blacks and helped to carry key states!

The Camelot Years

• Setting a new tone• His family - The Kennedy Mystique - The grand tour • His Critics

His Critics

• JFK chose the “best and brightest” for his cabinet.

• Including his brother Robert as his Atty General

• Established the Peace Corp & Alliance for Progress

Kennedy takes office

• Bumped up nations conventional forces in a policy known as flexible response

• Tripled the nuclear power

New Frontier

JFK domestic program • New Frontier proposed to provide

medical care for aged, rebuild blighted urban areas and aid education,

• This did not pass (until after JFK was assassinated)

• JFK wanted to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade

Race to the Moon

• Sputnik• USSR sent first manned

spaceship with Yuri Gagarin

• May 1961 Alan Shepard’s brief flight

• John Glenn orbited the earth in 1962

• July 20, 1969 man landed on the moon (long after Kennedy was gone)

Fidel

• At first, Fidel Castro Helped train rebels in Mexico with Che Guevera

• During the 50s Castro and his guerrilla army defeated the dictator of Cuba, Batista.

• Us govt. supported Castro

• NY Times hailed Castro as a nationalist

                                                         

"It was like Lenin and Trotsky, like Hitler and Goebbels, like Mao Tse-Tung and Zhu De," wrote journalist Georgie Anne Geyer

By 1960 Castro made it clear that he was a communist

• Bought arms from the Soviet Union

• Took over American sugar and oil refineries (worth millions)

• Americans were outraged!!!!!

Cuba is 90 miles off the coast of Florida

• Castro announced his intention of exporting communist revolutions to the rest of Latin America

• Che Guevara went to Bolivia where he was killed by CIA in 1967. Became a “romantic Martyr” for Cuba

potent symbol of

rebellion and the alluring zeal of revolution

Castro and Khruschev

Results

• US cuts off diplomatic relations• Forbade Americans from traveling to

Cuba• US Cut off all trade with Cuba • This is why you cannot buy Cuban

cigars in the U.S.

                                                               

To overthrow Castro

• In 1961 the US govt. tried overthrow Castro

• Planned during Eisenhower administration

• Given the go-ahead by the brand-new President JFK (9 days after his election)

The Plan

• The CIA recruited Cuban exiles ( Cubans living in Miami). To invade Bahía de Cochinos, which means Bay of Pigs

Cuban poster warning before invasion showing a soldier armed with a RPD machine gun.

It was a disaster

• Failures: air strike the night before failed to knock out Cuban airforce, decoy group never made it to shore

• crushed the invasion• 2000 Cuban exiles who landed on the beach

were surrounded by soviet tanks• Some spent the next 25 years in Castro’s

jails• JFK accepted responsibility, paid 53 million

for remaining commandos

The Cuban Missile Crisis1962

• After the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro asked the USSR for help

• Khrushchev, famous for his brinkmanship put nuclear missiles in Cuba

• The missiles were aimed at American cities, starting with Washington DC and NY, NY

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Soviets began building missile bases in Cuba ( U2 planes provided evidence)

• JFK made announcement that a Soviet missile attack from Cuba would trigger an all attack on USSR

• JFK ordered the US navy to put a naval blockade around Cuba

• US & USSR were on the brink of a nuclear war

• Soviet ships heading to Cuba turned around. Crisis averted

• USSR agreed to remove missiles if the US promised not to invade Cuba

• Kennedy removed his missiles in Turkey

Defense Condition

• DEFCON 5 Normal peacetime readinessDEFCON 4 Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures DEFCON 3 Increase in force readiness above normal readiness DEFCON 2 Further Increase in force readiness, but less than maximum readiness DEFCON 1 Maximum force readiness.

Meanwhile in Europe….

• W. Berlin was a “showcase of Democracy”

• 3mill. E. Germ. Had defected• Aug. 13,1961 Soviets began

constructing a wall around W. Berlin• Reduced the flow• Ugly symbol of oppression

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.destination360.com/europe/germany/images/s/germany-berlin-wall.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.destination360.com/europe/germany/berlin-wall-museum&usg=__-gBT9FY_5BAdrrI1GyBUDC_LgGU=&h=332&w=415&sz=43&hl=en&start=1&sig2=7Mj2JzqIoLOq8qfg_SGprQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ESDpAxb5Ftn5AM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBerlin%2BWall%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=bHqjS_rpPI2vtgfC3fD2CQ

Easing the tension

• Hotline• Limited Test Ban Treaty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JFKmotorcade.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dealey_Plaza_2003.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Dealey-plaza-annotated.png

Kennedy’s Assassination

- The TV became “the window of the World.”

• JFK is buried

• The Warren Commission

- The conspiracies

Lee Harvey Oswald