JOHN F. KENNEDY (JFK)

Presidency

• His time in office was dubbed “Camelot” because with Kennedy’s inauguration the nation had hope of a new beginning, like the legend of King Arthur and his court.

• JFK presented a program for reform, called the New Frontier, that would foster the development of capitalism

• Create the idea of Americanization in foreign countries which meant that they were taught English, US History, government and culture

• In the 1960s Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin; two months later the Berlin Wall was erected

• Nov. 22, 1963; while campaigning in Dallas JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald

Bay of Pigs • Early in his administration he authorized

the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba • The Bay of Pigs operation was an

Eisenhower administration plan, that JFK did not know about till becoming President.

• The goal of the invasion was to start a rebellion against Fidel Castro ending with his removal.

• Plan called for the use of exiled Cuban men, trained by the CIA. Upon getting to Cuban that would have received US military aid.

• Invasion ended with failure with much of the exiled forces being captured or killed

Cuban Missile Crisis

• The most intense moment of JFK’s administration occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis

• The Crisis occurred over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles in Cuba, in October 1962

• During the Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in

• After Kennedy addressed the nation on Oct. 22, most people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war

• disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Khrushchev's offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba; secretly the US had to remove missiles from Turkey