1960 Election Economy was slumping blamed on Republicans Kennedy v Vice President Nixon Youth v experience Kennedy charmed audiences in firstever TV debates Critics suspect Kennedy won barely with the help of Mafia connections amp votestuffing ID: 710468
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20.1 Kennedy’s Cold WarSlide2
1960 Election
Economy was slumping, blamed on Republicans
Kennedy v. (Vice President) NixonYouth v. experienceKennedy charmed audiences in first-ever TV debatesCritics suspect Kennedy won (barely) with the help of Mafia connections & “vote-stuffing”Slide3
Kennedy in Camelot
The public was infatuated with the Kennedys
Jack’s personality, Jackie’s sense of fashion, their two young childrenReferred to as “Camelot” because they almost seemed like America’s royal familySlide4
Cold War Confrontations
Beefed up military spending, both for “conventional” and nuclear war.
1961 Russians build the Berlin Wall, separating East (commie) and West BerlinWas built more for keeping in Communist citizens from escaping than for keeping us outSlide5
Trouble in Cuba
1961 Bay of Pigs invasion: Eisenhower (and Kennedy) approved the CIA training Cuban-Americans to try to take out Fidel Castro
Castro took over as a communist dictator in 1959Bay of Pigs was a disaster: troops became lost, surrounded. We looked like foolsSlide6
Trouble in Cuba
Cuba became very dependent on the USSR for money, food, equipment
Summer of 1962, USSR steps up shipments of weapons, including nuclear missilesOct 1962 “Cuban Missile Crisis” our ships square off in the water between the U.S. & CubaAlmost came to us nuking each other (USSR included)Closest the world has ever come to nuclear war
We installed a “hot-line” between White House and USSR to avoid this thing in the future