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Domestic Policies

 

Presiden Kennedy was well-liked for his cool demeanor, handsome looks, and the image of a perfect US family. Kennedy's domestic policy centered around his proposed "New Frontier." The New Frontier was like a combination of the New Deal and the Fair Deal in that Kennedy wanted reform and change: alleviate poverty, raise minimum wage, guarantee equal pay, establish Peace Corps, and medical care for the elderly. Although Kennedy promised all of the aforementioned he did not, and was not able, to deliver.

 

Kennedy was eventually able to convince a conservative Congress to increase the minimum wage from $1 to $1.25, and approve $4.9 billion in urban renewal grants. However, Kennedy's proposals for Medicare, education, and mass transit were turned down only to be brought back up once more during Johnson's presidency.

 

The most significant contributions Kennedy made to the Civil Rights Movement were releasing Martin Luther King Jr. from jail in 1960, appointing Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court--successful lawyer involved in Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, and implementing measures to combat discrimination based on race in the federal government. 

KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION: FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY

(January 20, 1961 - November 22, 1963)

Foreign Policies

 

Despite only serving a term of less than three years, President Kennedy had a lot to get accomplished by then. He began the escalation of troop involvement in the Vietnam War, he defused increasing worries about the sovereignty of West Berlin. The most noteable example of foreign policy handling during this administration, is the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961. The Cuban Missile Crisis was 13 days long and filled with tension over possible firing of nuclear weaponry.

 

The Kennedy Doctrine basically warned the Soviets to stay out of the Americas and pledge to reverse any Soviet invasion occuring in that region. President Kennedy's flexible response--unlike massive retaliatio and Dulles' brinkmanship--considered the use of nuclear war and option but only as a last resort. Flexible response also included:

  • negotiation with Soviets

  • economic assistance to developing nations

  • continued covert operations

  • expanding conventional forces

 

 

 

 

"We stand on the edge of a New Frontier--the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, a frontier of unknown opportunities and beliefs in peril. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus."

 

-President Kennedy in his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination in 1960

"The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities [...] If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?"

 

-Kennedy addresses the hypocrisy of waiting for change when fighting for racial equality

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