Today Eric & I are visiting the
John F, Kennedy Presidential
Museum & Library.
John F. Kennedy grew up in
a prosperous & privileged
Massachusetts family.
Sailing was a major
part of his life.
His father, Joseph P, Kennedy, served as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Ambassador to England.
Following service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, John F, Kennedy successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1946 and served three terms. He set his sights on a seat in the U.S. Senate and won a seat in 1952. During Kennedy's service in Congress, he donated his salary to charity, A rising star in the Democratic Party, he was almost nominated for the Vice President spot on the 1956 ticket with Adlai Stevenson. Senator Kennedy decided to run for President in 1960 and worked hard to achieve his goal.
Leadership for the 60s
Kennedy & Johnson
Senator Kennedy & former Vice
participated in the first televised
The Kennedy campaign was based on creating a forward looking administration that would work hard to conquer the challenges of a new decade, Nixon campaigned on his executive experience and questioned the young Senator's experience.
Election results that were
reported Election Night,
November 8, 1960, showed
the Presidential Race was
too close to call.
Kennedy: 34,226,731;
303 Electoral Votes
Nixon: 34,108,157;
219 Electoral Votes
At age 43, John F. Kennedy became the youngest man elected President in the United States.
Eric & I watched the film
of President Kennedy's
Inaugural Speech on
January 20, 1961.
President Kennedy's
Oval Office
President Kennedy continued the habit of donating his salary to charity.
as a little girl
Jacqueline Kennedy was known for her interest in the arts, restoring the White House and for her sense of style. She was a trend setter throughout the early 1960s.
On February 14, 1962, the First
Lady & President opened the
doors of the White House for
a televised tour.
Jacqueline wore this two piece
red wool boucle suit by Chez
Ninon for the tour.
Jacqueline Kennedy wore this
on May 11, 1962 at a State
Back to administrative matters: President Kennedy challenged Americans to volunteer.
The Peace Corps was created to
send Americans abroad to help
those in need around the world.
President Kennedy challenged the country to conquer space. He pledged that America would land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The decade would be one of incremental steps taken to develop the technology needed to land on the earth's satellite.
President & Mrs. Kennedy
watch Alan Shepard's
The Kennedy Administration inherited the ongoing Cold War. After World War II, the Soviet Union expanded its influence into Eastern Europe. The Soviets were also developing nuclear weapons, Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, the U.S. and Soviet Union were involved in a nuclear arms race.
Tensions between the world's Superpowers erupted in various ways in various countries. Vietnam was increasingly unstable. The French were forced out of their former colony in 1954. The country was partitioned. U.S. was backing South Vietnam against possible aggression from its northern Communist neighbor. On May 11 and on June 16, 1961 President Kennedy sent advisers to assist train South Vietnamese Army troops.
Communist East Germany was dealing with a brain drain. Since 1958, tens of thousands of East Germans were leaving through West Berlin. Many were young and educated. East Germany could allow emigration to continue.
On August 13, 1961, East Germany
started building a wall around East
Berlin to stop the flow of refugees
from East Germany into
West Germany & beyond.
President Kennedy went to Berlin and declared, "I am a Berliner." He hated the wall but felt that its presence was better than war. East Germans continued to flee west, in much smaller numbers,
Tensions were on the rise just off the coast of Florida, During routine overflights of Cuba, photos were taken of Soviet missile installations on the island 90 miles south of the United States. Tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union escalated. President Kennedy went on television on October 22 to tell the Americans of the imminent threat. The world collectively held its breath, waiting for the worst.
The Kennedy Administration started the work of cooling the nuclear arms race.
On October 7, 1963, President
Kennedy & Soviet President
Khrushchev signed the Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited
nuclear testing under water,
in the atmosphere or in space.
While President Kennedy worked on foreign affairs, there economic and social tensions at home. He signed legislation to increase in the minimum wage and Social Security. The President raised funds for the mentally ill and sent money to impoverished areas of the country.
African Americans were treated as inferiors in southern states. Jim Crow Laws prescribed where they could eat, go to school, buy property etc. Laws had been enacted across southern states to keep African Americans from voting. Sit-ins at lunch counters, marches and voter registration drives of the 1950s had not brought long held prejudges and legal inequities to an end. Marches and demonstrations continued. Change was coming....
Since the U.S.Supreme Court decision, Brown vs the Board of Education, in 1954 struck down racial segregation in public schools, the country had been struggling with the implementation of integration. The Kennedy Administration took decisive steps to enforce the Supreme Court's decision.
On June 11, 1963, Alabama
Governor George C. Wallace to
forced to admit two African
American students, Vivian Malone
& James A. Hood, to the University
of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
President & Mrs. Kennedy
November 22, 1963.
The Kennedys were in a motorcade that passed by Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm. Shots rang out from the Texas Book Depository...
Walter Cronkite delivered the
news to the nation.
President Kennedy died
of his wounds at 1:00 pm
at Parkland Memorial
Hospital.
Brother-in-law, Robert Kennedy,
walks hand in hand with Jacqueline
as they approach the President''s
grave at Arlington Cemetery on
A life cut short by assassin Harvey Lee Oswald. The shock did wear off. The hopes and dreams of a nation continued to move forward with the ongoing Civil Rights movement and legislative initiatives. Since November 25, 1963, America's race relations continue its lurching movement forward toward equality.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty were signed in 1968. In 1995, the terms of the Treaty were made indefinite. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. The Soviet Union crumbled and Vladimr Putin, President of Russia, is trying to reconstitute it. Vietnam became a full scale conflict. Forty years after American soldiers left, it is now a favorite tourist destination.
The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 forbidding discrimination based race or sex in hiring, promoting and firing. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made the practice of paying the poll tax illegal and allows the Attorney General to investigate practices to restrict African Americans from voting, and when necessary initiate lawsuits continuing illegal practices. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbids discrimination in the renting, sale and finance of housing based on race, religion, national origin and sex. America still struggles with race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation as equal treatment under the law is still our collective goal.
On July 20, 1969, the world was glued to the TV, watching the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The lunar module landed, Neil Armstrong made his way down the ladder and stepped on the moon. "That's one small leap for a man, a giant leap for mankind."
President Kennedy's sailboat,
the Victura, sits unused near
Boston Harbor.
A life unfinished. Dreams yet to be fulfilled.
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