"The New Frontier failed to deliver the social and economic reform that Kennedy promised". Assess the validity of the statement.

Kennedy also experienced various problems when trying to formulate a solid economic policy. Firstly, he took office during a major recession, the 4th since WW2, and the economy needed to be seen working due to the Cold War, as a way of demonstrating the perceived superiority of the capitalist system as opposed to the USSR’s communist system (an example of how foreign policy intruded on domestic affairs). Kennedy’s economic advisors thought it would be possible to ‘fine tune’ the economy by pumping money into domestic and military spending. Kennedy took this advice, and aimed to solve the problem of recession through jobs created by military spending, which would cause a mini ‘cycle of prosperity’. Kennedy also succeeded in passing the 1962 Expansion Act and Revenue Act, reducing unemployment to 5.5% through an increase in government spending and aid for businesses. I would suggest that his aided the economy, as 1 percent more of Americans were now employed, and Kennedy’s economic advisors believed that full employment was 4%. Kennedy also proposed a tax cut in 1962, but this was not passed until after his death, being signed by Johnson in 1964. This links to part of the overall reasoning for the New Frontier’s failure to deliver: Kennedy’s poor relationship with Congress. For example, Kennedy has proposed a $2bn works programme as part of his economic/social reform policy, which Congress rejected. I would consider that this was primarily due to Kennedy’s ‘razor-thin’ majority, and the fact that many of Kennedy’s Southern democrats were rebelling against him due to his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. This is once again an example of outside influences interfering in Kennedy’s social and economic policy.

I think that Kennedy mostly succeeded concerning civil rights legislation. Before taking office Kennedy had a very poor voting record concerning matters of Civil Rights, admitted to his advisors that his knowledge of civil rights was, in his own words, ‘lacking’. Although some black extremists such as the nation of Islam and the Black Panthers believed Kennedy failed to act as swiftly as was required at the time, Kennedy had believed that any action too extreme would anger Southern White governors and make Congress even less disposed to pass Civil rights legislation. While some believed Kennedy did not act satisfactorily, he was forced to keep the racist south happy. For example, The  had ruled in 1954 that  in public schools was unconstitutional, but this had remained unenforced in some Southern states until JFK’s presidency. Kennedy dispatched federal troops and the Alabama National Guard to the , where Governor George Wallace was attempting to stop two  students from entering. I think that this is an example of Kennedy’s strong belief in Civil Rights, and even though Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963, he succeeded in his aims of allowing every black American “the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves”.

Overall, I believe that Kennedy’s New Frontier failed to achieve its aims, which were to improve socioeconomic conditions for as many Americans as possible. Kennedy failed because of his lack of congressional support as well as his failure to aid black Americans in an economic sense. In the long term, however, I think it is possible that Kennedy, in fact, succeeded. For example, while Kennedy’s tax cut proposal initially failed, it came through shortly after his death when passed by Lyndon B. Johnson.