But Kennedy's good looks, wealth, and attractive wife had made him a popular subject in newspapers and magazines. Television also helped Kennedy during his four televised debates with Nixon. His poise helped answer criticism that he lacked the maturity needed for the presidency. The debates were the first time that presidential candidates argued campaign issues face-to-face.
Kennedy defeated Nixon by fewer than 115,000 popular votes. But he won a clear majority of votes in the Electoral College (see Electoral College). Kennedy received 303 electoral votes to 219 for Nixon. At age 43, Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic president.
Kennedy's administration (1961-1963). The New Frontier was the name Kennedy gave to his legislative programme. In April 1961, the legislators approved aid to economically depressed areas. In September 1962, Congress passed the President's Trade Expansion Act. The act gave the president wide powers to cut tariffs so the United States could trade freely with the European Common Market.
One of the most successful of Kennedy's programmes was the U.S. Peace Corps. It was launched by executive order in March 1961, and was later authorized by Congress. The corps sent thousands of Americans abroad to help developing nations raise their standards of living.
Civil rights. Demands for equal rights for blacks became the major domestic issue during the Kennedy administration. From 1961 to 1963, racial protests and demonstrations took place in all parts of the United States. To meet the growing demands of blacks, Kennedy asked Congress to pass legislation requiring hotels, motels, and restaurants to admit customers regardless of race. The president also asked Congress to grant the attorney general authority to begin court suits to desegregate schools on behalf of private citizens.
Cuba. On April 17, 1961, Cuban rebels, with U.S. help, invaded their homeland to overthrow Fidel Castro, the Communist-supported dictator. The assault ended in disaster. Kennedy accepted blame for this ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion. Another Cuban crisis erupted in October 1962, when the United States learned that the Soviet Union had installed missiles in Cuba capable of striking U.S. cities. Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to quarantine (blockade) Cuba. Navy ships were ordered to turn back ships delivering Soviet missiles to Cuba.
For a week, war seemed likely. Then, Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev ordered all Soviet offensive missiles removed. The president then lifted the quarantine. See CUBA (The Cuban missile crisis).
Berlin. In 1961, the Soviet Union threatened to give Communist East Germany control over the West's air and land supply routes to Berlin. The threat was part of a Soviet effort to end the combined American, British, and French control of West Berlin, begun when World War II ended. The Western nations opposed any threat to the freedom of West Berlin.
In June 1961, Kennedy discussed Berlin with Khrushchev at a two-day meeting in Vienna, Austria. Nothing was settled, and the crisis deepened. Both countries increased their military strength. In August, the East Germans built a wall between East and West Berlin to prevent people from fleeing to the West. Kennedy called up about 145,000 members of the U.S. National Guard and reservists to strengthen U.S. military defence. They were released 10 months later. See BERLIN.
Southeast Asia continued to be a trouble spot. Kennedy sent U.S. military advisers there in 1961 and 1962 when Communist guerrillas threatened South Vietnam and Thailand. Kennedy also sent advisers to Laos.
Disarmament. In July 1963, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom signed a treaty banning the testing of atomic weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. Testing was permitted underground. The treaty avoided the issue of internal inspections, which had deadlocked previous negotiations. Many countries that had no atomic weapons also signed the treaty.
Kennedy's assassination. Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin on Nov. 22, 1963, as he rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas, in an open car.
Behind the president's car was a limousine filled with Secret Service agents. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson rode in the third car, also accompanied by Secret Service men. Dallas had a reputation as a centre for people who strongly opposed Kennedy. But friendly, cheering crowds lined the streets.
At 12.30 p.m., the cars were on the last part of the trip. Suddenly, three shots rang out and the president slumped down, hit in the neck and head. Texas Governor John B. Connally, in the same car, received a bullet in the back. Mrs. Kennedy held her stricken husband's head in her lap as the limousine raced to nearby Parkland Hospital.
Doctors worked desperately to save the president, but he died at 1 p.m. without regaining consciousness. Connally, although seriously wounded, later recovered.
At 2.39 p.m., Johnson was sworn in as president. Then the presidential plane carrying the new chief executive and his wife, the body of the dead president, and the late president's widow returned to Washington, D.C. Kennedy was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.
The death of Oswald. Witnesses said the shots that killed the president came from a window of the Texas School Book Depository, a building along the route of the motorcade. Police raced into the building, but could not find the killer. Then they began a search for an employee of the building who had left the scene a few minutes after the shooting. About 1.15 p.m., the employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, is said to have shot and killed a Dallas policeman while resisting arrest.
Oswald was finally arrested in a theatre a short while later, and was charged with the murders of the president and the police officer. Oswald had once tried to become a Soviet citizen and had been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a group that supported Cuba's Communist dictator Fidel Castro.
Dallas police claimed that the evidence against Oswald was overwhelming, but he denied both murders. On Sunday, November 24, two days after Kennedy's assassination, Oswald was scheduled to be taken from the Dallas city jail to the county jail. As he was being led to an armoured car for the trip, a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby (or Rubinstein), stepped out of the crowd and shot and killed Oswald.
The assassination controversy. The Warren Commission, headed by Earl Warren, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, investigated Kennedy's assassination. In 1964, the commission reported that Oswald had acted alone. However, many critics disputed the findings. Many of them believed Oswald was part of a group that had planned to murder Kennedy.
