John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the thirty-fifth President of the United States on January 20, 1961.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Near the end of the Eisenhower Administration a communist government had come to power in Cuba under the leadership of Fidel Castro. The CIA had devised a plan to assassinate Castro and overthrow the communist government using 1,400 Cuban exiles trained in counter-revolutionary tactics. On April 17, 1961 the Bay of Pigs Invasion took place. The operation was an unprecedented failure: of the 1,400 insurgents, 1,200 were either killed or captured. Castro's success in repelling the invaders earned him the status of national hero, and his government became stronger than ever. President Kennedy went on national television and took full responsibility for the failure.
Berlin Wall
In August of 1961 Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev closed the border between East and West Berlin and erected a wall to keep East Germans from fleeing to the West.
Vietnam
President Kennedy sent the first American troops into Vietnam in November of 1961.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In October of 1962 United States spy planes took pictures which confirmed the United States' suspicion that the Soviets were trying to construct an offensive nuclear missile base in Cuba. President Kennedy went on television and informed the American people of the situation and that he was instituting a naval blockade of Soviet ships bound for Cuba, promising that he would stop at nothing, including full scale nuclear war, to ensure that the base would not be built. The world waited and watched for three days while the international drama played itself out. In the end the Soviets backed down. The Cuban Missile Crisis was seen as a major victory for the Kennedy Administration. Tensions between the United States and the U.S.S.R. abated in the wake of the crisis to the point were both nations were willing to sign a treaty with Great Britain to ban the atmospheric, outer space, and underwater testing of nuclear weapons.
Freedom March on Washington
On August 28, 1963 a Freedom March on Washington, led by civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., demanded that President Kennedy live up to the promises of his campaign. Heeding their call, Kennedy proposed an across-the-board civil rights reform legislation, which was later passed by President Johnson in the wake of Kennedy's death.
Assassination of President Kennedy
In November of 1963 President Kennedy was touring the nation to rally support for his reelection the following year. On November 22 the President was riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas when he was shot once in the head and once in the back. President Kennedy was taken to the Texas Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His body was taken to Washington for ceremonies and later buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Lee Harvey Oswald, a former marine who had renounced his United States citizenship in 1959, was arrested and charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. On Sunday November 24, just two days after the shooting, Oswald was being moved from the Dallas City Jail to a county jail when he was shot and fatally wounded by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. The shooting of Oswald, which took place on national television, left many questions surrounding the assassination unanswered. Suspicion that Oswald may have acted as pawn in a much larger operation moved President Johnson to establish a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the Kennedy assassination. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone, but the issue did not die there. In the mid 1970's, a special committee of the House of Representatives re-investigated the circumstances surrounding the Kennedy assassination and found in favor of a conspiracy. In 1982 the National Research Council, a council which had been set up to scientifically examine the evidence of the shooting, concluded that Oswald could not have acted alone.
Legislation
Alliance for Progress
President Kennedy established the Alliance for Progress in 1961 to help Latin American countries develop their natural resources.
Peace Corps
President Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961 to send educated volunteers into undeveloped regions in the world.
The Trade Expansion Act
In 1962 Congress passed the Trade Expansion Act which gave the President the power to reduce protective tariffs in order to arrange reciprocal trade agreements with nations in the European common market.
