John F. Kennedy

Served as President from 1961-1963
Era: The Sixties
American Identity and Culture
In the year 1962, Pop art and culture became a popular thing in America and the world. Artists all over the world now began to paint and create art from popular culture such as those from movies, famous celebrities and other forms of popular culture. The science world also made a large advancement. It made the advancement of the first Intercontinental ballistic missile. This was an important discovery because it set fear into the citizens of the United States as people came to fear the horrible missiles and nuclear weapons of other nations, especially the Soviet Union. Another scientific advancement in the United States was the launching of Apollo. The Apollo project to get a man on the moon was successful through this time when the United States successfully launched and sent three astronauts to the moon.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
John F. Kennedy, with the help of Congress, created the Peace Corps. The first director of this association was his brother-in-llaw Sargent Shriver. Sargent Shriver would ask and gain the help of many American citizens to volunteer their time in trying to help third-world countries or other underdeveloped countries in the world. This corporation would give them money, education, help in farming, health care and also help them construct things to further develop their society. This Peace Crops would help many countries to become great countries in the future through its America’s economic aid in these countries. Along with the Peace Corps, John F. Kennedy also created the Alliance of Progress in 1961. This program would establish relations for economic aid to Latin America for 10 years, where America would help them establish economic developments as well as establishing democratic governments in Latin American countries. The United States would contribute billions of dollars in this economic aid program.
Environment
During the Cold War many Americans were faced with fear in the danger of being attacked by nuclear missiles and weapons. This fear spread through people and environmentalists because the radiation and the deadly poisons produced from these power nuclear weapons was very strong. John F. Kennedy in his speech on June 10, 1963 also agreed with this. The president wanted to have peace between all countries especially the United States and the Soviet Union because we were the countries that held these dangerous weapons. If we were to fight with each other we would produce deadly poisons and radiation from the nuclear exchanges that were going to take place. All of our known air and soil would be changed and our environment would change to the worse possible outcome.
Politics and Citizenship
John F. Kennedy became president and he fought to create democratic governments and sustain them in the world. Through his plans in Latin America, he tried to create democratic governments there. He also tried this in Western Europe to get countries away from the communistic influence. Even near the United States itself, John F. Kennedy fought against Cuba, which was a threat to the United States for being communistic. John F. Kennedy approved of the Central Intelligence Agency’s plan to invade Cuba with old Cuban Exiles that had left the island. These people would sneak into the Bay of Pigs and area in Cuba and would try to take control over this place and they were causing a riot. These people however failed to cause a riot and only got caught and John F. Kennedy refused to send any military aid to them.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a strong supporter and even openly supported civil rights and racial integration. There was a case in 1962 where a person, James Meredith, was entered into the University of Mississippi; however he was not permitted to enter the University because of his race. Robert Kennedy sent federal marshals to try and confront the situations, but the whole mess turned into a large riot known as the Ole Miss riot of 1962. Two people had been killed and many suffered from casualties but James Meredith was finally allowed to enroll into his classes. Because of this incident John F. Kennedy signed the Executive Order number 11063 which prohibited any racial discrimination of any kind in any federally supported houses or anything related to these facilities.
War and Diplomacy
John F. Kennedy was president in the middle of a large problem in the Southeast Asian area. One such area was Vietnam. In Vietnam, the northern communists lead by Ho Chi Minh had fought ruthlessly with the Viet Cong army against the Vietnamese nationalists of the South who were also aided by the United States. In 1962 John F. Kennedy also sent 12,000 advisers to Vietnam to fight against the Viet Cong communists. Other than the problems in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, we also had problems near our own home front. In Cuba it was discovered that there were nuclear arms there hidden by the Soviet Union. To have such dangerous arms so near the United States caused major panic and this had to be resolved immediately. The United States responded as they built nuclear war bases in the Middle East, also near the Soviet Union. With fear of starting a major nuclear war between the two nations, both nations, the Soviet Union and the United States, agreed to remove the bases as they solved the Cuban Missile Crisis.