do you want a man for president who's seasoned through and through but that's a dog on season that he won't try something new a man who's old enough to know and young enough to do well it's up to you it's up to you it's strictly up to you hi i'm haven and this is crash course united states history today we'll be discussing john f kennedy kennedy was born in 1917 in massachusetts to a wealthy irish catholic family and after graduating from harvard he decided that he wanted to join the united states navy where he commanded a ship in the south pacific three years after leading his position in the navy he decided that he wanted to be a member of the house of representatives he later left that job finding it particularly dull and ran for senator of massachusetts he was elected as senator in 1952 and after serving as senator for eight years he decided that he wanted a more national role in politics this is when he decided that he would run for president he ran and was elected as president at age 14 43 in 1960. he was the youngest man to ever be elected the president and he this was actually a position that he utilized in his campaign advertisements affirming that he was old enough to know but young enough to do kennedy was young experienced and collected and this led to his adoration and overwhelming remembrance today pat schroeder former united states house representative claimed that kennedy was really kept his head when all about him were losing theirs despite kennedy's work in civil rights and domestic reform he was more so remembered by his cool and collected personality this was shown through his participation in the first televised debate now moving on to gfk's domestic agenda jfk's idealistic plan for the united states when the new frontier was aimed at social and economic reform and promoting democratic society over communism democrats only had a slim majority in congress at the time so there was some difficulty passing legislation although he did cut taxes and work on issues such as unemployment public housing transportation and social security kennedy's domestic agenda was largely consumed by civil rights after his narrow election in 1960 president kennedy wanted to ensure he had the african-american support and also southern support so he could pass legislation keeping this in mind he appointed he appointed thurgood marshall as the first black member of the supreme court spoke out against segregation in school schools and public transportation worked on equal employment and publicly spoke with african-american leaders such as martin luther king jr 1961 freedom rides picked up demanding integration of public interstate transportation attorney general robert kennedy sent troops to protect the freedom writers in 1962 student james meredith was repeatedly denied admission to the university of mississippi jfk robert kennedy and the governor of mississippi tried to work out a solution and failed meredith was finally escorted into class by federal troops mobilized by kennedy in 63 a similar event occurred in alabama governor george wallace stood in the doorway of the united states of alabama and refused to let two black students enter federal troops were yet again mobilized later that month kennedy addressed the severity of the racial issues in the country he had seen too many racially motivated deaths and stated that the legislation guaranteeing equal rights to african americans would be submitted to congress arguably the most famous civil rights demonstration was the march on washington in august of 1963. over 200 000 people all races marched in dc celebrating the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation the civil rights legislation was doing well in congress and slowly gaining momentum with republicans the civil rights act of 1964 was not passed before the death of kennedy but his predecessor lyndon johnson successfully passed the act now it's time for the mystery document let's see what we got freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in to prevent them from leaving us i want to say on on behalf of my countrymen who live many miles away on the other side of the atlantic who are far distant from you that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you even from a distance the story of the last 18 years i known of no town no city that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force and the hope and the determination of the city of west berlin while the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system for all the world to see we take no satisfaction in it for it is as your mayor has said an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity separating families dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and dividing the people who wish to be joined together it's john f kennedy we're going to finish today's segment with jfk's foreign policy his inaugural speech kennedy summed up his view on communism by saying the united states would pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend pose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty several communist countries put this statement to the test during his term when kennedy did increase the size of us military and resume nuclear testing he was an opponent of war and of nuclear weapons from the beginning of his campaign he was aptly against communism and would do what it took to prevent it from spreading kennedy followed through with his promises and handed a situations accordingly in 1963 leaders of the us uk and soviet union came together and signed the nuclear test ban treaty it limited nuclear testing and was a step towards disarmament kennedy also works americans to drop stereotypes that were dividing communist and non-communist countries to make the world a safer place when diem was assassinated in 63 his government fell with him in 61 just a few months after kennedy was inaugurated the beta pig's invasion began kennedy inherited this plan from his predecessor eisenhower and authorized the invasion in 61.
the americans were training anti-communist cuban exiles to fight the cuban military with the support of cuban revolutionaries that would hopefully join the exiles the invasion ultimately failed to stay in kennedy's presidency in 1962 an american spy plane took pictures of soviet missile sites in cuba canadian wanted to keep this knowledge secret and decided with the help of his advisors to surround cuba with a naval blockade after 13 days of uncertainty soviet leader nikita khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the u. s would stay out of cuba the berlin wall was also a critical issue during kennedy's presidency before the construction of the wall jfk and crucial met in austria khrushchev made threats to cut off east berlin from allied access as as a result tensions increase and kennedy spoke to the u. s public and said the military force may be necessary to protect berlin and contain communism he expanded u.
s military power accordingly after the construction of the wall kennedy resumed nuclear testing with some hesitation further adding to the tensions of the cold war jfk visited berlin in 1963 and was met by huge numbers of supportive germans there he gave a very famous speech the vietnam war which started during eisenhower's term was an attempt by americans to prevent south vietnam from falling to communism when kennedy inherited the war the catholic and anti-communist dm was in charge of south vietnam north vietnamese forces and were winning and recognizing the instability of the war kennedy sending u. s military advisors in aid he encouraged dm to make a change to the government so it wouldn't collapse in 1963 kennedy spoke out about vietnam in an interview in contrast to the strained relationships between u.
