In January of 1961 the American people had elected John F. Kennedy as the 35th president of the United States. Kennedy was a young, catholic and handsome democrat who ran against weathered Vice-President Richard Nixon. Kennedy became the president, winning by just 120,000 votes. On September 26, 1960 the nation’s first publicly televised presidential debate was aired and roughly 74 million Americans tuned in to watch. It is often commonly said Kennedy won the debates through his charm, charisma and good looks, without the implementation of televised debates he would not have been elected as the nation’s leader. Kennedy was particularly liked not only for his religion and attitude, but also his compassion toward Martin Luther King that encompassed the majority of the African American vote. President Kennedy began his term by focusing on the present threat of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, he believed that the Eisenhower administration did not do enough in regards to the Soviet Union and halting the expansion of communism. He first began testing the waters of foreign policy just two weeks after his inauguration when he approved for 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba with hopes to overthrow the communist leader, Fidel Castro. The plan, commonly know as the Bay of Pigs, …show more content…
combat troops had left Vietnam on March 29, 1973 to conclude the American involvement in the Vietnam War. The war did not seem to end there. The American people had gotten a taste of war that they were not familiar with. Having been enlightened by the horrors of the war veterans were treated horribly and suffered damaging post traumatic stress. Nixon’s administration suffered and following the Watergate scandal it was hard for the American people to trust their government in the same fashion as they did during the Kennedy administration. Nixon resigned publically on August 9,