JFK: personality and policies of new frontier

Question 1

Kennedy administration: Lyndon Baines Johnson

Answer 1

• Had served for 24 years in congress

- balanced the ticket as a Southerner

Question 2

Kennedy administration: Sargent Shriver

Answer 2

• Kennedy’s brother-in-law and trained lawyer
• driving force behind peace corps
• ambassador to France 1968-70 and ran as VP in George McGovern’s 1972 campaign

Question 3

Kennedy administration: Robert McNamara

Answer 3

• headhunted from role as head of ford
• had taught accountancy at Harvard
• headed the department of defence
• favoured military intervention

Question 4

Kennedy administration: Dean Rusk

Answer 4

• Secretary of State under JFK and Johnson
• difficult relationship with JFK (K felt the state of department offered little)
• offered to resign when JFK died but LBJ refused

Question 5

Kennedy administration: McGeorge Bundy

Answer 5

• former intelligence officer in WW2 and professor of Gov at Harvard
• served as national security adviser 1961-66
• advocated escalation in Vietnam

Question 6

Kennedy administration:

Bobby Kennedy

Answer 6

• JFK’s younger brother
• ran JFK’s election campaign
• served as senator of New York 1965-68 before assassinated in 1968

Question 7

Kennedy’s aims:

Answer 7

• saw himself as foreign policy president
• determined to make name for himself and US on the global stage
• had made promises to African Americans in campaign so had domestic plans too
• part of the liberal democratic tradition in improving quality of life for Americans + address failures of new deal
• came up with ‘new frontier’ aimed at achieving equality of opportunity
• similar to west frontier of 19th century

Question 8

New frontier: economy

Answer 8

• aimed to create better paid jobs
• introduced New Housing Act: created 420,000 construction jobs
• increased minimum wage to $1.25: $175 million into American workers pockets
• $200 million spent on extra welfare: applied to 750,000 children
• $780 million in increased unemployment benefits helped 3 million Americans find jobs
• funded by effective tax reforms: cut both corporate and individual taxes, attempting to stimulate spending and investment which would create more jobs

Question 9

New Frontier: workers

Answer 9

• wanted to ensure workers were protected
• 1962 executive order: provided federal employees with collective bargaining rights
• 1962 contract work hours and safety standards act
• 1961 fair labor standards act
• programmes placed young people in jobs and training to protect them from being underpaid in the service and retail industries
• 2 million jobs brought
• but 500,000 poorest people weren’t covered e.g. African American women
• program was poorly funded by congress: 5 million remained unemployed

Question 10

New Frontier: welfare

Answer 10

• Kennedy’s attempt to eradicate poverty
• benefits were increased by 20%
• School Lunch Act provided free lunches and milk for poor school children
• food stamp programme launched: fed 250,000 people
• federal retirement benefits linked to the consumer price index: bonus for retired government workers
• increased funding for foster care and disabled
• overall benefits covered 5 million workers
• the 1962 omnibus housing act: gave $5 million for extension of public house schemes

Question 11

New Frontier: Health

Answer 11

• went further than any other president before him in moving towards a system of universal healthcare
• Medicare (healthcare bill for elderly) introduced
• funding for nursing homes and healthcare for migrant workers introduced
• social security act 1963: millions of children vaccinated, more attention to those with learning and physical disabilities
• food, drug and cosmetic act 1963: tightened federal regulations on therapeutic drugs
• medicare bill was rejected in congress in 1963

Question 12

New frontier: education

Answer 12

• vocational act 1963: increase vocational training and the expansion of scholarships and student loans
• Educational television facilities act 1962: gov provided grants to construct new facilities for those training to be healthcare providers and supplied loans of $2000 per annum for training
• congress rejected federal financial aid to elementary and secondary education in 1961
• congress also reluctant to give money due to states controlling education which would have been allocated unequally in some states due to civil rights

Question 13

New Frontier: housing

Answer 13

• his hosing programme wastage for JFK
• $3.19 million was spent focused on low income families and the retired
• urban renewal grants went up from $2m to $4 + 100,000 new homes built

Question 14

New Frontier: Civil Rights

Answer 14

• civil rights bill introduced 1963
• voter education project launched April 1962
• CEED (Committee on equal opportunity) established March 1961
• discrimination in public housing was prohibited
• interstate commerce commission (ICC) was forced to desegregate interstate travel

Question 15

The New Frontier: women’s rights

Answer 15

• established presidential commission on the status of women, December 1961 and invited Eleanor Roosevelt (FR’s granddaughter) to chair it
• ‘American Women’ issued in 1963: highlighted the degree of discrimination against the workforce
• recommended maternity leave, affordable child care provision and hiring practices that promoted equality
• signed Equal Pay Act in June 1963, four months before the report, which allowed 171,000 women to reclaim pay, amounting to $84 million in the next 10 years

Question 16

Failures of New Frontier

Answer 16

• foreign policy concerns dominated much of his time
• loss of faith from the southern democrats over civil rights
• opposition from the republicans in congress = difficult for Kennedy to push through are major legislative
• Kennedy remembered as style of substance
• Johnson pushed any legislative changes after Kennedy was assassinated e.g. great society