JFK: America's Fallen Hero and Enduring Legacy

1. Chapter 21 Section 1 • Kennedy became the 35th president of the U.S. and told American people that America should confront communism • The United States presidential election of 1960 marked the end of Dwight D.Eisenhower's two terms as President. Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, who had transformed his office into a national political base, was the Republican candidate.

2. Chapter 21 Section 1 • The Democrats nominated Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy (JFK). • He became the first Roman Catholic to be elected President, and he remains the only Roman Catholic to be elected to the Presidency. • The electoral vote was the closest in any presidential election dating to 1916, and Kennedy's margin of victory in the popular vote is among the closest ever in American history. • The 1960 election also remains a source of debate among some historians as to whether vote theft in selected states aided Kennedy's victory.

3. Chapter 21 Section 1 • This was the first election in which Alaska and Hawaii were included in the election, having been granted statehood on January 3 and August 21 of the previous year. • It was also the first election in which both candidates for president were born in the 20th century.

4. Chapter 21 Section 1 • During the campaign Kennedy charged that under Eisenhower and the Republicans the nation had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, both militarily and economically, and that as President he would "get America moving again." • Nixon responded that, if elected, he would continue the "peace and prosperity" that Eisenhower had brought the nation in the 1950's. Nixon also argued that with the nation engaged in the Cold War with the Soviets, that Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to be trusted with the Presidency.

5. Chapter 21 Section 1 • Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 in Dallas during a parade. Jack Ruby shot Oswald on TV when on way to jail. After Kennedy's death, America reeled from the shock of an assassinated President. A President who declared that they were on the verge of the New Frontier and who offered to guide them was now dead, shot through the head.

6. Chapter 21 Section 1 • The Kennedy Obsession came into being after Kennedy's death in 1963. • Everyone was mystified, intrigued, and enchanted by the large, charming, extended, Irish Catholic Family and many wanted to know more about them.

7. Chapter 21 Section 1 • America honored John F. Kennedy in death with the eternal flame and the grandest funeral ever seen for a President. • His death became all the more painful to many Americans, when on live television little John F. Kennedy Jr. aged three and therefore barely aware of the full magnitude of the event, stepped forward and saluted his father's casket.

8. Chapter 21 Section 1 • As goes the case of fallen heroes, Kennedy, his words, his images, and even ideas were immortalized after death. • No other President, before, since, or during has had as many buildings, monuments, schools, named after him or is the topic of a myriad of films on his family, himself, his wife, or just his assassination.

9. Chapter 21 Section 1 • . Many have not been able to accept that JFK was killed by a lone gunman. • With the convenient death of his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at the hands of Jack Ruby, and a later convenient death of Jack Ruby, many questions were left unanswered. • And many films and books afterwards were written in an attempt to answer such questions. One such popular film, JFK, which is directed by Oliver Stone, played a popular conspiracy theory of his assassination. • The film was so popular that it revived old interest in JFK's death in the early nineties and forced Congress to pass a resolution torelease the rest of the Warren Commission papers on JFK's assassination.

10. Chapter 21 Section 1 • Never before had so many Americans related to the Jack Kennedy and his family. • Many blue-collar and middle class families in America saw and always have enwrapped in the Kennedys the greatness of the American Dream. • From poor Irish immigrants and in three generations a rich, extended, large family dominating the White House and the political scene. • The Kennedys faith, as Catholics, made them outsiders so it gave them appeal to those nations abroad and those Americans who were Catholic a validation. • First, second, and third generation immigrant families of all nationalities relate to the Kennedys. And for Jews, Blacks, Asians, seeing the Kennedys, once in their place as the degraded Irish Catholic, now a powerful family with a son in the White House. It made them feel as if the sky was the limit for them as well.

11. 1.) What president did J.F.K. follow? a.) Richard Nixon b.) Franklin Roosevelt c.) Dwight D. Eisenhower 2.) What future president did J.F.K. defeat in the 1960 Election? a.) Richard Nixon b.) Franklin Roosevelt c.) Dwight D. Eisenhower 3.) What two states were included in the election process for the first time during the 1960 election? a.) Puerto Rico and Cuba b.) Alaska and Hawaii c.) Oklahoma and Hawaii 4.) Who shot J.F.K.? a.) Lee Harvey Oswald b.) Jack Ruby c.) John Wilkes Booth 5.) Who killed Lee Harvey Oswald? a.) Jack Ruby b.) James Earl Ray c.) John Wilkes Booth 6.) Where was J.F.K. when he was shot? a.) Washington D.C. b.) Out of the country c.) Dallas 7.) Where was J.F.K.’s shooter when he shot J.F.K.? a.) A Book depository building b.) Along the street in the crowd c.) In the parade 8.) What event was J.F.K. participating in when he was shot? a.) Democratic Convention b.) A sporting event c.) Parade 9.) Was the Nixon/J.F.K. election close or not close? a.) Close b.) Not Close c.) J.F.K never ran against Nixon 10.) Describe one fact about the J.F.K./Nixon election. a.) It was the first time both candidates had been born in the 20th century b.) It was the first time neither candidate had been born in the 19th century c.) It was the first time a Democrat had defeated a Republican Chapter 21 Quiz