1. What Was Special About the Election of 1960?1St Televised Presidential Debate

JFK Study Guide

1. What was special about the election of 1960?1st televised presidential debate

2. How did television change politics?Television enabled the public to be more informed and involved in the campaign.

3. Commentator: one who comments, discusses, or reports in an expository (explaining) manner

4. Missile Gap: a supposed shortage in the number of nuclear weapons possessed by the United States compared to the Soviet Union

5. What was the issue many Americans had with Kennedy? Why did they have this issue?His faith because the United States never had a Catholic President

6. What did Kennedy hope to accomplish with his “New Frontier” agenda?He hoped to increase aid to education, provide health insurance to the elderly, and create a Department of Urban Affairs.

7. What were the ways President Kennedy created jobs?He advocated deficit spending (spending more money than revenue funds) and investing more funds in defense and space exploration. Kennedy also wanted to cut taxes so business would have more money to create more jobs.

8. Housing Act: helped build low-income housing in poor areas

9. How did the Kennedy administration deal with right for women and persons with disabilities?Called for federal action against gender discrimination and affirmed the right of women to equal pay. Called for funding for research into development disabilities and educational and vocational programs for people with developmental disabilities.

10. Reapportionment: the method states use to draw up political districts based on changes in population

11. What was following court cases about?

A. Baker v. Carr: whether federal courts had jurisdiction in lawsuits about state’s electoral districts

B. Reynolds v. Sims: so one voting district doesn’t have more power than another district

C. Mapp v. Ohio: state courts could not consider evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution

D. Gideon v. Wainwright: that a defendant in a state court had the right to a lawyer

E. Escobedo v. Illinois: suspects must be allowed access to a lawyer and informed of their right to remain silent before being questioned

F. Miranda v. Arizona: required authorities to inform suspects of their right to remain silent; anything you say can be used in court; and right to a lawyer

G. Engel v. Vitale: states could not compose official prayers and require those prayers to be recited in public schools

H. Abington School District v. Schempp: ruled against state-mandated Bible readings in public schools

I. Griswold v. Connecticut: prohibiting (prevention) the sale and use of birth control devices violated citizens’ constitutional right to privacy

12. Arbitrary: existing or coming about seemingly at random or as an unfair or unreasonable act of will

13. 14th Amendment: Rights of citizens and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other person

14. Due process: the law may not treat individuals unfairly or unreasonable

15. 1st Amendment: right to free expression and action; freedom of the press, religion, and speech

16. How did JFK try and stop the spread of communism?Conventional weaponry program, economic aid to Latin America, and the creation of the Peace Corps.

17. Flexible response: buildup of conventional troops and weapons to allow a nation to fight a limited war without using nuclear weapons

18. Special Forces: an elite army unit used in limited conflicts

19. Alliance for Progress: a series of cooperative aid projects with Latin American governments

20. Peace Corps: sent Americans to provide humanitarian services in developing nations

21. John Glenn: 1st American to orbit the Earth

22. Space Race: the Cold War competition over dominance of space exploration capability

23. Neil Armstrong: boarded the lunar module headed to the moon and was the first to set foot on the moon

24. What was Alabama’s connection to Kennedy’s New Frontier?The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville built the rockets and also the Skylab

25. Fidel Castro: dictator of Cuba

26. Why did the United States watch Cub so closely?Castro established ties with the Soviet Union, instituted drastic land reforms, and seized foreign-owned business

27. What happened on April 17, 1961?About 1,400 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba. It was a planned invasion that the United States was secretly involved in but later Kennedy stopped air support. Castro killed or captured almost all the members of the invasion.

28. November 22, 1963: Kennedy and his wife traveled to Texas. As his motorcade rode through downtown Dallas someone shot and killed him.

29. Lee Harvey Oswald: The man accused of killing Kennedy

30. Jack Ruby: Killed Oswald

31. Consensus: general agreement

32. Why did President Johnson work so hard to help the less fortunate?He grew up in hard times and seen poverty first hand as a teacher. He believed that the government should help out the citizens.

33. Economic Opportunity Act: attacked inadequate (lack of quality) public services, illiteracy (ablity to read), and unemployment

34. The Neighborhood Youth Corp: provided work study programs o help underprivileged earn a high school diploma or college degree

35. The Job Corps: helped unemployed people age 16-21 acquire job skills

36. VISTA: put young people with skills and community minded ideals to work in poor neighborhoods and rural areas to help people overcome poverty

37. Upward Bound: offered tutoring to high school students

38. Work Experience Program: provided day care and other support for those in poor households to enable them to work

39. Confine: to limit or restrict

40. Medicaid: financed health care for welfare recipients living below the poverty line

41. Medicare: offered healthcare for all senior citizens

42. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965: granted money to public and private schools and even extended to preschoolers

43. Civil Rights Act of 1964: barred discrimination of many kinds

44. Voting Act of 1965: protected voters from discriminatory practices

45. Robert Weaver: first African American to serve in the presidential cabinet as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

46. Subsidies: money granted by the government to achieve a specific goal that is beneficial to society

47. Immigration Act of 1965: ended the system established in the 1920s that gave preference to northern European immigrants and open the door for immigrants from all parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa

48. Why did some of the programs of the Great Society fail? What were the programs that succeeded?Programs that failed grew too fast to control and some Americans opposed the massive growth of federal programs. Medicaid and Medicare, the Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Project Head Start