Why Did Civil Rights Become a Big Issue During the Kennedy Years?Essay Preview: Why Did Civil Rights Become a Big Issue During the Kennedy Years?Report this essayThe administration of John F. Kennedy was cut short after little more than three years but his courage and humanity, combined with a youthful enthusiasm, hope and understanding of making decisions for the future today enabled his administration to retain a high degree of nobility in retrospect. Civil rights issues came to a head during Kennedys administration and because he expressed caring and concern for blacks, despite Southern political opposition, he became a beloved leader of minorities, humanitarians and intellectuals. He used culture and historical tradition to support his visionary views on society and the future. His legal and moral battles for civil rights cost him effectiveness domestically, as he found it difficult to pass many of his proposals into law because of Southern opposition. The Civil Rights Movement, lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., is perhaps the most noble event in American history of the 20th century. King suffered at great personal expense to lead his people out of bondage and into the light of freedom. He did so through means that were peaceful, dignified and poised on the sword of morality for all individuals. Atrocious crimes were committed against blacks during the Civil Rights Movement, but through the powerful, peaceful, spiritual leadership of King, the Movement never reverted to brutality to achieve its aims. While King did find a willing ally eventually in the presence of John F. Kennedy, he still carried most of the burden for the freedom of his people on his own shoulders. He was a great, noble man who led a great, noble cause. The success of the Civil Rights Movement is a historical incident of which all Americans may be proud. Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One the day Kennedy was assassinated. This was largely in part because of Johnsons uncanny political shrewdness, and his ability to fully understand the importance of bi-partisan politics if a president hopes to have any significant proposals passed into legislation. Johnson could and did. His term saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the tax reductions fought for by Kennedy.
What were the results of Kennedys foreign policy?He established the Peace Corps and he and his eloquent First Lady became international favorites, save for perhaps Russia. His legal and moral battles for civil rights cost him effectiveness domestically, as he found it difficult to pass many of his proposals into law because of Southern opposition. Internationally, Kennedys handling of the delicate potentially cataclysmic Bay of Pigs affair and the Cuban Missile Crisis was perceived as weakness by some, notably Khrushchev, but scholars and historians argue that his cautious handling of the situations may have prevented World War III, unlike the reactive nature to military crises of his predecessors that launched the US into WWI and WWII, “The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps
sadly misunderstood, and thus is the subject of a new academic book. The book begins with several critical critiques of Kennedys from the leading U.S. scholars in the field to the National Academies, a topic of renewed interest. The issues range from his relationship to the Cuban Missile Crisis, his role in maintaining and increasing his ties to the American government, to his continued influence over the political establishment through his influence over the U.S. military and Congress. A list of popular essays, essays and books has been published in The Atlantic every year since 1954. In 1966, Kennedys gave one of the most important speeches of his presidency at the United Nations on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and as President he signed a Comprehensive Response that would “restore, preserve, and enforce human rights and civil liberties” and “safeguard [and] protect the U.S. homeland from the nuclear onslaught of its adversaries.”
In 1960 Kennedys signed a decree giving the U.S. military an almost unlimited capacity to launch missiles. In a decision not to expand the military’s capabilities at the time, Kennedys authorized only an annual U.N. Security Council Security Council report on the missile crisis (1962-63). And Kennedy personally authorized the Pentagon to send thousands of missiles to Cuba through the Panama Canal in December 1965. This did nothing to abate his desire to see the Kennedy administration establish a non-interventionist system for resolving the issue of covert military bases.
By 1964, he was officially convinced that no other way to deal with the U.S. crisis was possible. With the U.S. already at strategic risk of confrontation (for which the U.S. was able to rely on the assistance of the Soviet Union), he called for “a series of measures to counter the growing threat posed by [Iranian President] Mohammad Khatami at the hands of America and the other world powers.” He also declared that the Soviet Union had successfully used the Suez Canal to divert American ships from the Persian Gulf to Cuba. In 1965, Kennedy approved a memorandum that prohibited anyone from possessing ballistic missiles on U.S. soil. The two issues were raised by the U.S. Senate, under pressure of Kennedy, and by the White House, as the Soviet Union prepared for a nuclear weapon attack on the U.S. A joint resolution was signed in June 1966 that also directed the Secretaries of Defense and CIA to “set a schedule for the development and manufacture of ballistic missile defense technology.” Kennedys’ directive for the Soviet Union was to develop ballistic technology and launch it before the Soviets could use them. Kennedys had never heard of ballistic missiles or had seen any program in flight. He suggested the use of ballistic missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis, stating that it did not appear to be a program the North Koreans had in mind. This prompted Kennedy to initiate a meeting with the USSR’s deputy leader, Yuri Aksyonov, and asked for a “long and active dialogue between [South Korean Secretary of State, General Akyol Andreyev, and] President Kennedy concerning the