Kennedy fell in-between his predecessors and was considered to be a more moderate liberal. His idea’s of American Liberalism are referred to as the New Frontier. His administration demonstrated the youthful ideals of the time with the creation of the Peace Corps, but in addition, Kennedy also was a very strong leader abroad. He did not trust the Soviet Union and the threats of nuclear warfare. He responded to these foreign issues by taking a strong, no tolerance stance that stated that he would use nuclear weapons on nations threatening the United States. Eventually, this stance on nuclear weapons led to issues down the line in Kennedy’s presidency, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons in Cuba, aimed for the United States. Eventually, Khrushchev retreated.
The United States and the Soviet Union were also fighting to be the leading nation in Space Exploration. The United States spent billions of dollars in order to create newer rockets and improve the technologies in order to keep astronauts safe and to continue space exploration. There were multiple foreign policy issues that arrived during kennedy’s presidency, including the war in Vietnam. The issues evolving in Vietnam resulted in the United States sending a lot of aid to their troops.
Domestically, Kennedy took a stance for civil rights and the issues in Birmingham, Alabama. He created a major civil rights bill in response to the violence towards African Americans. Congress was apprehensive towards this bill, and it was left unabated in Congress by the time Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated Kennedy in 1963.
The events that occurred during Kennedy’s time as president, are very relatable to events and attitudes in the United States today. The early sixties and late fifties were the start of the parties at war era which continues today. The democratic and republican parties are constantly disagreeing with each other’s policies which makes it difficult for congress and the executive to cooperate and get things accomplished. In addition, the War on Terror is not popular with many Americans, just as the war in Vietnam was not popular in the sixties. Even today, the threat of nuclear weapons are still an issue, and there are threats of terrorist groups in possession of nuclear weapons and of their intention to use them on the United States, similarly to the issues with the Soviets and nuclear weapons.
Based on the moderate liberal views possessed by Kennedy, the parties at war era makes it seem possible that if Kennedy were alive today, he would be more right of center than left. Do the issues and values that he stood for relate more to the conservative party values today, contrary to the parties’ values in the early sixties? Today it seems as if the liberal party has become more social and less moderate in their policies, making it seem possible that Kennedy could be compared to a politician like Chris Christie rather than one like Obama. The ideas of politics today and how they compare during the sixties, in regard to the two main parties are intriguing ideas to think about when relating the two political eras.
