John+F.+Kennedy-JH

In the 1960 election JFK barely beat Nixon. In September, during the presidential election, over 75 million people sat at home and watched the debates. This was the first time a presidential campaign was ever televised. The campaign focused mostly about the economy and the Cold War.

Even though the two candidates had different ways of presenting, their ideas were closely related. Kennedy talked about the concern of the "missile gap". The missile gap was basically about how the U.S. was falling behind to the Soviets in weaponry.

Many Americans only concern was that Kennedy was a Catholic. The United States had never had a Catholic president before. Kennedy took this issue head on and decided to talk about it in a speech.

President Kennedy a legislative agenda that was known as the New Frontier. This was to help aid education, provide health insurance to the elderly, and to create a Department of Urban Affairs. Although there were many Democrats when he was president, many of his programs and ideas didn't make it through Congress. During his time as president he had many successes and setbacks. He also worked towards Women's Rights.

During the Cold War, Kennedy was also worried about the space race. Since the Soviets were the first to put a satellite into space, and then later they put the first man into space. He was worried that citizens would turn to Communism after these events. He came out in a speech and told America that they have a goal, before the decade is out, that they will land a man on the moon.