1.JFK-ad



On September 26, 1960 Kennedy vs Nixon was on the first televised debate of the presidential election. During the race both parties made substantial use of television. The Democrates spents more than $6 million on television and radio apots. While the Republican party spent more than $7.5 million. Not everyone liked the new style of this type of campaigning. John F. Kennedy was a Catholic from a wealthy and influencial Massachusetts family. And Richard Nixon was republican nominee and Eisenhower's vice-president. He was a Quaker from California. He had grown up in a family that struggled financially. Kennedy was an outgoing and relaxed being. While Nixon struck many as formal and even stiff in manner. The United States had never had a Catholic president, and many Protestants had concerns about Kennedy. Despite his narrow victory, John F. Kennedy captured the imagination of the American public as few presidents had before him. During the campaign, many had been taken with Kennedy's youth and optimism, and his Inaugural Address reinforced this impression. After the launch of the first ever artificial satellite into space, the Sputnik, President Kennedy worried about the impact of the flight on the Cold War. Soviet successes in space might convince the world that communism was better than capitalism. Less than six weeks after the Soviet flight, the president went before congress and declared: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on a moon." Kennedy's speech set in motion a massive effort to develop the necessary technology. In 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. Three years later, the United States sent three men into orbit in a capsule called Apollo. Eventually the United States won the space race when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 16, 1969. John F. Kennedy's presidency abruptly ended, shockingly and tragically. On november 22, 1963, Kennedy traveled to Texas. As the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the crowded streets of Dallas, gunfire rang out. Someone had shot the president twice-- once in the throat and once in the head. Horrified government officials sped Kennedy to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead moments later. Lee Harvey Oswald, was the man accused of killing JFK.