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+President Kennedy supported a "New Frontier for America."
+
+Feb 1960: Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum. First sit-in of four
+African-American students at café. Waited 40min, read bibles, Henry
+Thoreau's essay, brought back more. Continued. Similar sit-ins across
+country. Greensboro officials lifted whites-only policy. Meal-ins at
+churches and wait-ins at public pools. Much violence against protestors.
+
+Presidential Election during 1960
+    - Kennedy v. Nixon, pretty similar histories
+    - Both more interested in foreign affairs than domestics.
+    - Eisenhower couldn't name any major accomplishment of Nixon, his VP
+    - Nixon led anti-Communist hearings
+        - Became known as cunning deceiver
+    - Kennedy was "more pragmatic than ideological," charismatic,
+      political celebrity. 35th pres.
+        - Rich and powerful Roman Catholic family, accomplished wife
+    - First presidential debate: Nixon had a virus, described as
+      menacing, pale, sickly.
+    - Kennedy's father, a business, engineered his campaign to support
+      books, helped him win.
+    - Kennedy saw Cold War as a conflict between capitalist godliness
+      and ruthless godlessness of the Soviets.
+    - Kennedy saw civil rights as an obstacle because he needed Southern
+      whites' votes, but he did help free MLK from prison.
+    - One million leaflets distributed by civil rights people to black
+      churches in favor of Kennedy.
+
+Kennedy's inaugural speech was about "keeping America strong" and
+"reducing friction with Soviets." "We shall do [anything] to protect
+liberty. So ask ... what you can do for your country."
+- Kennedy suffered from serious medical problems, despite his strong,
+  healthy image.
+- Kennedy appointed his entirely inexperienced brother as AG.
+- Mixed success with foreign affairs
+    - Absolutely bungled Bay of Pigs. Believed it would inspire
+      anti-Castro Cubans to rebel, but his advisors were entirely
+      inaccurate on how effective the Cuban exiles would be.
+        - Castro had 20K soldiers waiting
+        - JFK refused to support the rebels when he realized he was
+          failing
+        - Elevated position of Fidel Castro.
+- Gorbachev was empowered and threatened to take all of Berlin. JFK
+  brought in troops to demonstrate power. The Soviets built the wall,
+  becoming a propaganda weapon for the US.
+
+JFK didn't want to support the Civil Rights movement until he needed to
+because it would lose support of Southern Democrats.
+Freedom Rides were Civil Rights movement about desegregating
+buses/public transport by occupying them.
+Much pushback on Freedom Rides.
+MLK, in church, held meeting to honor freedom riders. Attacked by white
+racists; JFK urged Alabama governor to intervene. Freedom riders were
+jailed, despite federal judges ruling in their favor.
+
+Bobby Kennedy realized segregationists, like Mississippi governor, would
+never stand down to the White House trying to integrate black people.
+White mob shouting "go to hell, JFK" against people trying to protect
+one black student, required JFk to send in the national guard.
+
+The Battle of Ole Miss
+- Violent white supremacists trying to barricade the campus vs.
+- Marshals, gassing the mob that was burning cars, throwing molotovs,
+  etc.
+- Eventually, after thousands of nat. guard sent in, the student
+  registered at Ole Miss.
+- One journalist: "it's as if the Civil War never ended."
+
+- Cuban Missile Crisis approved by Gorbachev. Felt justified because,
+  after Bay of Pigs, US installed missiles in Turkey.
+- Over 13 days, Kennedy and a Security Council figured out a plan to
+  remove the missiles. Discussed the "unthinkable possibility of a
+  nuclear exchange with the Soviets."
+    - "Not a real strategic threat."
+    - Eventually, National Security Council settled on two options:
+        - airstrike of missiles and invasion if necessary
+            - Bay of Pigs made JFK fearful of this.
+            - Also feared that invasion of Cuba would allow Sovs to take
+              over West Berline and cause WW3
+        - JFK supported: blockade of Cuba to prevent more missiles.
+    - Kruschev agreed to move the missiles in exchange for:
+        - US secretly removing Turkish missiles
+        - Promise not to invade Cuba
+    - Relationship between Sovs and US improved because approaching the
+      brink of Cold War made them soften Cold War rhetoric.
+
+Birmingham, Alabama. Supremacists refuse to negotiate with Civil Rights
+Activists.
+- Alabam led by openly racist George Wallace, promising to uphold
+  segregation regardless of the cost.
+- MLK felt that breaking segregation in Alabama would display
+  segregationist brutality to the world.
+    - Millions of Americans were outraged
+    - 3000 demonstrators 
+        - wrote "letter from a Birmingham Jail," a defense of nonviolent
+          civil disobedience
+        - Biggest foe of change was the white moderate: "I agree with
+          you in the goal you seek, but I do not agree with you in your
+          methods."
+    - JFK supported the Civil Rights movement eventually
+        - Called it a moral issue
+    - Killing of Medgar Evers, a black kid, caused JFK to hold a meeting
+      with Civil Rights leaders.
+    - The March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom 
+        - Largest political demonstration in history
+        - "You didn't see blacks or whites; you saw America."
+        - Civil Rights activists gave speeches, entertainers sang
+          protest songs
+        - "I Have a Dream" speech was improvised.
+Remained "A dream deferred" for some time.
+    - KKK attacked a church, killing four.
+    - Sparked a new wave of indignation.
+- Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy in Kansas.
+    - Oswald idolized Castro and hated the US.
+        - Also called a policeman
+    - JFK seemed to have a premonition: "We're heading into nut country
+      today. If someone wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, no
+      one can stop it, so why worry about it?" he told his wife.
+        - This was at the end of the election, when Kennedy was on the
+          campaign trail.
+
+Next up, Lyndon B Johnson