Kennedy’s New Frontier

Kennedy’s Aims

In addition to his charm and good looks, it was President Kennedy`s dedication to domestic policy initiatives that made him an extremely popular president. His Inaugural Address stressed dangers of the need for sacrifice, focusing on foreign policy, because he believed that the USA should contain communism aggressively. He promised heroic confrontation and raised expectations of the moral high ground of the USA, but said nothing about race or poverty at home.

Kennedy’s main policy idea was the New Frontier, outlined at the Los Angeles Democratic Convention in 1960. It was a combination of policies for both domestic and foreign affairs. Domestically he wanted a united society in order to fight communism abroad. His ideas were those of active conservatism, not radical change amending the system, not creating a new one. Like his Democratic predecessors, Roosevelt and Truman, he continued to improve social welfare provisions, raising the minimum wage and expanding social security benefits. However, he was unable to get further measures through Congress.

Achievements

Kennedy emphatically supported many social programs and tax cuts that he believed would create unprecedented economic success for Americans. In fact, his tax and tariff cuts did keep the economy surging upward and kept prices from rising, even though he was not always able to garner support from Congress. He also struggled with Congress over his social programs, although he continued to propose them with great determination.

Congress blocked Kennedy on the matters of health insurance for the elderly, work initiatives for youth and migrant workers, and federal aid for education. Other initiatives for mass transit and a new Department of Urban Affairs were also halted. However, nearly $5 million was eventually appropriated by Congress—at Kennedy`s request—for urban renewal efforts.

Kennedy`s vision for a New Frontier brought a number of domestic successes. In 1961, the Area Redevelopment Act was established to provide nearly $400 million in benefits to "distressed areas" in order to combat chronic unemployment in impoverished cities and rural areas by increasing their levels of economic growth.

In 1961, the nation suffered a shock when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. The United States, it seemed, was still falling behind.

President Kennedy understood the need to restore America`s confidence and intended not merely to match the Soviets, but surpass them. On May 25, 1961, he stood before Congress to deliver a special message on "urgent national needs." He asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation`s lagging space efforts. Sceptics questioned the ability of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to meet the president`s timetable. Within a year, however, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom became the first two Americans to travel into space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit Earth. Kennedy`s space initiatives continued to garner support, and the government committed to his desire to see a moon landing before the end of the 1960s.

Kennedy also focused on environmentalism. The Clean Air Act (1963) expanded the powers of the federal government in preventing and controlling air pollution. The first major additions to the National Park System since 1946 were made, which included the preservation of wilderness areas and a fund for future acquisitions. The water pollution prevention program was doubled. More aid was provided to localities to combat water pollution. The Rivers and Harbours Act of 1962 reiterated and expanded upon “previous authorizations for outdoor recreation.”

President Kennedy`s commitment to social reform spread to foreign soil as well. The Peace Corps was created in 1961 to provide underdeveloped countries in Asia and Africa with technical, economic, and health education. Kennedy described the Peace Corps as an organisation that allowed Americans to fulfil their responsibilities to ‘world development’ and ‘world peace’ by means of young volunteers sent to help poorer nations help themselves through teaching and technical aid. Although he insisted that the Peace Corps was not an instrument of ‘propaganda or ideological conflict’, in private he expressed the hope that it would counter Soviet propaganda that depicted the USA as selfishly exploiting weaker nations, and also show that American national values were superior to Soviet values. Thousands volunteered and those who got through the rough training programme went off with minimal allowances to live and work alongside the nationals of the country to which they were allocated. Between 1961-63, the Peace Corps sent volunteers to 44 developing countries. Some cynical critics derided ‘Kennedy’s Kiddie Korps’ as a lot of kids bouncing around the world in Bermuda shorts, 71% of Americans approved of the Peace Corps. Both political parties attended to its success when they voted to finance it for the next half-century. Many volunteers impressed their host nations and improved the US image there. Significantly though, this was a New Frontier that owed much to Kennedy’s desire to compete in the less developed nations, which he considered to be the next great Cold War arena. Volunteers were paid 11 cents a day for their service.

Unfortunately, Kennedy`s efforts to develop his idealistic New Frontier were cut short. While visiting Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, the president who sparked renewed vitality throughout America was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a pro-Castro malcontent. Oswald himself was assassinated soon after in retaliation by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner from Dallas. Both assassinations have spurred great controversy and many conspiracy theories.