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John F. Kennedy: Presidents
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Kennedy's presidency was marked by a succession of economic and security crises. Black America demanded desegregation in its search for education, prosperity, and equality of status. During the 1960 campaign Kennedy had cultivated black leaders, but after the election seemed reluctant to support black demands. He appointed a black, Robert Weaver, to head the Housing and Home Finance Agency and, using Executive Orders, he created the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity which sought to end discrimination in government and, very importantly, covert discrimination among government contractors. At the Justice Department Kennedy's brother, Attorney-General Robert Kennedy, pressed desegregation at every legal opportunity, sometimes with little help from the FBI. In the autumn of 1962 there was a major crisis involving federal marshals and a southern mob at the University of Mississippi.
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Documents regarding Kennedy assassination found in Dallas At a press conference today, Dallas County district attorney Craig Watkins presented several documents and items relating to the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. They were discovered over a year ago in a safe at the county courthouse.
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These events convinced Kennedy that Ngo Dinh Diem would never be able to unite the South Vietnamese against communism. Several attempts had already been made to overthrow Diem but Kennedy had always instructed the CIA and the US military forces in Vietnam to protect him. In order to obtain a more popular leader of South Vietnam, Kennedy agreed that the role of the CIA should change. Lucien Conein, a CIA operative, provided a group of South Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to carry out the coup with the promise that US forces would make no attempt to protect Diem. At the beginning of November, 1963, President Diem was overthrown by a military coup. After the generals had promised Diem that he would be allowed to leave the country they changed their mind and killed him.
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Cardinal Cushing, his gaunt voice once again a surprise as it issued from his medieval face, said the burial service, and Mrs. Kennedy and the President's two brothers lit a flame. Then the pall bearers removed "Old Glory" from the coffin, a 21-gun salute and three musket volleys were fired. Taps (Last Post) sounded, and the final formality was over. The coffin was left on a chrome bier above the grave.
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In September and October, Kennedy debated Republican candidate Vice President Richard Nixon in the first ever televised presidential debates. During the debates, Nixon looked tense, sweaty, and unshaven contrasted to Kennedy's composure and handsomeness, leading many to deem Kennedy the winner, although historians consider the two evenly matched as orators. The debates are considered a political landmark: the point at which the medium of television played an important role in politics and looking presentable on camera became one of the important considerations for presidential and other political candidates.
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Many viewers believed Kennedy defeated Nixon with his style. Kennedy showed the American people that he had a sense of humor, a love of language, and a sense of the past. On November 9, 1960, John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic in American history to win the presidency. The 1960 presidential election was one of the closest in the nation's history. Kennedy won the popular vote by only 119,450 votes. On December 19, 1960, the electoral college cast 303 votes for Kennedy and 219 for Nixon.
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