Study Guide for Gillon, Chapter 6 pp. 133-137; Chapter 7 pp. 139-143, 149-156

• What occurred in another third world nation, Cuba, in 1959, and what was Eisenhower’s response?
• Who was in fact winning the arms race in the late 1950s? What did most Americans think?
• Why did Khrushchev withdraw his invitation for Eisenhower to visit Moscow? “stalemate”

• Describe Kennedy’s popular image versus the reality.
• Who did Kennedy select as his vice-presidential running mate?
• Who was the Republican candidate in 1960?
• Why was Kennedy controversial?
• What was the impact of the televised presidential debates on the election results?
• Was Kennedy’s victory overwhelming? How does Gillon interpret the election results? What balancing act does he see Kennedy maintaining?

• What was the Kennedy mystique, and how did television play a part in creating it?
• Describe the liberal/consensus philosophy of Kennedy and his advisors (“the best and brightest”).
• How did Kennedy’s belief in an activist gov’t reveal itself in his actions to revive the economy?
• What fiscal idea did Kennedy propose (and succeed in winning) that was criticized by both the Left and Right?
• What was Kennedy’s attitude toward women’s rights?
• What political problems did Kennedy face? Why was his domestic record less successful than it perhaps could have been?

• What did JFK believe was “the greatest threat to American security,” and how did he react to Khrushchev’s statement about “wars of national liberation”?
• What did the Kennedy administration call its defense strategy, and how was it supposed to differ from Eisenhower’s? Describe the three components of the new strategy.
• What is the psychological analysis of Kennedy’s attitude toward foreign policy?
• What was the purpose of the Bay of Pigs invasion? Why did it go so wrong? What assumptions were the Kennedy administration operating under? What was the impact of the Bay of Pigs fiasco on the U.S. international reputation?
• What was Operation Mongoose? Did it succeed?
• Meanwhile: tensions building over Berlin. What was the effect on Americans’ psychology?
• Why did the Kennedys feel they needed to respond to intelligence reports that Cuba possessed Soviet missiles, and yet why didn’t Robert Kennedy want to strike the missiles with U.S. air power?
• What course of action did JFK decide upon? Did it work?
• What were the terms of the agreement between the US and USSR to defuse the conflict?
• What was the impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis on Kennedy’s mentality?

• What did the Warren Commission, reporting on the Kennedy assassination, conclude? Did most Americans believe it?
• Why does Gillon think that Americans remain interested (perhaps obsessed) with Kennedy’s assassination?
• Why does Gillon think that Americans cling to a “mythic view of Kennedy”?