Social Sciences and History / Unit 2 SSH 0134 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Kennedy, Cuba, and the Turn to Vietnam
Captions available
The idea
Kennedy's New Frontier promised aid to the poor and civil rights, but he focused on foreign policy. He defused the Cuban Missile Crisis with a naval quarantine and sent advisers and troops to South Vietnam.
In practice
Flexible response and counterinsurgency replacing massive retaliation.
Where people slip
His assassination in Dallas passed the agenda to Lyndon Johnson, and Vietnam with it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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