ABSTRACT
The 1960s was a decade of cultural, economic, and political upheaval that challenged American societal values. At age 43, John F. Kennedy became a young United States president and he invited artists, musicians, and poets, such as Robert Frost, to White House events. After Eisenhower, Kennedy brought a new sense of vitality to the nation as he declared a “New Frontier” of social reform that included aid to education, medical care for the aged, the extension of civil rights, the formation of the Peace Corps, and a physical fitness program. This progressive social agenda was juxtaposed with an aggressive foreign policy that included the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 that brought the United States and the former Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war, and an increased number of U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam. When astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the moon (1969), some claimed it was a conspiracy and that NASA had staged the event in a secret airplane hangar in Houston. The bottom line was: Surface appearances could not be trusted.
