The term New Frontier was used by John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in
1960 to the Democratic National Convention at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic nominee. Originally just a slogan to inspire America to get behind him, the
phrase developed into a label for his administration's domestic and
foreign programs.
- We stand at the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. It
will deal with unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of
poverty and surplus.
Review on Kennedy's New Frontier
The New Frontier program was intended to boost the economy, to provide international aid, provide
for national defense, and to boost the space program.
Kennedy made a point to control monopoly prices, and although this made him unpopular with
large companies, it prevented consumers from being forced to pay more than a product was worth. He also was an advocate of
civil rights, and although he was unsuccessful at passing legislation, he paved the way for
the reforms that would come later. He also managed to increase the minimum wage from $1.00
to $1.25 an hour.
On the international scale he accomplished two major things. The first of these was the Peace
Corps. The Peace Corps sent teachers to poorer nations to help increase education levels and bolster their economies. The second was the Alliance for Progress, which provided aid in health and education
in Latin America. John F. Kennedy also built up the armed forces ground troops and signed
the Partial Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet
Union. This treaty agreed that both countries would stop all nuclear testing in
the atmosphere and limit it to underground. The space program was another thing strongly
advocated by Kennedy. After the Soviet Union launched a cosmonaut into space in 1961,
Kennedy challenged the U.S. to put a man on the Moon by 1970.
Overall, Kennedy’s New Frontier program was successful in boosting the economy, as well as paving the way for many political,
international and social reforms.
Legislation and Programs
Economy
The Trade Expansion Act of 1962 authorized the President to negotiate
tariff reductions on a reciprocal basis of up to 50 percent with the European Common Market. It provided legislative authority for U.S. participation in multilateral
trade negotiations from 1964-1967, which became known as the Kennedy Round. The authority
expired June 30, 1967, predetermining the concluding date of the Kennedy Round. U.S. duties below
five percent ad valorem, duties on certain agricultural commodities, and duties on tropical products exported by developing countries could be reduced
to zero under the act. The 1962 legislation explicitly eliminated the "Peril Point" provision that had limited U.S. negotiating
positions in earlier GATT rounds, and instead called on the
Tariff Commission and other agencies of the U.S. government
to provide the president and his negotiators with information regarding the probable economic effects of specific tariff
concessions.[1][2]
Wages
Amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1961 greatly expanded the
FLSA's scope in the retail trade sector and increased the minimum wage for previously
covered workers to $1.15 an hour effective September 1961 and to $1.25 an hour in September 1963. The minimum for workers newly
subject to the Act was set at $1.00 an hour effective September 1961, $1.15 an hour in September 1964, and $1.25 an hour in
September 1965. Retail and service
establishments were allowed to employ full-time students at wages of no more than 15 percent below the minimum with proper
certification from the Department of Labor. The amendments extended
coverage to employees of retail trade enterprises with sales exceeding $1 million annually, although individual establishments
within those covered enterprises were exempt if their annual sales fell below $250,000. The concept of enterprise coverage was
introduced by the 1961 amendments. Those amendments extended coverage in the retail trade industry from an established 250,000
workers to 2.2 million.
Housing
Omnibus Housing Bill 1961. In March 1961 Kennedy sent Congress a special
message, proposing an ambitious and complex housing program to spur the economy, revitalize cities and provide affordable housing for middle-income and low-income families. The bill proposed spending
$3,190,000,000, in which the major emphasis was on the improvement of the existing housing supply instead of new starts and a
cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban
Affairs would oversee the programs. The bill also promised to make the Federal Housing Administration a full partner in urban
renewal program by authorizing mortgage amounts to finance rehabilitation of homes and urban renewal Committee on housing combined programs for housing,
mass transportation, and open space land bills into a single bill. Increased urban
renewal grants from $2 to $4 million, additional 100,000 units of public housing.
Provided opportunities for coordinated planning of community development: technical assistance to state and local governments.
Refocus from wrecker ball approach to small rehabilitation projects to preserve existing
‘urban texture’.
Unemployment
The Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962 authorized a
three-year program aimed at retraining workers displaced by new technology. The bill did not exclude employed workers from
benefiting and it authorized a training allowance for unemployed participants. Even though 200,000 people were recruited, there
was minimal impact, comparatively. The Area Redevelopment Act, a $394 million spending package passed in 1961, followed a
strategy of investing in the private sector to stimulate new job creation. It specifically targeted businesses in urban and rural
depressed areas and authorized $4.5 million annually over four years for vocational training programs. The 1963 amendments to the
National Defense Education Act included $731 million in appropriations to
states and localities maintaining vocational training programs.[3]
Medical
In 1963 Kennedy, who had a mentally retarded sister named Rosemary, submitted the nation's first Presidential special message
to Congress on mental health issues. Congress quickly passed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community
Mental Health Centers Construction Act (P.L. 88-164), beginning a new era in Federal support for mental health services.
The National Institute of Mental Health assumed responsibility for
monitoring community mental health centers programs.[4]
Great success as there was a sixfold increase in people using Mental Health facilities. Medical Health Bill for the Aged (later
known as Medicare) was proposed, however Congress failed to enact it.
Equal rights
The President’s Commission on the Status of Women was an advisory commission established on December 14, 1961, by Kennedy to
investigate questions regarding women's equality in education, in the workplace, and under the
law.[5] The commission, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt until her death in 1962, was composed of 26 members including legislators and
philanthropists who were active in women's rights
issues. The main purpose of the committee was to document and examine employment policies in
place for women. The commission's final report, American Woman (also known as the Peterson Report after the Commission's
second chair, Esther Peterson), was issued in October 1963 and documented widespread
discrimination against women in the workplace. Among the practices addressed by the group were labor laws pertaining to hours and
wages, the quality of legal representation for women, the lack of education and counseling for working women, and federal
insurance and tax laws that affected women's incomes. Recommendations included affordable child care for all income levels,
hiring practices that promoted equal opportunity for women, and paid maternity leave.[6]
In early 1960s, full-time working women were paid on average 59 percent of the earnings of
their male counterparts. In order to eliminate some forms of sex-based pay discrimination, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on June 10, 1963.[7] During the law's first ten years, 171,000 employees received back pay worth $84 million
dollars.[8]
Crime
The Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act was signed into law
September 22, 1961. The program aimed to prevent youth from committing deliquent acts. In 1963, 288 mobsters were brought to trial by a team that was headed by Kennedy's brother, Robert. However in the process he made some powerful enemies in the Mafia[citation needed].
Defense
The Kennedy administration with its new Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara gave a strong priority to countering communist political
subversion and guerrilla tactics in the so-called
"wars of national liberation," in the rapidly decolonising Third World. As well as fighting
and winning a nuclear war, the American military was also trained and equipped for
counterinsurgency operations. Though the U.S. Army Special Forces had been created in 1952, Kennedy visited the
Fort Bragg U.S. Army Special Warfare Center in a blaze of publicity and gave
his permission for the Special Forces to adopt the green beret. The other services launched their own counterinsurgency forces in 1961; the U.S. Air Force created the 1st Air Commando
Group and the U.S. Navy created the Navy SEALs.
The U.S. Military increased in size and faced possible confrontation with the Soviets in Berlin
Wall escalation of tensions in 1961 and with the Cuban Missile Crisis in
1962. American troops were sent to Laos and South Vietnam in
increasing numbers. The United States provided a clandestine operation to supply
military aid and support to Cuban exiles in the disastrous Bay of Pigs
Invasion.
Notes
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~rwhealan/jfk/j071560.htm - Full text of the New Frontier speech
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