New Frontier

Throughout American History, Presidents have often created certain political agendas to help to win public support and to articulate their message to the public. For Franklin Roosevelt, it was the New Deal. For Truman, it was the Fair Deal. For Lyndon B. Johnson, it was the Great Society. And, for John F. Kennedy, it was the New Frontier.

In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention of 1960 Kennedy spelled out this vision of New Frontier. He said, "We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier - the Frontier of the 1960s, the Frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the Frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats." In Kennedy's words, the New Frontier "was not a set of promises but a set of challenges." To him, the New Frontier was a battle between the advance of the Communist system and the freedom of the Democratic system. To him, the New Frontier was a battle over how much the American people were willing to give to win this fight, or, in other words, to be able to conquer the New Frontier. This idea connects back to Kennedy's common call for action from the American people. This is no more evident than from his most famous quote, "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

The New Frontier would become the basis of Kennedy's actions as President. He hoped to tackle problems that faced the nation and to conquer the Frontier that was presented by those problems. Therefore, Kennedy aggressively pursued action on the environment, inequality, poverty and racial injustice. The New Frontier also had another aspect to it- Kennedy's desire to conquer the Frontier of Space. This aspect is probably more widely known. Kennedy wanted America to look up to the stars and fly among them. After the Soviets had proven that they were years ahead of us in the Space Race Kennedy crafted the idea of the New Frontier around the idea that the United States was going to have to catch up. Thus, when the president, Kennedy used the New Frontier as a tool to set into motion his desire for an expansion into space. This desire reached its acme when Kennedy called for the United States to reach the Moon in 10 years.

Overall, the New Frontier was a great domestic program that helped to shape the United States that we know today. This domestic agenda differed in many ways from the other domestic programs in the past in that it called for the people to take a leadership role rather than letting the Government do everything. The New Frontier was a challenge that was issued to the American people and they responded.



http://infinite-frontier.blogspot.com/2009/02/kennedys-new-frontier-speech.html

http://www.ushistory.org/us/56b.asp