
The 1960s stand alone in their impact on the post-war era. The 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, the first American president to be born in the 20th Century (and the youngest), foreshadowed a new, more youth-oriented popular and political culture. The large, charismatic Kennedy clan was a unique political machine and a powerful advocate for new social consciousness. Their administration fostered liberal ideals - public service, volunteerism, international aid, racial integration and civil rights, federal aid to education and to health care. And for this lofty agenda and aura of intellectualism and beauty, it was dubbed the American Camelot. An international audience was enraptured. Within the first two years of the Kennedy administration, the Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress were established; and NASA successfully launched its first astronaut (Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7) into space. But for these successes, potential political crises took center stage. The USSR had staged missile bases in communist Cuba, prompting a US blockade of Cuba and tense negotiations with the Soviets. President Kennedy also radically increased the number of US military advisors to South Vietnam.