k lasted for decades and marked the coming of age of the Cold War.
1960s: John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Assassination
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy's election had marked a sea-change in American politics. Kennedy had campaigned as an agent of generational change, and the young and charismatic first family was embraced by the public. President Kennedy's death resonated deeply with the public, who instantly mistrusted the Warren Commission's conclusions that the assassination had been the work of a sole gunman-Lee Harvey Oswald ("John"). Over the ensuing decades a number of conspiracy theories have emerged, and they are all testaments to the public's dissatisfaction with the official government conclusions about the case and their emotional reaction to Kennedy's death. The death of the charismatic Kennedy shook the American public like few other events before or since. After learning of the assassination, most Americans felt a deep sense of shame that this could happen in the United States. 43 percent of Americans said they didn't feel like eating, and 34 percent said they kept forgetting things in the weeks following the event. These symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder show that the American public was deeply affected by the killing of their President (Yin). Kennedy's assassination led much of the public to mistrust the government, as their popular president had been murdered and the government's explanation did not add up. His death was a contributing factor to the counterculture revolution and the dawn of the hippy movement.
The images of the Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon being evacuated on April 29, 1975, with helicopters being swarmed by desperate civilians, reverberated deep in the psyche of American citizens. The Vietnam War was the longest mi
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