Reference no: EM133470269
Assignment:
1. What was the purpose of ratifying the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (p. 443)? What was horrific about the detonation of 228 American nuclear weapons in the atmosphere in the twenty test series from 1945-1963? What did Kennedy do to promote "New Frontier environmentalism" (p. 443-45)? Why was Henry David Thoreau's Cape Cod one of Kennedy's favorite books (p. 444)?
2. How did Kennedy respond to Silent Spring, an eco-manifesto by Rachel Carson, who also authored The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea (pp. 444-46)? How did she become a "fellow New Frontier intellectual"? How was Kennedy the equivalent of Theodore Roosevelt (p. 445-446) and of FDR (p. 446) when he called for an environmental revolution of the mind? How was Kennedy's vision of an ecologically sound America live on after his assassination?
3. Who was Gifford Pinchot, and how did Kennedy hail him as the "father of American conservation" (p. 443, 449)? Why did Kennedy think "today's conservation movement must...embrace discipline unknown in the past" (p. 450)? Why is conservation "the job of us all" (p. 45-51)? Kennedy said, "What we are doing in the real sense is preparing for those who come after us" (p. 446, 450, 452). Can you truly commit yourself to preserving our natural resources "for those who come after us"? Why or why not?
4. Discuss "We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea-whether it is to sail or to watch it-we are going back from whence we came" (John F. Kennedy, America's Cup Dinner, September 14, 1962, p. 445; watch "JFK talks about Man's relationship to the Sea".