Kennedy found making all of his desired changes a challenge. He had won the 1960 election by a very narrow margin and there was a lot of opposition towards him in Congress. He had to create the Peace Corps by executive order because of strong opposition from Congress.

Political opposition to Kennedy

• Older politicians thought Kennedy was too young and inexperienced.
• Politicians from the South objected to his support for civil rights, even though many of them were members of the Democratic Party just like Kennedy was.
• Protestant politicians did not trust him because he was the first Catholic president and many saw his proposals as being too extreme.

As a result, many of the bills that Kennedy supported were not passed by Congress while he was alive. However, there was some success with welfare reforms. He was assassinated before he was able to finish the New Frontier programme.