he didn't want anybody to think that jack kennedy was not his own man. >> jack knows that traditionally american presidents are judged by their first 100 days. >> jack kennedy saw himself as an historic figure. he saw himself as somebody who could lead the country into a new golden age. now, it was a golden age tinged by shadow because 1961 was the height or the depth of the cold war. >> america and the soviet union are locked in a titanic ideological struggle. the u.s. is terrified of the spread of communism as it reaches the nation's backyard. cuba is under the control of the fiery revolutionary fidel castro. >> he was not only a communist and a marxist, but he was going to align himself with the soviet