Transcript The Cold War - Rankin County School District

John F. Kennedy
1961-1963
Election and
Foreign Policy
I.Election of 1960
A. Candidates:
Dem: John F Kennedy (MA)
(VP) Lyndon B Johnson
(TX)
Rep: Richard Nixon (CA)
(the current VP)
(VP) Henry Cabot Lodge
B. Issues:
1. JFK’s Catholicism:
- No Catholic had ever led!
- Many wondered if JFK could
separate his Catholic beliefs from
his secular duties, but he
announced his firm belief in
separation of church and state!
2. Cold War
3. Civil Rights:
a. Kennedy gained the support of MLK, Jr.
i. “Jack Kennedy has the moral
courage to stand up for what he knows is
right”- MLK Jr.
ii. JFK and RFK helped to get MLK
out of jail after he was arrested in Atlanta
at a sit-in.
C. Debates
1. Americans who listened to presidential
debates on the radio assumed that Nixon
had won the debates.
2. Americans who watched the four
debates on television assumed Kennedy
had won the debates.
a. Nixon had a tendency to look shady
and nervous. He sweated a lot.
b. Kennedy came across very poised and
charming. He was very attractive.
D. Results:
1. JFK and the Democrats win
2. Electoral votes:
a. JFK 303
b. Nixon 219
c. Byrd 15
3. Popular vote was much closer
a. JFK 49.7%
b. Nixon 49.5%
 Kennedy received only 118,000 more
votes than Nixon!!!
4. JFK is the youngest president ever
- Inaugurated at the age of 43.
5. Inaugural address: "Let the word go forth
. . . that the torch has been passed to a
new generation of Americans-born in
this century, tempered by war,
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,
proud of our ancient heritage."
6. This statement and Kennedy's
enthusiasm appealed to many young
idealists. Kennedy had also won the
votes of many traditional Democratic
voters- members of labor unions,
African Americans, and other ethnic
groups.
II. Foreign policy
A. JFK relied upon nuclear arms build-up
along with flexible response to ensure
American safety during the Cold War
1. Alliance for Progress:
- U.S. assistance program for Latin
America that began in 1961
- Aimed to relieve the continent’s
poverty and social inequities. Later
included U.S. programs of military and
police assistance to counter Communist
subversion.
*JFK challenged Americans to think of ways
they could serve, saying
"Ask not what your country can
do for you--ask what you can
do for your country."
2. Green Berets – Special Forces
a. From the beginning of his term in
early 1961, JFK focused on the Cold
War (Soviet relations)
b. JFK tripled our nuclear capability,
increased troops, ships and artillery,
and created the Green Berets
3. Peace Corps: 1961
- Prompted individual citizens to
work abroad and dedicate
themselves to the development,
progress, and peace of developing
countries and cultures. Kennedy
wanted to involve Americans more
actively in the cause of global
democracy, peace, development
and freedom.
B. Issues in Cuba
1. Castro’s Rise to Power [under Ike]
a. 1959: Fidel Castro overthrew Cuban
dictator Batista. The U.S. government at
first welcomed Castro, but the tide quickly
changed as Castro failed to hold free
elections, placed the press under strict
censorship, and sentenced to death a
number of his political enemies.
b. Castro began to denounce the U.S.,
seeking support from the Communist-bloc
nations.
c. In 1961, Ike severed diplomatic ties to
Cuba, closing the US embassy in Havana.
CRISIS OVER CUBA
d. Just 90 miles off the coast of Florida,
Cuba presented the first big test of JFK’s
foreign policy
e. Openly Communist, Cuba was led by
revolutionary leader Fidel Castro who
welcomed aid from the USSR
f. Relations between the U.S. and Cuba were
deteriorating
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1961
2. Bay of Pigs Invasion:
a. 1960: following Castro's decision to
sign a trade treaty with the Soviet Union,
the Ike administration began financing
and training a group of Cuban exiles
to overthrow the Cuban leader.
b. Kennedy learned of the plan only nine
days into his presidency. Plan was
approved under JFK.
c. April 17, 1961: about 1300 exiles,
armed with U.S. weapons, landed at the
Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of
Cuba, met 25,000 Cuban troops backed by
Soviet tanks and were soundly defeated.
d. Kennedy declined to use the U.S. air force
to help, and by the time the fighting ended
on April 19th, 90 exiles had been killed
and the rest had been taken as prisoners.
e. Two major results:
1. Kennedy’s young administration is
embarrassed!
2. Castro is very wary
of the U.S. and turns
even more to USSR
C. Kennedy – Khrushchev Relations
1. President Kennedy met with Soviet Premier
Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961, just
five weeks after the humiliating defeat of the
U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba. Khrushchev “talked tough”
announcing his intention to cut off Western
access to Berlin; he threatened war if the
U.S. or its allies tried to stop him.
2. Many U.S. diplomats felt that Kennedy had
not stood up to the Soviet Premier at the
summit, therefore, giving Khrushchev the
impression that he was a weak leader.
Paris, 1961
Khrushchev & JFK meet to discuss Berlin and
nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that
JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.
D. The Berlin Crisis
1. Many East Germans, who did not want to
live in a communist country, were moving to
West Berlin, where they could either settle or
find transportation to the west. This created
both a symbolic and economic problem for
Khrushchev.
2. June 1961: Khrushchev demanded that
the West must recognize the sovereignty
of East Germany and remove all troops
from West Berlin.
3. The President did not want to risk war
over Berlin but did not want to lose the faith
of the American people, either.
CRISIS OVER BERLIN
4. In 1961, Berlin, Germany was a city in
great turmoil
5. In the 11 years since the Berlin Airlift,
almost 3 million East Germans (Soviet
side) had fled into West Berlin (U.S.
controlled) to flee communist rule
Germany’s
geographic
division
(note Berlin)
6. Their departure hurt the economy and the
prestige of the USSR. To stop the flood of
people into West Germany, Khrushchev
ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall
in August 1961.
7. The barbed-wire fence (that later became a
concrete wall) divided the city of Berlin in half,
and provided a physical symbol of the Iron
Curtain.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
1. Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow
2. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
promised to defend Cuba with Soviet
weapons
3. During the summer of 1962 the flow of
Soviet weapons into Cuba – including
nuclear – increased greatly
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
4. Summer '62: Khrushchev reached a
secret agreement with the Castro
regime to supply nuclear missiles
capable of protecting Cuba against
another American-sponsored
invasion.
5. Oct 15, ‘62: American spy planes
photographed missile sites under
construction. It was soon determined
that Cuba possessed missiles
capable of reaching most of the U.S.
Khruschev Embraces Castro
6. Kennedy and his advisers agreed to
place a naval blockade around Cuba
while demanding the removal of the
missiles and the destruction of the sites.
7. Khrushchev, recognizing that the crisis
could easily escalate into
nuclear war, finally
agreed to remove the
missiles in return for
an American pledge
not to reinvade Cuba.
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Cuban Missile Crisis
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians,
and the other man blinked!
8. This is the closest we came to
nuclear war!!! This scare will lead to
renewed efforts at reducing the
world’s nuclear power…
F. Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
1. Following the peaceful resolution of the Cuban
Missile Crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev
sought to reduce tensions between their
two nations, realizing how close they'd come
to nuclear war.
Khrushchev: “The two most powerful nations had
been squared off against each other, each with
its finger on the button.”
JFK: “It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite
sides of the world, should be able to decide to
bring an end to civilization.”
2.
On August 6, 1963, after more than eight years of
difficult negotiations, the United States, the United
Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the
Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The treaty:
a. prohibits most nuclear weapons tests or
other nuclear explosions
b. pledges the participants to work towards
complete disarmament, an end to the arms race,
and an end to the contamination of the
environment by radioactive substances
3. In addition, the "Hotline”, a direct line of
communication between Washington and Moscow,
was established to help reduce the possibility of
war by miscommunication.
G. Vietnam War: 1965-1973
The Roots of US
Involvement Vietnam
a. The French occupied Vietnam in the mid
1800’s.
b. By 1883 the French had complete control of
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam which were
combined to form French Indochina.
c. During World War II the Japanese occupied
Vietnam finally withdrawing in 1945
d. The French attempted to reassert its control
over Indochina in 1946.
e. The US wanted to strengthen its ties with
France and fight communism in Asia.
The Conflict in Vietnam
1. Remember: The
Vietnamese go to war
with French forces in
Vietnam over their
independence.(1946)
2. Ho Chi Minh gave a
speech echoing the
U.S. Declaration of
Independence in hopes
that the U.S would
support the
Vietnamese.
3. However, the U.S. backed France
because they did not like Minh’s
communist ties and felt that France
was a vital ally in stopping the spread
of communism.
4. Remember: a cease-fire was agreed
upon at the Geneva Accords and the
17th parallel divided North (communist)
and South (nationalist) Vietnam.
5. In hopes that South Vietnam might be
kept non-communist, President
Eisenhower backed the nationalist
leader Dinh Diem
6. Diem was very unpopular, and by the
1950’s Communist opposition groups
in the south formed resistance groups
called the Vietcong. In 1957, they
started a revolution.
7. Ho Chi Minn began supplying this
group with arms for guerrilla attacks.
8. Rebel forces, called Vietminh, came
from north Vietnam to aid the
Vietcong (communists) who stayed
in the South. They formed the National
Liberation Front (NLF) in an attempt to
overthrow Diem
9. Kennedy wanted to improve the
image of the U.S. in the world
10. Aiding South Vietnam gave the
U.S. a way to assert its power
11. Kennedy fully agreed with the
Domino Theory- if Vietnam fell to
communism the rest of Southeast
Asia would soon follow.
12. In 1960 there were 900 military
advisers in South Vietnam
training Diem’s army and by 1963
it increased to 16,000
13. As Vietcong attacks increased,
Kennedy authorized U.S. forces to
use direct combat.
14. Political conflict also increased
as Buddhist leaders openly
opposed Diem’s rule, and he
waged a brutal campaign to
control them.
15. Hundreds were arrested or killed
and in response monks publicly set
themselves on fire
Monk Suicides
16. In turn, U.S. officials threatened to
withdraw support for Diem unless he
ended the campaign.
17. After refusing to talk about issues
Kennedy raised, the U.S. began quietly
encouraging a group of South Vietnamese
army officers to plot Diem’s overthrow.
18. U.S. advisers had been prepared to fly
Diem out of the country but in November
of 1963 the plotters murdered him.