Kennedy and the Cold War - Belgrade-Brooten
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Transcript Kennedy and the Cold War - Belgrade-Brooten
Kennedy and the Cold War
Chapter 28
Election of 1960
~ Republican
-Richard Nixon (VP)
-get in through IKE
~Democrats
-John F. Kennedy
- get US moving…
~Both candidates similar on Major Issues~
Pros
Kennedy +’s & -’s
~well-organized
~wealthy family
~handsome
~charismatic
Cons
~inexperienced
~43 y/o
~ Roman Catholic
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/kennedy-family-tree.htm
1st TV debates between Pres.
Candidates
September 26,1960 ~ 70 million
viewers
Nixon (foreign policy expert)
agreed; wanted to expose JFK
inexperience
JFK coached, looked & spoke
better
Radio listeners – debate= toss-up
TV viewers
- debate= JFK win
Televised
Debates
Civil Rights
Martin Luther King arrested in Atlanta, GA with 33
others for sit-in at segregated lunch counter
Others released
King sentenced to months of hard labor
Officially for traffic violation
Eisenhower admin. refused to step in
Nixon no position
JFK called wife – sympathy
Robert K. talked w/ judge out on bail
Win African American votes
Election
Very close election
JFK
wins by less than 119,000 votes
New era at the White House ~ Camelot
Celebrities
in the White House
“Ask not what your country can do for you
– ask what you can do for your country”
Kennedy Administration
Best and the Brightest ~ advisors
McGeorge
Bundy ~ Harvard Dean ~National
Security
Robert McNamara ~pres. Ford~ Secretary of
Defense
Dean Rusk ~ pres. Of Rockefeller Found. ~
Secretary of State
Robert Kennedy ~ brother ~ Attorney General
New Policy
Eisenhower – Brinksmanship – massive
retaliation to deter Soviet Aggression
Threaten
nuclear war for minor conflict??
Kennedy new policy
Flexible
Response- increased the rest of the
armed forces as well, so could fight w/out nuke
Started
Special Forces, Green Berets
Crisis over Cuba
Problems in Cuba start even before JFK takes
office
Revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, takes control
Guerilla movement vs. Batista, promised democracy
US recognized new government
Cuba seizes US and British oil refineries
Declares Cuba Communist
Welcomes Soviet help
Exiles flee to US
Bay of Pigs
Ike gave permission to CIA to
train exiles for an invasion of
Cuba
Trigger
Castro
mass uprising, overthrow
Kennedy learned of plan days
after election
Had
doubts about plan
Still approved
April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion
begins
1,300 – 1,500 exiles
Supported by US military
Nothing went as planned
Air strike fails to knock out Cuban air force
Small advance group (distract forces) never
make it
Main force reaches land; faced by 25,000 troops
backed by Soviet tanks & aircraft
Invaders killed and imprisoned
Cuban Missile Crisis
Krushchev promises to defend Cuba w/ arms
Summer of 1962 huge flow of nuclear
weapons from Soviet Union to Cuba
JFK
warns will not tolerate offensive nuclear
weapons in Cuba
US does air plane surveillance in October
Soviet
missile bases in Cuba
Some had missiles ready to launch
Could
reach US in minutes
6 days world faces
chance of nuclear war
In
the Atlantic Soviet
ships headed to Cuba
Assumed
to be carrying
more missiles
US
Navy prepared to
quarantine Cuba;
prevent ships from
coming w/in 500 miles
100,000
troops waited in
Florida; ready to invade
Soviet ships stop suddenly
“We were eyeball to eyeball
and the other guy just
blinked.”
A few days later,
Krushchev offers to remove
missiles from Cuba, if US…
Pledge not to invade Cuba
Secretly agree to remove
missiles from Turkey
Leaders agree, avoid crisis
Both leaders take heat
Krushchev – prestige damaged in Soviet
Union and world
JFK accused of Brinkmanship (could have talked it out)
Some
said missed chance to invade Cuba, and
oust Castro
Cubans blame Democrats for losing Cuba,
switch allegiance to Republicans
Castro closes doors to exiles