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