John F. Kennedy

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John F. Kennedy

• 1961-1963
• Election and Foreign Policy

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I. Foreign policy

• 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 continents poverty and
  social inequities. Later included U.S. programs
  of military and police assistance to counter
  Communist subversion.

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• 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
• 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.

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• B. Issues in Cuba
• Castros 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.

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Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961
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• 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. 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, hoping to fight
  through to Havana with the support of the local
  population.

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• 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.
• Two major results
• 1. Kennedys young administration is
  embarrassed!
• 2. Castro is very wary
• of the U.S. and turns
• even more to USSR!

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 4. To stop the flood of people into West
  Germany, Khrushchev ordered the construction of
  the Berlin Wall in August 1961.
• 5. 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.

Building the wall - 1961
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• Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1. Summer '62 Khrushchev reached a secret
  agreement with the Castro regime to supply
  nuclear missiles capable of protecting Cuba
  against another American-sponsored invasion.
• 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.

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• 3. 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.
• 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.

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5. This is the closest we came to nuclear war!!!
This scare will lead to renewed efforts at
reducing the worlds nuclear power
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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 3. However, the U.S. backed France because they
  did not like Minhs communist ties and felt that
  France was a vital ally in stopping the spread of
  communism.
• 4. Remember a cease-fire was agreed upon 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

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• 6. Diem was very unpopular, and by the 1950s, a
  revolution had erupted in the South.
• 7. 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

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• 8. Kennedy wanted to improve the image of the
  U.S. in the world
• 9. Aiding South Vietnam gave the U.S. a way to
  assert its power
• 10. Kennedy fully agreed with the domino theory-
  if Vietnam fell to communism the rest of
  Southeast Asia would soon follow.
• 11. In 1960 there were 900 military advisers in
  South Vietnam training Diems army and by 1963 it
  increased to 16,000

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• 12. As Vietcong attacks increased, Kennedy
  authorized U.S. forces to use direct combat.
• 13. Political conflict also increased as Buddhist
  leaders openly opposed Diems rule, and he waged
  a brutal campaign to control them.
• 14. Hundreds were arrested or killed and in
  response monks publicly set themselves on fire

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DIEM BURNING MONK
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• 15. In turn, U.S. officials threatened to
  withdraw support for Diem unless he ended the
  campaign.
• 16. After refusing to talk about issues Kennedy
  raised, the U.S. began quietly encouraging a
  group of South Vietnamese army officers to plot
  Diems overthrow.
• 17. U.S. advisers had been prepared to fly Diem
  out of the country but in November of 1963 the
  plotters murdered him.