Cold War Battles/John F. Kennedy

1
Cold War Battles/John F. Kennedy

• U-2
• Nikita Khrushchev
• John F. Kennedy
• Bay of Pigs
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Jack Ruby

2
U-2

• Ike and Nikita Khrushchev met to discuss open
  skies
• Plan would allow for fly overs of each others
  countries to avoid surprise nuclear attacks
• Soviets rejected the offer
• We did it anyway
• CIA conducted spy flights over Soviet Union using
  U-2 aircraft

3
U-2 cont.

• U-2 was a plane that could fly so high that it
  was supposed to avoid detection
• Used to take pictures
• Ike wanted flights cancelled before a major
  summit with Khrushchev
• John Foster Dulles (sec. of state) convinced Ike
  for one last flight

4
U-2 cont.

• May 1, 1960
• Francis Gary Powers shot down over USSR
• Intercepted by Soviet plane
• Wings ripped off
• Powers was tried by the Soviets
• Sentenced to 10 years in prison
• Powers was traded in 62 for a Soviet spy that we
  captured

5
John F. Kennedy

• Senator from Mass.
• Ran against VP Richard Nixon
• First televised presidential campaign
• Young family invigorated the country
• Camelot
• JFK inherited Ikes policy on Cuba
• Recently turned communist

6
Bay of Pigs

• Ike convinced JFK to continue with a plan to
  invade and take over Cuba
• Invasion was run by Cuban exiles
• Tried to topple Fidel Castro
• CIA was in charge
• Nothing went as planned
• Invaders were met by 25,000 Cuban troops and
  Soviet tanks

7
Bay of Pigs cont.

• Massive failure
• Kennedy went to TV and took responsibility
• Still wanted to deal with the Castro issue

8
Cuban Missile Crisis

• October 14, 1962 US took U-2 pics of Soviet
  missiles being sent to Cuba
• Any missile attack from Cuba would begin a war
  with the Soviets
• Kennedy and Khrushchev were at the brink of
  nuclear war
• Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba to avoid any
  more Soviet missiles making it into Cuba

9
Cuban Missile Crisis cont.

• Blockade could have been seen as aggressive
• 13 days of tension
• Agreement was made to remove missiles from Cuba
  if we removed our strategic missiles from Turkey
• Russians already had missiles up and running on
  Cuba that we didnt know about

10
Kennedy Assassination

• November 22, 1963
• JFK and Jackie went to Dallas, TX
• Rode in an open car
• Shot three times by an assassin
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Some say that more were involved
• Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby
• Lyndon B. Johnson was JFKs VP