The Cold War

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John F. Kennedy
1961-1963 Election and Foreign Policy
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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
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• Issues
• JFKs 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!
• Cold War

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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!!!
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• JFK is the youngest president ever
• - Inaugurated at the age of 43.
• 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.

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II. 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."
• 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

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• 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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CRISIS OVER CUBA
d. Just 90 miles off the coast of Florida,
Cuba presented the first big test of JFKs
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
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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. 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.

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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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Paris, 1961
Khrushchev JFK meet to discuss Berlin and
nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that
JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.
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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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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
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Germanys geographic division(note Berlin)
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• 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.

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E. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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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
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• 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.

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Khruschev Embraces Castro
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• 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.
• 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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Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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Cuban Missile Crisis
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians, and
the other man blinked!
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8. 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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G. Vietnam War 1965-1973
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The Roots of US Involvement Vietnam

• a. The French occupied Vietnam in the mid 1800s.
• 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.

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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 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

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• 6. Diem was very unpopular, and by the 1950s
  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

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• 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 Diems army and by 1963 it
  increased to 16,000

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• 13. As Vietcong attacks increased, Kennedy
  authorized U.S. forces to use direct combat.
• 14. Political conflict also increased as Buddhist
  leaders openly opposed Diems 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

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Monk Suicides
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• 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
  Diems overthrow.
• 18. U.S. advisers had been prepared to fly Diem
  out of the country but in November of 1963 the
  plotters murdered him.