John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Foreign Policy A Strategic Power Point Presentation Brought to You by Mr. Raffel
A Cold War Inaugural Address Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (January 1961)
JFK s Three Foreign Policy Crises Bay of Pigs (Cuba-1961) The Berlin Wall (1961) The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) American University Address (June 1963)- a new direction
Crisis #1: Bay of Pigs Background: Fidel Castro seized control of Cuba in 1959 and had taken over private property owned by the U.S. and developed ties to the USSR. Eisenhower worried that Cuba would inspire communist revolution elsewhere in Latin American, so the CIA developed plans to invade Cuba with anti- Communist exiles to overthrow Castro. What other covert actions had the CIA been involved with during the 1950s?
JFK allowed the attack to go forward in Spring 1961-he asked few questions. An air strike failed to destroy Cuba s air force; Castro stopped U.S.- backed troops. Outcome
Significance U.S. lost prestige because the invasion was an illegal attempt to overthrow a legitimate government. Latin America angry at the U.S. for violating agreements not to interfere in the Western hemisphere. Kennedy became very skeptical of the Joint Chiefs and the CIA, and publicly took responsibility for the botched invasion: there is an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and failure is an orphan.i am the responsible officer of this government.
Crisis #2: The Berlin Crisis Background: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, tried to intimidate JFK at an meeting in Vienna in June 1961 and decided to test the new President. Soviets called for a permanent division of Berlin to stop refugees from East Germany JFK feared that the Soviet effort in Germany was part of a larger plan to take over the rest of Europe.
Outcome: Kennedy decided to stand up to Soviets by: 1. Increasing defense spending by $3 billion. 2. Requesting more men for the armed forces. 3. Doubled # of young men being drafted. 4. Sought $200 million for a program to build bomb shelters. Significance: Russia built a wall around Berlin the Berlin Wall, which became a symbol of the East-West conflict for the next three decades. It fell in 1989.
Crisis #3: Cuban Missile Crisis Background: USSR, disturbed by the attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs, pledged to support Cuba. In October 1962, photographs taken from a U.S. spy plane revealed that the Soviets were placing offensive missiles on Cuban soil. U.S. officials were convinced that the missiles presented a direct and immediate challenge.
Outcome JFK, in consultation with his advisors (the Ex-Comm) ordered U.S. forces on full alert; bombers and missiles were armed with nuclear weapons. JFK announced a quarantine (really a naval blockade) around Cuba to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more missiles.
Soviet ships steamed toward the quarantine line; U.S. prepared to respond. Nuclear war seemed imminent. A few days later, Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles if JFK would end quarantine and stay out of Cuba. U.S. accepted the terms of the note, and crisis ended.
Consequences Many of Kennedy s military and foreign policy advisors were willing to risk war by bombing the missiles in Cuba as the crisis developed, Having learned from the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy asked a lot of questions, at times overruled his generals, and successfully put off military action. The public saw Kennedy as a hero for standing up to USSR and the Democrats did well in the 1962 elections. Both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., having gone to the brink of nuclear war, took steps to reduce Cold War tensions.
After the crisis, the US and the USSR created a hot line to allow for immediate diplomacy in the event of a future crisis. The US and USSR also signed Limited Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear testing above the ground, and eliminated radioactive fallout. JFK announced these new policies at American University in June, 1963.
The American University Speech (June 10, 1963)
Crisis #4: Vietnam In September of 1963, President Kennedy declared in an interview, In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate we may not like it in the defense of Asia.
JFK & Vietnam Kennedy was murdered in late 1963, so we ll never know whether the Cuban Missile Crisis experience would have shaped his response to Vietnam. The earliest change would have likely come AFTER the 1964 Presidential election. Historians disagree about what JFK might have done.