JFK approach to the Cold War, Cuba, Berlin and Vietnam
Overview of JFK
In the 1960 election Kennedy proved himself as a strong anti- communist (so was Nixon)he wanted there to by a more flexable response to events rather than Eisenhower's policy of brinkmanship which led to all issues creating a nuclear issue. He was going to this by spending more money on the military he also unlike Nixon he stressed the idea of a so called 'missile gap' which lead to him winning the 1960 election only by a tiny marginal. When he came into power he increased military funding by 3.2 billion dollars in the summer 1961 as well as increasing the armed forces by 300,000 and sent 40,000 troops to Europe.
Cuba
Before the 1960's Cuba was seen as a playground for the Americas and controlled a lot of their wealth. They owned 40% of sugar, 80 percent of Cuban utilities and 90% of the mining wealth. This all changed when in January 1959 Castro took over of the country from the right wing dictator Fulgencio Barista.Castro introduced land reform and nationalised American businesses without compensation which angered the Americas so they stopped importing Cuban sugar ( the USSR in response agreed to import Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and machinery. This lead to the plan that was put forward by Eisenhower's government which Kennedy approved of which was for the CIA to train Cuban exiles. These exiles would invade Cuba and overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs so it was known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. This was a failure as when the Bay of Pigs Invasion took place in April 1961 Castro's forces was too strong and it did not help that Kennedy had scaled back the bombing so it did not look like the Americans were involved.
The Missile crisis started when a U2 spy plane took photos of a missile launch pad on the 14th October which was a problem because if a nuke was fired from Cuba the US would not have time to respond as the island is only 90 miles away from Florida . Kennedy put together the Executive Committee to find a way to respond. The joint chiefs of staff wanted to invade Cuba but Kennedy did not want to provoke a nuclear war. Kennedy agreed with his younger brother Robert the best option was to introduce a blockade. Kennedy announced this on TV and announced this that all ships from the Soviets would be checked for any nukes and would be turned around. It became more tense when Soviet ships carried on sailing and a U2 spy plane was shot over Cuba. The agreement in the end was that Khrushchev would remove the missiles from Cuba if Kennedy would remove his from Turkey which were old and set to be removed anyway. In the aftermath of this The Kremlin and Washington agreed to have a hotline between the two countries to prevent another situation like this again.
Berlin
Berlin was a problem for Khrushchev as it clearly proved the benefits of Capitalism over Communism. This is because West Berlin under the allies had a thriving economy while the East did not and was suffering and still had bombed out ruins from WW2. This lead to the brain drain were all the young clever people (half were under 25 and three quarters were below 45) were leaving for the west and was leaving via west Berlin (2.8 million people by 1961). This was a problem for Khrushchev which he dealt with by ordering the Berlin wall to be built on 13th August 1961 to split East and West Berlin. Kennedy's response on the wall that the US did not comment about it for a week but he was glad that the Soviets had not taken any action against West Berlin and felt that a wall was better than a war. In 1963 Kennedy went to West Berlin and to see the difference between Capitalism and Communism.
Vietnam
JFK thoughts on Vietnam was that he was going to withdraw American troops from Vietnam in 1965. He was waiting until then as in 1964 there was the election for his second term in office and he did not want to look weak against the Communist. The fact that backs up that he was going to withdraw troops from Vietnam is that he agreed with the report written by Robert McNamara that they should train the Vietnamese to fight on there own so the US military could withdraw by 1965. Also Diem felt that they had too many US military advisors and at least half could be withdrawn safely. Also Kennedy had already agreed on the 5th October 1963 for 1,000 military personal to be withdrawn by the end of the year. What could of changed his mind was the assassination of Diem which Kennedy personally felt upset about in November 1963 a few weeks before his own assassination.
In the 1960 election Kennedy proved himself as a strong anti- communist (so was Nixon)he wanted there to by a more flexable response to events rather than Eisenhower's policy of brinkmanship which led to all issues creating a nuclear issue. He was going to this by spending more money on the military he also unlike Nixon he stressed the idea of a so called 'missile gap' which lead to him winning the 1960 election only by a tiny marginal. When he came into power he increased military funding by 3.2 billion dollars in the summer 1961 as well as increasing the armed forces by 300,000 and sent 40,000 troops to Europe.
Cuba
Before the 1960's Cuba was seen as a playground for the Americas and controlled a lot of their wealth. They owned 40% of sugar, 80 percent of Cuban utilities and 90% of the mining wealth. This all changed when in January 1959 Castro took over of the country from the right wing dictator Fulgencio Barista.Castro introduced land reform and nationalised American businesses without compensation which angered the Americas so they stopped importing Cuban sugar ( the USSR in response agreed to import Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and machinery. This lead to the plan that was put forward by Eisenhower's government which Kennedy approved of which was for the CIA to train Cuban exiles. These exiles would invade Cuba and overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs so it was known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. This was a failure as when the Bay of Pigs Invasion took place in April 1961 Castro's forces was too strong and it did not help that Kennedy had scaled back the bombing so it did not look like the Americans were involved.
The Missile crisis started when a U2 spy plane took photos of a missile launch pad on the 14th October which was a problem because if a nuke was fired from Cuba the US would not have time to respond as the island is only 90 miles away from Florida . Kennedy put together the Executive Committee to find a way to respond. The joint chiefs of staff wanted to invade Cuba but Kennedy did not want to provoke a nuclear war. Kennedy agreed with his younger brother Robert the best option was to introduce a blockade. Kennedy announced this on TV and announced this that all ships from the Soviets would be checked for any nukes and would be turned around. It became more tense when Soviet ships carried on sailing and a U2 spy plane was shot over Cuba. The agreement in the end was that Khrushchev would remove the missiles from Cuba if Kennedy would remove his from Turkey which were old and set to be removed anyway. In the aftermath of this The Kremlin and Washington agreed to have a hotline between the two countries to prevent another situation like this again.
Berlin
Berlin was a problem for Khrushchev as it clearly proved the benefits of Capitalism over Communism. This is because West Berlin under the allies had a thriving economy while the East did not and was suffering and still had bombed out ruins from WW2. This lead to the brain drain were all the young clever people (half were under 25 and three quarters were below 45) were leaving for the west and was leaving via west Berlin (2.8 million people by 1961). This was a problem for Khrushchev which he dealt with by ordering the Berlin wall to be built on 13th August 1961 to split East and West Berlin. Kennedy's response on the wall that the US did not comment about it for a week but he was glad that the Soviets had not taken any action against West Berlin and felt that a wall was better than a war. In 1963 Kennedy went to West Berlin and to see the difference between Capitalism and Communism.
Vietnam
JFK thoughts on Vietnam was that he was going to withdraw American troops from Vietnam in 1965. He was waiting until then as in 1964 there was the election for his second term in office and he did not want to look weak against the Communist. The fact that backs up that he was going to withdraw troops from Vietnam is that he agreed with the report written by Robert McNamara that they should train the Vietnamese to fight on there own so the US military could withdraw by 1965. Also Diem felt that they had too many US military advisors and at least half could be withdrawn safely. Also Kennedy had already agreed on the 5th October 1963 for 1,000 military personal to be withdrawn by the end of the year. What could of changed his mind was the assassination of Diem which Kennedy personally felt upset about in November 1963 a few weeks before his own assassination.
Comments
Post a Comment