Of all the modern presidents none has captured the imagination of the US and world quite like John Kennedy. He was the first of his generation to be elected as president - the World War II generation, sometimes called the "greatest generation". Later Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr would be elected from that generation, an unprecedented accomplishment that is unlikely to be equalled in the future.
Kennedy was to face several challenges upon assuming the presidency. The Cold War was in full gear and its effects were causing concern about nuclear war and increased commitment to Vietnam, among other things. Twice the US came to the brink of all-out war with the Soviet Union, and both events centered on the island of Cuba. In 1959, a year before Kennedy's election, Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government and assumed dictatorial powers. Amazingly, today, more than 50 years later, Castro is still in power, though his younger brother Raul governs the country.
As Castro came to power the Cuban army and many business elites of the country fled to the US - 30,000 of them were given citizenship in a single day, in fact, and their political and cultural influence is still powerful today, especially in parts of Florida. These Cuban-Americans despise Castro and were intent on staging a counter-revolution based in the US to regain control of their home country. This and other events caused the new Cuban government to reach out to the Soviets for support, which of course the communists were more than happy to supply. Ironically, the US CIA had actually assisted Castro in his revolution in order to get rid of the corrupt regime of Cuban President Batista. Almost accidentally a new communist country came into existence only 90 miles from the shores of south Florida - not a pleasing prospect for the US during the Cold War!
The first major confrontation came with the Bay of Pigs invasion, in which US-assisted Cuban-Americans invaded Cuba with disastrous results. The second was the "Cuban Missile Crisis" in which the US discovered that the Soviets were placing powerful inter-continental ballistic missiles - nuclear bombs - in Cuba, and they were going to be capable of destroying any US city. The world watched and waited as the Soviet ships bearing the missiles were intercepted by US naval vessels and a stand-off occurred. For thirteen days, no one knew if nuclear war would occur.
On both of these occasions many of Kennedy's advisors urged him to attack Cuba and use the nuclear capabilities of our armed forces. Instead, Kennedy chose to listen to a group of young advisors, many of them in their 20s and 30s, most important being his younger brother Robert (whom he'd appointed to be his Attourny General), and their advice kept the US from precipitating Word War III. I'd like you to chose one of these events and analyze Kennedy's abilities as president. Was he a good leader? Did he make the correct choice given what he knew at the time? Should he have acted differently?
For information about the Bay of Pigs Invasion, go to http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/JFK+and+the+Bay+of+Pigs.htm
For information about the Cuban Missile Crisis, go to http://www.jfklibrary.org/jfkl/cmc/cmc_intro.html
If there are other events in Kennedy's administration that you'd prefer to research, you may begin at the Kennedy Presidential Library homepage: http://www.jfklibrary.org/
The Bay Pigs Invasion
ReplyDeleteThe main reason for the Bay of Pigs invasion was to stop communism from reaching the USA. This meant that the United States government wanted to provoke a counterrevolution in which democracy would be restored and all traces of communism would be destroyed. They tried this by sending a group of Cubans into Cuba. There were a few less important reasons for the invasion command being given by the CIA. One was revenge for the U-2 plane being shot down over Russia. The United States felt that the Russians deserved an attack on the communist regime. Another reason was to protect the supply of raw materials that was entering the US. The government was afraid that Castro might block these ships and keep the supplies for himself.
On April 17, the Cuban-exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Cuban planes immediately destroyed ships and air support. Some exiles escaped to the sea. Almost 1,200 members of Brigade 2056 surrendered, and more than 100 were killed. It was a disaster which had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Even almost 50 years later, relations between Castro's Cuba and the United States remain strained and tenuous.
Great job on your essay! It es written well and full of information.
DeleteCubane Missile Crisis
ReplyDeleteOn 14th October 1962 saw an American reconnaissance aircraft Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba. Two days later, Kennedy informed the American public and convened a special advisory group. Kennedy chose the naval blockade. Nevertheless, the military increased without Kennedy's knowledge, the alertness of the Strategic Air Command. They gave the command through unencrypted so that the Soviets were immediately informed. When the first Soviet ships approached the blockade ring around Cuba, the tension rose to the utmost. After only two ships had passed the blockade undeterred, came the relieving message: The Soviet freighter turned away. In this situation, on the evening of 27th October 1962, he asked his brother Robert Kennedy, the Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to make an offer: The U.S. would not intervene in Cuba when Khrushchev get the missiles away. In addition, the U.S. wanted to dismantle its missile bases in Turkey - but this should not be part of the formal agreements, but must be done secretly.
The Soviets agreed to accept the American proposal, the danger of a nuclear third world war was temporarily banned. In the eyes of world public opinion was Kennedy emerged victorious from the conflict in Cuba. The consequences of the Cuban missile crisis was the establishment of a direct connection between the crisis in the Kremlin and the White House.
Great job on your essay Kat! It was written well,as always, and full of great information.
DeleteThe Bay of Pigs invasion
ReplyDeleteThe Bay of Pigs invasion was a result of the U.S. not wanting communism to reach America and the government distrusting Castro and his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union. The plan started just before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration when he was briefed on a plan by the CIA to train Cuban exiles to attack their homeland. The Cuban exiles began training in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare. Shortly after, Castro caught on to the plans of the Cuban exiles and the US’s plan went down hill from there. I think that John F. Kennedy was a good leader in some aspects. I think that he didn’t make the right choices given what he knew, but I think he should have really did a little more research because the time zone thing was 100% preventable.
Lara: I really like your essay!
Great essay Staci! It was written well and full of great information.
DeleteCuban Missile Crisis
ReplyDeleteIn the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union begun to build missiles in Cuba. Fidel Castro felt it was necessary to defend his island from the US after the Bay of Pigs. On October 15, 1962, United States saw Missiles being built in Cuba secretly with spy planes. President Kennedy organized a group of his most important advisers to discuss what to do. They decided to surround Cuba to prevent more weapons from arriving to the island. On October 22nd Kennedy told the public about the missiles being built in Cuba on television. He asked the Soviet Union to remove their weapons. Both leaders realized the mass destruction and agreed to dismantle the weapons. They also agreed that the United States would not invade Cuba. In a secret agreement, the United States agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. Later, the United States made a “hotline” between Kremlin and the White House. They also signed a treaty called the Limited Nuclear Test Ban on July 25, 1963. Kennedy stressed the need for peace between nations; "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
i'm going to talk about the Bay of Pig invasion.
ReplyDeleteit was a attack that cuban people wanted to do to take Castro out of the power and to take communism away from Cuba but they have an allie and it was Russia that had nuclear power and more warfare than cuba. so people that supported batista moved to the US and they asked the army to help them to go and take over cuba and castro and once they were prepared and ready to fight and they went to the bay of pig it didn't turn out really well because castro people was ready to fight against them when it was suppose to be a secret of the batista people. Nobody knows how Castro people find out about that attack but they were ready. But JFk didn't really want to fight so he told the people that was going to attack to return to the US and they left the Batista people in there and the americans went back in their planes so they would avoid a war with Russia and Cuba.
At 8:45 AM on October 16, 1962, Kennedy was advisor that a really bad crisis was coming on. A few days earlier an American aircraft took a lot of pictures to Cuba. In those picture, the CIA found out that the Cubans were building a Soviet missile base in San Cristobal, Cuba. That city was really close to United State, in fact it was just 90 miles from Florida. From that day, the war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America had begun. This was going on for thirteen days, the days most dangerous periodof the Cuban missile crisis begin. Air strike or naval quarantine ?! That was the question that Kennedy had to answer. During the 3rd day Kennedy met the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, where he told him that the Soviet was just an aid and it would not cause consequences against the United States. On the fifth day he decide to choose the quarantine side. In that day he decide to have a speech to show to the other people his planSoviet freighters turn and head back to Europe. On day seventh Kennedy decided to speak on tv about the secret that the Soviet were hiding: the missile area in Cuba. Finally on October 28th, during the thirteenth day, Radio Moscow announcement that the Soviet accepted the pact with the United States.
ReplyDeleteCuban Missile Crisis
DeleteThe Cuban Missile Crisis
ReplyDeleteThe Cuban missile crisis was a period of thirteen days of conflict in Cuba where the Soviet Union had missiles in Cuba pointed toward the United States of America. During the first couple days the threat of attack was greater as U.S intelligence found more and more nuclear sights on the coast of Cuba. Kennedy took almost immediate action and began to seek advice from his closest military advisors. Kennedy was very smart in how he handled to crisis. When a Russian ambassador came to him and tried to assure the President that the only reason that the Soviet Union supported Cuba was to protect them. Not only did President Kennedy not believe him (Kennedy new that the closer communism was to the United States the sooner it would be to take over America. The President also didn’t tell the ambassador that he knew about the missiles. Kennedy’s big plan was to block Cuba off from Russia by ordering a navel quarantine surrounding Cuba. By blocking off Cuba from the soviets, the United States was able to cut off Cuban supplies. Cuba then requested that the Soviet Union strike America. President Kennedy was able to negotiate out of war by telling the U.S.S.R that if they removed their nuclear weapons from Cuba, we would remove ours form Turkey.
John F. Kennedy during his administration hindered and helped the United States of America. His decision on the Bay of Pigs was questionable, I believe he cracked under pressure. If we didn't bomb Cuba we should have done at least something to hold up our promise like sending in troops. I think he had the abilities, but the stress of the situation made him second guess himself. Even though he did make this mistake JFK brought us things like NASA and the willingness to compromise.
ReplyDeleteKennedy and the Bay of Pigs:
ReplyDeleteBefore I read the article on the web page, I thought that the failure of the mission was just bad luck and enemy intelligence. But while reading I found out, that the US and the Revolutionary forces had problems with keeping the operation secret and it also seems to me that they had a problem with making a good plan. I think the original plan sounded good, but what how it went in reality was really bad. In my opinion they should have delayed the operation until they could find a way to destroy the Cuban air force without an obvious US involvement. A delay or a whole stop of the operation could have also been an option, since it was already known to the general public. Although it didn’t work out very good, but I am very glad that Kennedy didn’t attack the Cuban government directly after the failure and prevented the world from fighting world war three. But since I am not trained in the arts of war and was not there at the time all this happened I guess I don’t really have a righ
@ Daniel
ReplyDeleteDear Daniel, you think you did a very good job with your essay, you have some interesting and important facts in there, I really enjoyed to read it. Good job!
@ Lydia
I think you did a very good job, although I do not agree with you about the fact that JFK should have risked a war. You have some good facts in there I didn’t knew before, like that the NASA was found by JFK.
@ Bobby,
Dear Bobby, you did a very good job with describing how it came to that crisis. It was really good and contained all the important stuff in a good and compact form. Very good work!
@ Staci
You did a good job with your essay, it was a smart idea to first name the facts and then describe what you would have done better. I also agree with you that that time zone problem was useless.
A leader is someone who does what is best for those people who follow their authority even if they are seen as a poor choice. Leader cannot be so obsessed with what would help them win another election, but what will protect the lives of the American people today and the future generations. And I truly believe that is what Kennedy was trying to do. He was concerned with the effects the bombing would do on the relations with Cuba and thus concluded it would be a more intelligent move not to bomb Cuba, and to keep them as “allies” because they are so close to our borders. If Kennedy chose the other choice Cuba, having the location so close to the United States border, they could have bombed us relentlessly thus killed thousands of Americans. When Kennedy’s Choice kept all those deaths from occurring by being the bigger person and not provoking a war from occurring, that would destroy many American families. So in my opinion I do believe that Kennedy did, in fact, chose the right choice and I also believe that it showed not only his own maturity but his entire administration’s maturity and desire to protect.
ReplyDeleteOctober 16, 1962... this day is one that will go down in history as one of the most stressful and pressing days our country has ever seen. This day started a series of 13 days that changed many things.President Kennedy's head was spinning between trying to figure out how to respond to the challenge and how to do it in such a way that will prevent as much collateral damage as possible. I find it entertaining that in the midst of all the chaos Kennedy still manages to find the time to attend a meeting for the national day of prayer... He could definitely juggle his share of weight! By the third day Kennedy has yet again used his mad skill and a bit of irony to discuss the missiles with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko who tries to back his way out of things but Kennedy has the upper hand... all of this continued for quite sometime and by the thirteenth day Russia released the text of a Khrushchev letter affirming that the missiles would be removed in exchange for a non-invasion pledge from the United States. So after many many long days and night of non stop worry and toil the crisis was resolved.
ReplyDeleteBay of Pigs:
ReplyDeleteWhen Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba after a revolt, he became their Communist dictator. The US, due to the close proximity of Cuba to the US, was immediately against Castro. During the revolt many Cubans were forced to leave Cuba to the US. Soon after this, a plan for the Cuban exiles to retake Cuba was put into action. A training base was set up in Guatemala for the exiles to prepare to invade Cuba. This training base and other preparations became common knowledge amongst the Cuban exiles. Cuban intelligence found out about the plans for this invasion and made their own preparations. The US wanted to remain anonymous in their assistance with this invasion, but the first airstrike with US planes which had been repainted to look like Cuban planes quickly showed their support for the invasion. Kennedy didn’t launch the second airstrike because he feared that the Cubans would be ready for them and possibly cause losses for the US. They chose the Bay of Pigs for invasion because it was not well-guarded and was not in a conspicuous location. The plan was for 1,400 men to land on the Bay of Pigs and work with the people to overthrow Castro while another group distracted Cuban forces and another defend against Cuban forces. Because the Cuban forces found out about the invasion prior to the date of invasion, 20,000 Cuban soldiers fought against the invading force. 1,100 men surrendered, at least 100 were killed, and others escaped into the ocean. The invasion was a complete failure, and the men captured had to be ransomed for their return.