JFK & The Cold War

1960-1963

Election of 1960 I.  Democrats à John Fitzgerald

Kennedy (JFK) II.  Republicans à Richard Nixon = VP

for President Eisenhower

III.  Two factors helped JFK win A.  Television (of the 1950s)

i.  Kennedy looks good on TV and women voted for him

B.  Civil Rights Movement i.  JFK gets MLK JR out of jail à

gains support from African-American voters

Election of 1960

I.  JFK elected President of the United States in 1960 A.  Youngest president ever elected B.  Only president not a Protestant (He was Catholic)

II.  JFK will face the same Cold War problems as the presidents before him

A.  The nuclear arms race, space race, espionage war, containment, domino theory

Kennedy’sColdWar

I.  JFKdidnotsupportthebrinkmanshiptacAc(endingtheworld)thatEisenhowerused

A.  JFKbelievedbrinkmanshipwastooextremeB.  JFKaKackedtheColdWarmuchcalmerthanIKE

II.  JFKbuiltuptheU.S.militaryusingtroopsandregularweapons

A.   Flexibleresponse–manyop3onsincaseofanyconflictB.  EveryliKleconflictdoesn’trequirenuclearweaponstobe

usedC.  Createdanelitebranchofthearmy(specialforcesàgreen

berets)

Crisis In Cuba I.  ThefirstmajorinternaAonalconflictJFK

hadtofacewaswithCUBAA.  Eisenhower cut diplomatic ties with Cuba

due to the growing popularity of communism

II.  In 1961 Fidel Castro took control of Cuba

A.  Castro was an outspoken communist and supporter of the USSR

B.  Cuba was becoming a communist nation C.  The US feared the domino theory is

becoming a reality à communism is coming for US

III.  The USA had to do something to stop the spread of communism in CUBA

Bay of Pigs Invasion I.  During Eisenhower’s presidency the US trained Cuban exiles to

fight and supported their plan to invade Cuba and fight communism

II.  The U.S. hoped these Cubans would defeat the communist government & implement a capitalist one

III.  In April 1961 the invasion began at the Bay of Pigs and ended in complete disaster & failure

A.  Nearly all the troops surrendered or were captured B.  1300 exiles vs. 25,000 Cuban Army

IV.  The USA was embarrassed and angered by the Bay of Pigs Invasion

A.  It looked like communism was stronger than capitalism B.  USA looks like idiots to the rest of the world C.  Propaganda for the communist government of Cuba

Cuban Missile Crisis I.  After the failure at the Bay of Pigs,

Cuba found an ally in the USSR A.  Both communist

II.  In 1962 the Soviet Union sent nuclear weapons to Cuba to defend themselves against US invasion

A.  The U.S learned of these nuclear weapons and Cold War tensions grew

B.  US believes the USSR is going to attack America

III.  The US navy began a blockaded to keep more missiles from reaching Cuba

CubanMissileCrisis

I.  TheenAreworldbelievedthatnuclearwarisinevitableandtheworldwouldend

A.  Neithersidetruststheother&bothnaAonsareconsideringlaunchinganaKackbeforetheother

B.  TheUSwantsthemissilesoutofCubaandtheUSSRwantstoprotectitsCubafromtheUSA

i.  TheUSSRalsowantAmericanmissilesoutofTurkey&Italy

II.  For6daysJFKandNikitaKhrushchevnegoAatedadiplomaAcsoluAontotheCubanMissileCrisis

A.  TheSovietUnionpulledtheMissilesoutofCubaB.  TheUnitedStatespromisedtonotinvadeCubaandwewouldsecretly

pullournuclearmissilesoutofTurkeyandItalyC.  TheCubanMissileCrisiscametoapeacefulsoluAonbutneverbeforehad

theworldbeenclosertonuclearArmageddon

JFK&COLDWARDBQ

BerlinCrisis&BerlinWallI.  In1961=Berlin,Germanywasdividedintotwoparts

A.  EastBerlin=Communist(SovietUnion)B.  WestBerlin=Capitalism(USA&NATO)

II.  GermansinEastBerlin(poor)wereleavingforWestBerlin(wealthy)A.  Thisdemonstratedcapitalismwasstrongerthancommunismandupset

theSovietUnion

III.  InAugustof1961theUSSRbeganbuildingtheBerlinWallA.  ThewallwascreatedtokeeppeopleinEastBerlin&makecommunism

lookstrong

IV.  TheconstrucAonofthewallincreasedColdWartensionsascommunism&capitalismconAnuedtodivide

CoolingOffTheColdWarI.  By1963ColdWartensionbetweentheUSAandtheSovietUnionwas

atanallAmehigh(appearednuclearwarwasabouttohappen)II.  BothJFK&Khrushchevunderstoodhowclosetheendoftheworld

wasIII.  Toeasetensionsbetweenthetwosidestheleadersestablisheda

“hotline”A.  ThephonedirectlyconnectedMoscowwiththeWashington

IV.  Thetwosidesalsoagreenottotestnuclearweaponsintheatmosphere(LimitedTestBanTreaty)andworkedtodecreasethenumberofnuclearweapons

AreYouWithMe?

① WhatinvenAonassistedwithJFK’selecAonin1960?

② ExplaintheBayofPigsincidentin1961…WhydoestheUSAdisliketheCubangovernment?

③ WhatdangerispresentedtotheUnitedStatesduringtheCubanmissilecrisis?Howistheproblemsolved?

④ DiscussthecreaAonoftheBerlinWall.Whyisitcreatedandwhatdoesthewalldivide?