Kennedys Presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century. He was also the
youngest president, at 43 years of age, to be elected to office (1961). Kennedy was
also the youngest president to die in office. He was only 46 when he was
assassinated on November 22, 1963.
On January 20, 1961, President Kennedy presented one of the most unforgettable
inaugural addresses in U.S. history. He outlined his "New Frontier" proposals and
proclaimed that a new generation of U.S. citizens had taken over the country. In his
conclusion, he called upon the U.S. citizenry to "Ask not what your country can do
for you ask what you can do for you country."
John F. Kennedy was prepared to make major changes to U.S. foreign policy. He
wanted to abandon the policy of containing communism and instead work with the
Soviet Union to create a better, less violent world. Soviet aggression in Berlin and
Cuba changed his mind.
Another major change in U.S. foreign policy came in the area of Third World
relations. Kennedy believed in helping third-world countries. He backed up his
beliefs by providing the Third World with monetary aid and U.S. volunteers in the
form of the Peace Corps.
At the same time, he supported his predecessor's policies in Vietnam, actually
increasing the number of U.S. military advisors in the country.
Dealing with arms and the U.S.S.R.
Unlike Truman and Eisenhower, Kennedy believed that it was possible to bargain
and compromise with the Soviet Union, and that the two superpowers could
coexist peacefully. Because Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, had been
liberalizing Soviet society and had abandoned Stalinism, Kennedy thought that he
could deal with him.
Kennedy wanted to stop the arms race rather than build more weapons. He
proposed meeting with Khrushchev to discuss arms control and
even disarmament the destruction of nuclear weapons.
Kennedy was disappointed. The Soviet Union saw Kennedy's offer to negotiate as
a sign of weakness. Instead of reaching out to the United States and its new leader,
The Soviet Union started to behave aggressively in Europe (Berlin) and Latin
America (Cuba). The Soviet Union miscalculated. Kennedy's response was: "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 success of liberty."
By 1962, Kennedy had returned to the policies of his predecessors working to
stop Soviet aggression and contain the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.
The only tangible benefit of Kennedy's efforts was the Limited Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty signed in 1963. It outlawed testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
After signing the treaty, Kennedy said, "Today the fear is a little less and the hope
a little greater. For the first time we have been able to reach an agreement which
can limit the dangers of this nuclear age."
Helping the Third World: Creating the Peace Corps
Kennedy believed that it was the obligation of the United States not only to help
the Third World economically but also to spread democracy to its countries.
To further that mission, Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961 to send U.S.
volunteers to the people living in third-world countries. Thousands of U.S. citizens
went abroad to help build roads and hospitals, and to help educate citizens around
the world.

Stepping into the Bay of Pigs
Ironically, the first major foreign policy move of the new administration ended in
disaster when Kennedy decided to proceed with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
planned by the Eisenhower administration.
The Bay of Pigs was an attempt to aid Cuban exiles after their country fell to
communism in 1959. The United States provided training, equipment, and
logistical support to Cubans bent on recapturing their country. The 1961 invasion
failed miserably, and, as a result, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union.
The Soviets were more than happy to provide assistance to Cuba. Khrushchev had
been looking for an ally in Latin America so that he could build a base for Soviet
missiles. While the U.S. had missiles in Europe targeting the Soviet Union, the
Soviets had none close to the U.S. mainland. What better place than Cuba?
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the defining moment for the Kennedy
administration. On October 16, 1962, U.S. intelligence found out that the Soviets
were building missile sites in Cuba. The U.S. Air Force wanted to take out the
sites, and many in the military called for an invasion of Cuba. Kennedy was afraid
that an invasion would lead to a world war, so he set up a blockade of Cuba
instead.
Kennedy vowed that Soviet ships headed for Cuba carrying missile parts would not
be allowed through the blockade. In addition, he demanded that the Soviets remove
their bases and all Soviet weaponry from Cuba.
At the last moment, the Soviets backed down and recalled their ships. The Soviet
Union subsequently agreed to remove the missiles and their bases from Cuba, and
the United States pledged not to invade the island. World War III had been
narrowly avoided. Soviet Premier Khrushchev lost his job over the debacle.
Building a wall in Berlin
The Potsdam Conference, organized after World War II, divided the German
capital of Berlin into four zones one for each victorious ally. By the 1950s, the
three Western allies had created West Berlin, while the Soviet Union had set up
East Berlin. During most of the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of East Germans,
unhappy with their communist government, fled to the West, crossing over in
Berlin because it was the easiest place to leave the country.
By the early 1960s, the number of people fleeing to West Germany had created a
problem for the East German government. The country's best educated and most
skilled citizens were leaving. East Germany faced a brain drain and a shortage of
skilled laborers.
In August 1961, the Soviet Union and the communist East German government
built a wall to close off East Berlin from the West and prevent the flow of people
fleeing the country. Border guards had instructions to shoot to kill anyone who
attempted to leave East Germany.
Initially, the Western powers didn't react to the building of the wall a move that
shocked Germans. The Kennedy administration publicly condemned the building
of the wall but did nothing more. At the time, Kennedy still believed that he could
establish cordial relations with the Soviet Union and didn't want to compromise his
foreign policy over Berlin.
Kennedy's outlook changed after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thereafter, Kennedy
adopted a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union. He traveled to West
Berlin in June 1963 to show his support for the people there and to demonstrate
that the United States would pursue a hard-line anti-communist foreign policy.
More than 2 million Germans received Kennedy enthusiastically. He gave one of
the most unforgettable speeches in history. He reassured the citizens of West
Berlin of the commitment of the United States to the city and its defense. To
demonstrate this point, Kennedy uttered the unforgettable sentence, "All free men,
wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take
pride in the words: Ich Bin Ein Berliner." (I am a citizen of Berlin.)
Increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam
When President Kennedy took office, the United States was already involved in
Vietnam. President Eisenhower had guaranteed South Vietnam's security.
Eisenhower had sent military and economic aid, as well as U.S. military advisors,
to South Vietnam. Kennedy escalated U.S. involvement.
South Vietnam was fighting for its survival after North Vietnam supported
communist rebels' attempts to overthrow the South Vietnamese government.
Kennedy believed that North Vietnam needed to be stopped at all costs, so he sent
more U.S. forces to Vietnam. By the time Kennedy was assassinated, he had
increased the number of U.S. military advisors, military personal that trained and
fought with South Vietnamese troops, from 700 to 15,000.

Civil liberties
In 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who hated civil-rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr. and viewed him as an upstart troublemaker, presented the Kennedy
Administration with allegations that some of King's close confidants and advisers
were communists. Concerned that the allegations, if made public, would derail the
Administration's civil rights initiatives, Robert Kennedy and the president both
warned King to discontinue the suspect associations. After the associations
continued, Robert Kennedy felt compelled to issue a written directive authorizing
the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, King's civil rights organization. Although Kennedy only gave written
approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or
so", Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for
evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy. The wiretapping
continued through June 1966 and was revealed in 1968.
Immigration
John F. Kennedy initially proposed an overhaul of American immigration policy
that later was to become the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, sponsored
by Kennedy's brother Senator Edward Kennedy. It dramatically shifted the source
of immigration from Northern and Western European countries towards
immigration from Latin America and Asia and shifted the emphasis of selection of
immigrants towards facilitating family reunification. Kennedy wanted to dismantle
the selection of immigrants based on country of origin and saw this as an extension
of his civil rights policies.

project Apollo: 1960;
1969. ,
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