Kennedy and Khrushchev The United States and the Cold War

QUESTION. What factors allowed JFK to win the Election of 1960? What three things were held against JFK while running for President? Who did JFK run against in the Election of 1960? What events happened during the Eisenhower Administration that heightened the Cold War? What events happened during the Truman Administration that heightened the Cold War? What two presidents came before John F. Kennedy?

President Kennedy Increases in Tension Under the Kennedy Administration 6. Bay of Pigs Incident 7. The Berlin Wall 8. The Cuban Missile Crisis Who is the main problem? President from: 1961 to 1963 The Cuba Problem

The Bay of Pigs Incident “When Kennedy took over early in 1961, he found a proposal… for [1,200] armed Cuban exiles… to be landed in an area called the Bay of Pigs to detonate a popular uprising…

“By the beginning of 1960, Cuba was for all practical purposes a Communist dictatorship and, in military perspective, a Soviet satellite.” Bay of Pigs reading and worksheet Fidel Castro

“Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.” John F. Kennedy

The Berlin Wall (1961) How did the Soviet Union respond to the Bay of Pigs incident?

The Berlin Wall Kennedy at the Berlin Wall

QUESTION. How could President Kennedy get the United States involved in Cuba?

Solutions for Problem in Cuba? “Robert Kennedy told [the head of the CIA] in January 1962 that overthrowing Castro was ‘the top priority of the United States Government’.” How could the USA achieve this? Find a way to get involved. How? Manufacture evidence. Attorney General Robert Kennedy

The Cuban Missile Crisis

1962: Nikita Khrushchev sends nuclear warheads to Cuba. More than 42 medium range nuclear-capable missiles, 24 long range nuclear-capable missiles (never arrived), 24 SAMs, and thousands of Soviet troops to Cuba. Thirteen Days in October

October 14th: US U2 spy planes take the first clear pictures of missiles in Cuba. Thirteen Days in October

October 22nd: President Kennedy announces he will impose a “quarantine” of Cuba. Thirteen Days in October

“We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth – but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.” - President Kennedy President Kennedy - Cuban Missile Crisis Speech

October 26 th, 27 th, 28 th : Moscow announces it will remove missiles in return for: 1. USA promises to not invade Cuba in the future 2. USA would remove missiles from Turkey, USSR from Cuba (not made public) Thirteen Days in October 3. A hotline is established between the White House and the Kremlin.

Very close. How close were both nations to nuclear war? “There is no doubt the world came close to nuclear war, probable closer than at any other time, before or since. On October 22 nd all American missile crews were placed on maximum alert. Some 800 B47s, 550 B52s, and 70 B58s were prepared with their bomb-bays closed for immediate take off… Over the Atlantic were 90 B52s carrying multi- megaton bombs. Nuclear warheads were made active on 100 Atlas, 50 Titan, and 12 Minuteman missiles, and on American carriers, submarines, and overseas bases. All commands were in a state of Defcon-2, the highest state of readiness next to war itself.”

What would have happened if the USA had invaded? “Anticipating that U.S. forces would confront 10,000 Soviet military personnel and 100,000 armed Cubans, the United States expected to suffer 18,000 total casualties and 4,500 dead in an invasion. When [Secretary of Defense] Robert McNamara later learned that there were actually 43,000 Soviet military personnel and 270,000 armed Cubans, he raised the estimate of U.S. deaths to 25,000. Thirty years after the crisis, in 1992, McNamara discovered the battlefield nuclear weapons were in place… and responded that in that case, 100,000 Americans would have died” and the United States would have responded by wiping out Cuba, thus starting a nuclear war with the Soviet Union endangering the world. Robert McNamara

“Then and for some years afterwards, [the Cuban Missile Crisis] was considered the finest hour of the Kennedy Presidency.”

Kennedy & The USSR: Plans for Peace After the Bay of Pigs incident: Khrushchev stated: "The two most powerful nations had been squared off against each other, each with its finger on the button.” Kennedy replied: “It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.”

Kennedy & The USSR: Plans for Peace In 1959: Radioactive deposits were found in wheat and milk. The consequences of radioactive fallout became apparent to the American public. August 5 th, 1963 The USSR and USA sign a Nuclear Test Ban Treat JFK Speech at American University

QUESTION. Why would President Kennedy want to sign a test ban treaty?

November 22 nd, 1963 Peter Jennings - The Kennedy Conspiracy Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby

“In his inaugural address, Kennedy said that the torch had been passed to a new generation. With Kennedy’s death, the torch was passed back to an old generation – the generation of Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan… [the] leaders who, though not much older, would systematically destroy the promise of the Kennedy years as they returned the country to war and repression.”

“If he had lived, the world would have been different. I feel quite confident of that.” Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara