US Bloc please post your Position Paper (the questions about your bloc and your character) by commenting on this post
Questions for the United States Bloc
1. What is your role? What is your character’s task in the US government? What achievements
did he have during the Kennedy administration?
2. What were Soviet/US relations like during the Kennedy administration? What was going on between the two nations? What events happened that helped reflect the tension between the two nations?
3. What happened at the Bay of Pigs invasion and how did this affect Khrushchev’s view of Kennedy? How could this changed view affect Khrushchev’s later decisions regarding the United States (think Cuban Missile Crisis)?
4. What was the Cuban missile crisis? How did the Kennedy administration handle this crisis? How did this event change relations between the Soviet Union and the United States?
5. Besides the Soviet Union what were some other foreign issues the United States had to deal with in the early 1960s? Explain.
6. How did the United States view Kennedy during his role as president? Did any views change from 1961 to 1962? Explain.
7. What was going on in the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s? How did the Kennedy administration handle this domestic issue?
8. Besides the Civil Rights movement what were some other domestic issues in the United States during the early 1960s (consider the sexual revolution, the birth control pill, etc)? Explain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Stephen Keil
ReplyDeleteU.S. Bloc Position Paper
1)My role is Foy Kohler. Kohler was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Moscow in 1962 by President Kennedy and served as a liaison between the Soviet Union and the United States. Kohler was vitally important during the Cuban Missile Crisis for he had experience with the Soviet Union from his prior post as the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs under Eisenhower. Kohler learned the personality and characteristics of Khrushchev during the post, which allowed him to give the Kennedy Administration critical analysis of the events transpiring in Moscow during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2)The Soviet/US relations during the Kennedy Administration were not the friendliest relations in U.S. history. The U.S. and Soviets were in a bitter indirect power struggle during the Cold War pitting Capitalism against Communism, respectively. The Truman Doctrine instituted the Containment Policy in regards to Communism and implied a limitation on Soviet influence in international affairs. This can be seen in the proxy war in Korea which ended in 1953 and the Lebanon Crisis in 1958 where the U.S. sent marines to aid the Pro-Western Lebanese Government. A Communist China had become a threat with their close relations with the Soviet Union. The Berlin wall was constructed in 1961 by the Soviet Union to prevent the fleeing to East German citizens from emigrating westward which the Kennedy Administration failed to prevent. The U.S. was also continuing to reconstruct aid Western Europe by the means of the Marshall Plan and display Capitalism against Communism. The containment of Communism came again in 1961 with the CIA Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba which failed miserably. Main “battlegrounds” against communism became Indo-China, Latin America, and the Middle East.
3)The Bay if Pigs invasion was a horrendous failure and it led Khrushchev to think less of President Kennedy and plan to take advantage of his inexperience and apparent incompetence. The Eisenhower administration had developed a plan to remove the current Castro government in Cuba; one that America had grown cautious of due to Castro’s pro-communism and dictatorial position and his relationship with Soviet Premier Khrushchev. The CIA planned to train Cuban exiles in Guatemala to invade Cuba. The plan, however, relied on the assumptions that they would gain support from the Cuban people and components of the Cuban military. The initial air strike failed to destroy Castro’s air force, which then kept the Cuban exiles, escort ships, and air support stagnant, along with poor weather, when the invasion had begun under the cover of darkness. The invasion was crushed within the following day and Attorney General Robert Kennedy negotiated with Castro for the prisoners with $53 M dollars of baby food and pharmaceuticals. Khrushchev was sympathetic towards the Cuban revolution and was determined to prevent America from ousting the communist Castro government. The failure of the Bay of Pigs also exposed Kennedy and showed weakness to foreign leaders like Khrushchev. In seeing Kennedy’s inability to plan an invasion of a small island like Cuba, Khrushchev would become more willing to test Kennedy as a world super power analogous to the United States.
4) The Cuban Missile Crisis involved the United States and the Soviet Union over missile installations by the Soviet Union in Cuba. Soviet Premier Khrushchev decided to deploy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM’s) in Cuba to neutralize the U.S.’s growing lead in strategic missiles and protect the communist ally from another potential U.S.-led invasion. On October 16th, an American U2 spy plane presented the Kennedy administration with reconnaissance photos showing the creation of the missile installations in Cuba. For the next week, Kennedy met with members of the Executive Office and Cabinet while Soviet diplomats denied the missile installations. Kennedy gave a televised address on the 22nd publicizing the discovery and proclaiming that an attack from Cuba would be seen as an attack from the Soviet Union. Kennedy then imposed a naval quarantine of Cuba to stop the continuation of Soviet shipments. On the 26th, a letter from Khrushchev arrived. It proposed that the missiles and persons will be removed from Cuba if the U.S. and its proxies guaranteed not to invade Cuba. The following day, another letter from Khrushchev arrived and proposed that the installations would be removed if the U.S. dismantles its own installations in Turkey. The Kennedy administration decided to ignore the second letter and send a letter of acceptance of the first. On the 28th, Khrushchev announced the removal of the installations on the basis of trust in the U.S. Castro and his government were now firmly positioned in Cuba, now without an American threat. Khrushchev was looked at as “losing” the standoff; however the Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement outlined in the second letter was never made public. The Hotline Agreement was also made which placed a direct line of communication from Washington to Moscow.
ReplyDelete5) America’s main foreign issues, other than the Soviet Union in the early 1960’s, dealt with Vietnam, China, and Latin America. The communist, guerilla-style Viet Cong had already been rising conflicts with the U.S. backed South Vietnamese government for two years prior to the election of Kennedy in 1960. Kennedy had sent 2,000 military advisors and other means of support to the South Vietnamese, but it grew to more than 16,000 by 1963 as the situation deteriorated. In China, Mao Zedong holds his communist regime and allies himself, although skeptically, with the Soviet Union. Mao instituted agricultural collectivization policies and his “Great Leap Forward” to enhance China’s international stance as a communist world power agriculturally and industrially. With Latin America, the Kennedy Administration feared Castro-like revolutions and instability. Kennedy created the Alliance for Progress in 1961 which provided a 10-year $20 billion dollar effort for struggling Latin American governments. The plan hoped to build stronger, more representative governments by promoting areas such as education, infrastructure, and health. The Kennedy Administration wanted to bring about social and economic change that would eventually lead to stronger democratic governments.
6) The Kennedy administration had become widely popular on the administration moved into 1962. The Kennedy White House was dubbed “Camelot” to display the captivation Kennedy and his administration had on the American people. He was praised for his leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis, initiative during the civil rights movement, and foresight economically by Americans. U.S. journalists and print helped Kennedy’s positive and almost cultish light by giving him unwavering support and flattery.
7) The Civil Rights movement proved to be a thorn in Kennedy administration’s side. African-Americans were under the Jim Crow laws (local and/or state), which prohibited them from using the same facilities as whites, including schools. Many African Americans were losing patience with the legal procedures and the civil rights leadership aimed to force the end of legal segregation. The Kennedy Administration did not want to advance the agenda of the civil rights leadership because he feared the loss of his slim political majority in the south and the distraction it would create from foreign affairs. In turn, the administration began to hire more African-Americans in government, the beginning of Affirmative Action, created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, brought lawsuits to integrate schools, and creating the Voter Education Project to register African-American voters. By 1963, when “freedom riders,” Martin Luther King, and protests that ended violently were in full swing, Kennedy swung the government’s stance toward the side of civil rights by intending to send a civil rights bill to congress.
ReplyDelete8) There was a slight recession in America once Kennedy took office, which was on the contrary to the prosperity Americans felt during the 1950’s. Kennedy planned to cut taxes, federally fund for home building, and expand benefits for the unemployed. The Kennedy administration was also dealing with the baby boom economically which led to a rise in poverty and lack of housing. The Sexual Revolution took root during Kennedy’s presidency with the rise in popularity of rock music and the acceptance of nudity and use of drugs such as marijuana and LSD. Betty Friedman’s The Feminine Mystique reinitiated the idea of feminism and the dialogue of sex and the roles of each gender in society.
www.elcoushistory.tripod.com
www.school.discoveryeducation.com
www.us.history.wisc.edu
www.millercenter.org
www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/
History Resource Center Online Database: U.S.
www.jfklibrary.org
The Kennedys and Cuba by Mark J. White
www.loc.gov
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
Kyle Menz
ReplyDeleteU.S. position paper
1. My role is Robert McNamara, who served as the US Secretary of Defense from 1961 until 1968 under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. McNamara was not particularly learned in the subject of national defense, but possessed above average intelligence and a studious attitude. McNamara would be responsible for laying the ground work for the United States’ military strategy during the war in Vietnam. After opposing and preventing changes in the Defense department itself, he helped President Kennedy alter military policy to better prepare for the international conflicts that seemed increasingly more likely. President Kennedy felt that the military should be more flexible in order to handle situations as efficiently as possible and keep the violence to a minimum. Towards this end, McNamara decided to concentrate on bolstering the nation’s “limited warfare” capabilities. McNamara’s strategy was rather unprecedented as the United States had seen success with massive invasions and atomic weapons in recent wars. He also created the Defense Agency, the Defense Supply Agency, and the Defense Communication Agency.
2. During the early 1960s, John Kennedy was the President of the United States and Nikita Khrushchev was the Premier of the USSR. Relations were uneasy between these two nations as Berlin was divided and the Berlin wall was constructed. Neither power was keen on launching into a war, but distrust was obvious and tensions were increasing. Both nations were determined not to let the other gain any sort of upper hand. The Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Kennedy signed off on a plan to send Cuba exiles in America back to Cuba to take over, was painfully unsuccessful and lead to increased Soviet military attention to Cuba. The United States had weapons systems in Turkey capable of reaching the USSR. This made the Premier quite nervous and his response was to erect weapons in Cuba that could reach US soil. Kennedy immediately ordered a blockade around Cuba to prevent the presence of Soviet weapons. Khrushchev eventually did agree to leave Cuba without constructing weapons, and the US removed its weapons in Turkey.
3. In 1960, the Central Intelligence Agency began training Cuban exiles to invade Cuba in support of guerillas with the intention of staging a coup d'état and ending Castro’s communist regime. This undertaking was ordered by President Eisenhower, despite the fact that he had not yet broken off relations with Cuba. When Kennedy took office, he was made aware of the project and was assured that once in Cuba the exiles would have the support of Cuban citizens and the overthrow would be successful. On April 16 1961, 1300 Cuban exiles invaded. After three days of fighting, the majority of this force was captured and the rest were dead. The invading force’s failure was attributed to a lack of naval and air support. Of course this failed attack made Khrushchev even more wary of the US. His decision to place weapon systems in Cuba was a necessary move in his chess game against President Kennedy.
5. In the early 1960s, the United States was already becoming involved in the affairs of Vietnam. In 1956, the anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem was elected president of South Vietnam. His leadership was immediately and incessantly challenged. The communist oppositions eventually agreed that revolutionary violence was necessary in uniting Vietnam under a single communist government. Kennedy chose to increase military attention to South Vietnam without ordering an all out invasion. The more aggressive President Lyndon Baines Johnson gained broader war powers. After Operation Rolling Thunder, which consisted of US bombing missions, the Communists revised their war strategy to pull the US into what would become the infamous Vietnam War. China was a cause for US concern during these years. Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution which was intended to thrust China into Communism through most any means necessary. Something resembling madness ensued and the US recognized the need to pay close attention to the goings on of this nation. The world was undergoing drastic changes during these years. There were large shifts in power, unprecedented new forms of government, and the threat of violence on the nuclear level was ever present. The issues between the Soviet Union and the United States were only one component of the international state of affairs.
ReplyDelete4. Upon Kennedy’s election, Khrushchev began to apply pressure by constructing the Berlin Wall. With weapons systems in Turkey, the US was capable of launching a full scale nuclear attack on the USSR at any time. In response to the wall’s construction, Kennedy chose to reveal this to the Russia Premier. At the time, Russia’s nuclear range extended only to Europe and certainly not to the United States. This arms race was quite a source of stress for Khrushchev. Knowing the ease with which the US could attack the USSR, Khrushchev believed that such an attack was quite likely and necessary precautions needed to be taken. Towards this end, the Premier planned to construct weapons systems in communist Cuba, which the US had tried and failed to topple using Cuban exiles. Kennedy ordered a blockade around Cuba to prevent the entry of Soviet weapons. After several days, the Premier agreed not to pursue building missiles in Cuba. The US also removed its weapons from Turkey. An international crisis was avoided, if narrowly, by the respective leaders of the US and the USSR.
6. When Kennedy took on the presidency in 1961, he was regarded by the American people as a Commander in Chief rock star hybrid. He was youthful, vital, and easy to place one’s trust in. Such a president in the oval office was welcome anomaly and the nation placed confidence in his judgment and abilities. His popularity rose with his vow to put an American on the moon in that decade. As his presidency continued, Kennedy saw the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion which paved the way for the Cuban Missile Crisis. He made inchoate commitments of US time and resources to Vietnam. Kennedy was faced with some of the most critical and difficult presidential decisions of the century. Much could be argued about how well or poorly he executed his office, but the fact would remain that from his time in office until the present, Kennedy was arguably the most popular of the US Presidents.
ReplyDelete7. During the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was becoming more and more of a national issue. The African American populations of the Southern States were reaching their boiling point as they contended with racial prejudice. With Jim Crow legislation, segregation was legal and large portions of the government along with law enforcement had every intention of continuing the tradition of keeping African Americans optionless, futureless, and hopeless. African Americans saw no success in advancing themselves through the courts and tensions grew and trouble brewed. Kennedy hesitated to throw his support behind the leaders of the Civil Rights movement lest he lose congressional support and his agenda be hindered. He did however appoint large numbers of African Americans to government positions and speak in favor of desegregating schools. Also, his Attorney General Robert Kennedy concentrated his efforts on voting rights for African Americans.
8. During the early 1960s unemployment was under 10 percent, and inflation was under 3 percent. There was a thirty six percent increase in the value of goods produced by the national work force. The country had little to complain about financially. Also during these years, the youth of the nation began rebelling against parental and governmental authority. This movement started with civil rights and feminism, but as tensions increased between the US and Vietnam and being drafted became more and more likely, the rebellious youth began to place support in notions of anarchic peace and rejection of authority. This counter culture was marked with experimentation with marijuana and other opiates along with an array of hallucinogens. The way the nation viewed sex was also revolutionized. Increasing numbers of young people began having sex more casually and with higher frequency. This was time when authority was challenged, unrest spread, and society underwent drastic and hectic changes
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmcnarmara.htm
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/The-Kennedy-Years.topicArticleId-25238,articleId-25227.html
http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview.html
http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview.html
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/Civil+Rights+Context+in+the+Early+1960s+Page+3.htm
http://www.enotes.com/1960-american-decades-about/introduction
Samantha Kibler-U.S. Position Paper
ReplyDelete1. I am Robert F. Kennedy, US Attorney General and brother of President Kennedy. As Attorney General, his role was chief law enforcement and lawyer for the federal government. In addition to the roles of his position, he remained his brother’s closest advisor during the course of the administration. In his post of Attorney General, he made a point to persecute organized crime (convictions raising by 800%) and fought against the discrimination against African-Americans (including supporting James Meredith with troops on his entry to University of Mississippi).
2. Within the Kennedy administration, Soviet relations were constantly strained. Even in his inaugural address, Kennedy took on an “us-vs.-them” mentality that would continue throughout his presidency. The US and USSR were the only remaining superpowers after WWII and they struggled for dominance. The conflicting dogmas of US democracy and Soviet communism added to the miscommunication. The management of the German city of Berlin was a sore point, after being split into West Berlin to be controlled by the US and East Berlin under control of the Soviets after WWII. The Soviets blocked land access to West Berlin resulting in Western nations’ Berlin Airlift to supply the city. The Berlin Crisis which lasted from 1958-1961, included a second demand by the Soviets of US troop removal from the entire city, the building of the Berlin Wall and a tank stand-off. The U-2 Overflights was the reconnaissance spyplane mission and the capture of Pilot Powers when he crashed and his aerial photos were recovered. This resulted in Soviet Premier Khrushchev canceling peace talks with President Eisenhower and waiting for Kennedy.
3.President Kennedy believed Fidel Castro to be a Soviet instrument. This conclusion lead him to organize trained Cuban exiles and orchestrate a covert invasion of Cuba. It was a complete failure and collapsed within 2 days. Khrushchev had already seen Americans as thinking they were above the law (i.e. U-2 mission). The U-2 fiasco had ruined his impression of Eisenhower, in the same way the Bay of Pigs ruined some of the hope he had put in Kennedy. He still would want to avoid nuclear warfare but at the same time ending the Cold War peacefully would seem less and less likely with each president’s screw up. Kennedy’s rash decision to invade Cuba might have put him at ease, thinking the new American president had no head for strategy. However he would also have to acknowledge Kennedy’s resolve and his acceptance of the responsibility for the fluke.
4. On October 14, 1962, an American U-2 flight over Cuba provided images showing Soviet missiles. Kennedy gathered his 18 closest advisers, debating on what type of action to take. On October 22, after intense debate, President Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba and sent a letter beseeching Khrushchev to remove the missiles. On the 24th, Soviet vessels approached the quarantine before turning back and on the 27th Cubans shot down a US spyplane. After the shooting of the spyplane, Kennedy considered the settlement offers he had received from the Soviets and accepted the offer that would withdraw all missiles in Cuba return for an end to the quarantine and the US’s public pledge not to invade Cuba. The US also secretly removed missiles they had placed in Turkey. This conflict, while handled peacefully, made it clear that practical dialogue between the two nations was crucial. The creation of the Moscow-Washington hotline made sure that the leaders of the nuclear-armed nations would have a direct line of communication and never have to come so close to nuclear war.
ReplyDelete5. Kennedy remained involved in the Vietnam conflicts of his predecessors and showed his commitment to the Domino theory. He continued its escalation, increasing the funding and number of troops. During his administration, the “Strategic Hamlet” program was created. This program forced South Vietnamese peasants in secure compounds for their own safety. Although it had the best intentions, it moved peasants from their ancestral home, disturbing their culture and in turn actually increasing membership among the Vietcong. Kennedy responded to these figures by sending more US troops and a CIA agent to help orchestrate the overthrow of the South Vietnamese leader. As a way of being proactive in foreign affairs, Kennedy also created the Peace Corps as a way to reach out and help neighboring Latin American nations’ progress.
6. Kennedy was extremely popular, young & handsome; his youthfulness breathed live and hope into the nation. However when the public heard about the missiles in Cuba, the polls showed the most drastic dip yet. Other than this quick test of faith the American people were very much enamored with the president. While he may have received subtle criticism for his strategies for Vietnam and the Soviets, he was exceedingly glorified for civil rights and his redemption in Cuba.
7. The Civil Rights movement of the 60’s was lead primarily by the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.’s SCLC with drives for desegregation in all types of public facilities. Tactics such as sit-ins by students at lunch counters and the Montgomery bus boycott slowly began to yield results. Even in his presidential campaign, he made it clear of his personal stance on Civil Rights, however like any politician, he feared political repercussions. Although he originally did make a move for his promised civil rights bill he did not entirely abandon the cause. The administration protected African-American students at Mississippi University and the Freedom Riders with federal marshals. In 1963, a civil rights bill was finally brought before Congress and supported with a televised speech by the President.
8. Kennedy’s economic plan the “New Frontier” developed with the plan to extent economic benefits to all citizens however he was faced with opposition in Congress. He aimed to end the recession and restore growth, he achieved meager success. Congress continued to foil plans relating to federal aid to education, health insurance for the elderly, and the creation of a Department of Urban Affairs. The youth of the era also had a dramatic effect on the period. A counter-culture created by those coming of age at the beginning of the decade incorporated anything that when against the accepted behaviors of the 50s. They were repulsed by pretentious clichés of the previous decade so they traded neat appearances in for natural ones and loud music, exotic religions promiscuity, and substance abuse were practiced by a generation that would become known as hippies. The counter-culture was just one aspect of the youth’s unrest in the period. The students became more outspoken activists than any of the previous generations, and with reason, they had a lot to object to including the treatment of African-Americans and the US’s involvement in Vietnam. They protested against the draft and violent images that media offered them. School officials would try to squash the uprisings, which would only fuel the student’s hate for authority figures & government, “the Man” keeping them down. Gender issues were continued to reason of protest since the 19th century but the movement was revitalized with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. The hope was that the civil rights bill would include prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender as well as race. A blow was suffered when the Equal Pay Act died but a consolation was the inclusion of gender in the Civil Rights Act.
ReplyDeleteSOURCES
- http://www.rfkmemorial.org/lifevision/biography
- http://aseancooperation.com/which-modern-day-us-president-had-the-best-foreign-policy/180/
- http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/index.htm
- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/kennedy_vietnam.htm
- http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm
- http://scholar.library.miami.edu/sixties/index.html
- http://countrystudies.us/united-states/
Sarah Chandler
ReplyDeleteUS Position Paper
1. My role in the Historical Simulation Committee this year is John McCone, who was the Director the Central Intelligence Agency during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the director of the CIA from 1961 – 1965, McCone played a key role in the Cold War and was eventually given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Regan. Despite the fact that he was a Republican, John F. Kennedy appointed him to his Cabinet because he knew of his determination, loyalty and brillance; McCone and Kennedy remained close friends despite disagreements over foreign policy and other issues. William H. Webster, McCone’s successor, stated that McCone “guided the intelligence community through a particularly trying time” also stating that “Mr. McCone was sharp, tough, and demanding- qualities that made him a highly effective and widely respected leader. His career was marked by excellence, integrity, and selfless devotion to duty”. McCone was active in helping establish military rule in Ecuador and clashed with President Kennedy over his decision to try and withdraw from Vietnam. McCone was an ardent anti-Communist and as director of the CIA, McCone was one of the first to recognize that the Soviet Union was planning to put offensive missiles in Cuba; this “re-established the CIA’s credibility with President Kennedy”. While McCone was director the CIA was also heavily involved in the Congo, supplying mercenaries and arms to the supporters of Sese Seko Mobutu. McCone is generally credited with building an effective, well-managed agency and is generally ranked as one of the strongest CIA directors.
2. When John F. Kennedy came to office he came with fresh ideas about US foreign policy and an optimistic opinion towards the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Originally he believed that the US and the USSR could work together and abandon the traditional animosity and fear felt between the two countries. This hopeful and optimistic approach was quickly dropped after increased tension in Cuba and in Berlin changed the young president’s mind. Since Khrishchev, the Soviet premier, had seemed to abandon Stalinism and begun to take a more liberating approach to Soviet policy and society, Kennedy had hope the world’s other superpower could coexist peacefully with the United States. He wanted to start negotiation on ending the arms race and stop the production of all nuclear weapons and even proposed to Khrishchev that they meet to discuss disarmament and arms control. When the Berlin wall was built, though the Kenney administration condemned its construction, it did nothing more, still wanting to salvage their relationship with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, however, saw this proposition as a sign of weakness and, believing to press their advantage,
became to become more aggressive towards the US in Cuba and Berlin. Kennedy knew he had made a mistake and dropped his initial hope for peace between the two countries. By 1962, Kennedy had returned to the policy of his predecessors and was taking an aggressive stance towards the USSR. He worked to limit Soviet power and influence and to stop communism from spreading. Kennedy put more and more pressure on the Soviet Union, promising to ‘be tough” on Russia, encouraging the space race, arms race, and nuclear testing. This further divided the two world superpowers, and this animosity only increased when the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 when Western powers refused to withdraw forces from West Berlin. The US also helped to fund anti-communists movements in Vietnam and Laos, which further increased intension between the Communist Soviet Union.
4. After this failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro was increasingly afraid of another invasion and possible take over by the United States. This fear of invasion prompted Castro to agree to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s plan to place intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba that would double the Soviet’s strategic arsenal and put a lot of pressure on the US. Castro’s fear of another invasion caused him to agree, and in mid-July of 1962, nuclear missiles were placed in Cuba.
ReplyDeleteIn late 1961, an American U-2 spy plane photographed the intermediate-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Military officials warned Kennedy that the missiles would soon be operational and could strike cities along the East Coast of the United States. Afraid that if the missiles were destroyed directly by the US or if Cuba was invaded, war with the Soviet Union could not be avoided, Kennedy instead ordered Cuba to be blockaded and also demanded that the Soviets remove their bases and all weaponry from Cuba. The Soviets eventually backed down and removed the missiles, only after making the US promise to get rid of their weapons in Turkey.
The events of the Cuban Missile Crisis brought about a softening of Cold War attitudes; because the world had come so close to complete destruction, both countries began to realize the importance of cooperation. The White House and Kremlin agreed to the installation of a "hot line" to establish quick communication between the two superpowers. These new and less aggressive relations between the two countries resulted in the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which outlawed testing nuclear testing in the atmosphere.
5. In the 1960s, the US was dealing with many other foreign issues. The Vietnam War was being fought during this time between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam. The US supported this war, hoping to contain communism and keep it from spreading. Involvement by the US peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were withdrawn as part of a policy called Vietnamization.
6. When elected into office, Kennedy was seen as a bright star, a shining face that would usher in a new era in American history. He came with fresh ideas and an optimistic approach. However, Kennedy’s credibility was widely decreased by the Bay of Pigs invasion which was an utter debacle and reflected poorly on his leadership and planning skills. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy’s credibility was largely restored as mostly everyone recognized that through his negotiation skills and cool head, the world had narrowly avoided a disastrous nuclear war. His dealings with the Soviets during this were largely applauded as well as his calm but assertive demands that the missiles be removed; his actions restored respect towards the US and many began to really take this young President seriously as it was largely due to his skills that a large scale crisis was avoided.
Sorry, I forgot #3
ReplyDelete3. When Castro took power in 1959 he initiated a new law that prohibited ownership of farms larger than 1000 acres, with the exception of sugar and rice plantations. This angered the US greatly because the land owned by the US in Cuba was much greater than 100 acres; because of this, the American media condemned Cuba of being Communist, which led to wide-spread fear and animosity. Tension was increased even more when Cuba began exporting its sugar to the Soviet Union in case they were cut off by the US. To authorize this growing union between the Soviet Union and the Castro regime, in February 1961, the two parties signed the Cuban-Soviet trade agreement in which the Soviet Union agreed to give Cuba crude oil. The US and British response to this agreement was to refuse to refine the oil coming from the Soviet Union. The Eisenhower Administration then cut the Cuban sugar import quota by 700,000 tons and Castro responded by seizing all American refineries. Khrushchev then increased the Soviet's import of Cuban sugar and promised Soviet missiles to defend Cuba against a possible American attack.
This tension and interference by the Soviet Union in so close proximity to the US increased animosity and tension between the two nations. Increasingly friendly relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union caused further fear in the United States and eventually led to the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs was a failed attempt at an invasion of Cuba and was a catalyst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Due to further disagreements and animosity between Cuba and the US, President John F. Kennedy authorized a CIA funded invasion of Cuba by exiled Cubans at the beach in the Bay of Pigs. After two days of the invasion the entire rebellion collapsed, forcing Kennedy to take personal responsibility for the fiasco. Because of this aggressive move, Khrushchev became more wary of the US and saw the Bay of Pigs a direct shot at communism. He realized that Kennedy was not afraid of taking action and he wanted to be prepared if the US attempted such an offensive more on the US. This wariness prompted him to offer the building of missiles on Cuba to protect against US invasion.
on the topic of Civil Rights during this time as there were some more pressing issues. However a report made in 1960 by the Civil Rights Commission made it very plain just how bad discrimination had affected the African American community: 57% of African American housing was judged to be unacceptable, African American life expectancy was 7 years less than whites, and African American infant mortality was twice as great as whites. African Americans could not secure mortgages and loans and property values would drop greatly if African Americans moved into any area that was not a ghetto. Discrimination and racial hatred was rampant during this time and was a raging national issue. Kennedy did, in some ways, advance the civil rights issue. He employed more African Americans in important positions in the government, appointing 40 to senior federal positions including five as federal judges. Also, by appointing his brother as Attorney General, Kennedy could also pursue civil rights within the court system. In 1963, protests in Birmingham turned extremely violent; the actions ordered by Bull Connor supposedly “sickened" Kennedy and it was through his brother that the Justice Department stepped in, desegregating areas and helping to improve employment of African Americans. Though the Kennedy administration didn’t pass any obvious legislation regarding civil rights, Kennedy did help further the cause.
ReplyDelete8. The 1960s was a time of great change and discovery in America. The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 9163 drew attention to women’s rights. The Civil Rights Act was amended to include gender and the birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states. The United Farmer Workers Association was organized by Caesar Chevaz to protest the unfair conditions Hispanics were forced to work in. People became more concerned with their health and their environment. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened the environmental movement and the Sierra Club gained a following. The Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 1962, that prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. Crime rates soared to nine times the rate of the 1950's and the hippie movement flourished, endorsing drugs, rock music, mystic religions and sexual freedom and opposing violence.
Works Cited
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.jfklibrary.org/s/JFK+in+History/Cuban+Missile+Crisis.htm
The Naval Historical Center
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq90-1.htm
Library of Congress: Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/colc.html
Time Magazine, article from Monday, Mar. 22, 1954
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819566,00.html
Britannica Online Encyclopedia
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/125110/Cold-War
KC Library
http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade60.html
Earlham University
http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/ps17971/weissdo/background1.html
History Learning Site
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/john_kennedy_and_civil_rights.htm
Yesh! I'm not very good at this. I cut off the beginning of #7
ReplyDelete7. Due to the extremely tense foreign issues of the time, Kennedy was not largely focused on the topic of Civil Rights....
Taylor Sadarananda
ReplyDeleteDulaney High School Delegation
Secretary of Treasury C. Douglas Dillon
United States Cabinet
1. I am Secretary of Treasury C. Douglas Dillon. I am responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policies, managing the public debt, and maintaining coins and currency. Being apart of the National Security Council, and part of EX-COMM, I helped President Kennedy, along with other members of EX-COMM decide and deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2. President Kennedy's failure during the CIA sponsored invasion of the Bay of Pigs by Cuban exiles in April 1961 prompted Kennedy to increase the amount of nuclear missiles being built, and he also instituted covert operations to depose of Cuba's Fidel Castro, and mobilized military reservists in the Berlin Crisis of 1961. Relations with the USSR were not so great after the Vienna Summit with Khrushchev in June 1961. Two months later the building of the Berlin Wall symbolized a distinct hardening of Soviet-American relations. By the spring of 1962 Kennedy had authorized the expansion of US military involvement in South Vietnam.
3. In 1961, the U.S. began the Bay of Pigs invasion where armed Cuban exiles attempted to invade southwest Cuba in order to overthrow Fidel Castro. The invasion ended up failing, and many U.S. citizens along with Cuban exiles were captured and executed. The Soviets were concerned that the U.S. had more nuclear weapons than the Soviets themselves had. At the Bay of Pigs Invasion,Kennedy was trying to get rid of newly elected Fidel Castro, who just so happened to be in line, and trading with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. An
attack on Cuba who was using Cuba to set up base for the Soviet Union missiles angered Khrushchev.
4. On October 22, 1962, after reviewing newly acquired intelligence, President John F. Kennedy informed the world that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba, a mere 90 miles off the shores of Florida. After hearing the news that Cuba had missiles, President Kennedy called the EX-COMM committee, which was a group of advisors that Kennedy created to help Kennedy deal with many crises. The EX-COMM decided that they would quarantine Cuba so no more missile supplies could make it into Cuba. They made a blockade around Cuba, while Cuba placed there missiles readying themselves for an invasion.
The Soviet Union was using Cuba as its missile base, so the relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S. were not very good. On October 28 the news came that the Soviet Union would remove its missiles from Cuba.
5. Responding to Communist guerrilla warfare in Southeast Asia, Kennedy accepted neutralization of Laos, but he committed American military assistance to South Vietnam. Kennedy failed to dissuade De Gaulle from pulling France out of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, because France felt that Kennedy had called on NATO to often. In August the Berlin crisis exploded. The East Germans tightened border curbs and erected a wall of concrete blocks along most of the 25-mile border between East Berlin and West Berlin.
ReplyDelete6. Being the first president to be born in the twentieth, Kennedy was very conscious of speaking for a generation which had died, and gone through World War II. From his inauguration Kennedy pressed Congress to adopt measures to create jobs, alleviate family poverty, assist poor areas, and improve job training opportunities. To combat suspected communism in the Third World, Kennedy developed the Peace Corps and the Food for Peace program, but he also used military force.
7. Black America demanded desegregation in its search for education, prosperity, and equality of status. During the 1960 campaign Kennedy had cultivated black leaders, but after the election seemed reluctant to support black demands. He appointed a black, Robert Weaver, to head the Housing and Home Finance Agency and, using Executive Orders, he created the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity which sought to end discrimination in government and, very importantly, covert discrimination among government contractors. Kennedy sent 600 Federal marshals to Alabama in 1961 to protect the "Freedom Riders." In 1962 they forced Mississippi's governor, Ross Barnett, to send his troopers back to the state university, while dispatching hundreds of Federal marshals into an all-night battle to protect the right of one African American student to attend the university.
8. The Sexual Revolution was millions of young people embracing the hippie ethos and preaching the power of love and the beauty of sex as a natural part of ordinary life. Hippies believed that sex was a natural biological phenomenon which should not be denied or repressed. This movement also brought around the major use of LSD, marijuana, and psychedelic music. The Feminism movement gained momentum in the early 1960s. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women.
Sources:
http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/people/ex-comm.html
http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/1961#Events_of_1961
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/Cuban+Missile+ Crisis.htm
http://www.historycentral.com/Europe/ViennaSummit.html
1. My character is McGeorge Bundy who was the National Security advisor to President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile crisis. His achievements include, for one, having the honor of being described as one of the "best and brightest" of President Kennedy's circle of advisors and cabinet members. He argued that the Soviet Premier was ready for a solution and that the U.S. could afford only to answer that first letter from Khrushchev. Furthermore he also stressed the importance of not publicly exchanging the U.S. missiles in Turkey for the missiles in Cuba. Though his style of discussion was often very frustrating to the other cabinet members, Bundy proved to be a very crucial figure during this crisis.
ReplyDelete2. During the Kennedy administration, relations between the United States and Soviet Russia were extremely tense. Events including Fidel Castro successfully overthrowing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the complete failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and an armed Cuba only 100 miles off the coast of Florida all contributed to the growing tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Russia. The only significant relieving of tensions between the two countries was the eventual removal of nuclear arms from Cuba by Russia in exchange for America’s removal of nuclear arms in Turkey.
3. On January 1st, 1959, Fidel Castro successfully overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. At first, the United States recognized the new government, however, soon became concerned that it was turning into a Soviet satellite. With this concern growing, President Eisenhower ordered the C.I.A. to begin equipping the Cuban people with means to overthrow Castro. When President Kennedy was elected into office he continued the planning right where Eisenhower left off. On April 17th, 1961, the anti-Castro Cubans landed at the Bay of Pigs. However, to their surprise, no uprising against Castro developed and in 72 hours, all of the rebels of the invading force were completely wiped out. Kennedy took full responsibility for this failure but the damage was done. The United States had shown weakness to the Soviets and Khrushchev began to feel extremely superior to Kennedy. This feeling of superiority could have been the reason that led Khrushchev to make more risky moves towards the U.S. For Khrushchev did not fear Kennedy’s leadership.
4. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a time of high tension between the United States and Soviet Russia. However this tension did not occur overnight, but rather over years of growing Soviet power and influence. On April 17th, 1961, the anti-Castro Cubans landed at the Bay of Pigs. However, to their surprise, no uprising against Castro developed and the mission was a complete failure. When Cuba was provided with nuclear arms from Cuba, the U.S. broke off all trade relations in retaliation to this action. The Cuban missile crisis drastically changed the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. What was once a friendly ally turned into a tense and suspicious relationship.
ReplyDelete5. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted a way out of the Soviet rule. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they many packed their bags and headed to West Berlin. Having lost 2.5 million people by 1961 from this trend, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass migration.
So from August 3 until August 5, Communist parties of the Commecon meet in Moscow, 1961 and decided to close the open border between East and West Berlin. This wall lasted for years, but eventually, the Communist regime began to weaken, the U.S, encouraged the people from both sides of the wall to rise up. And on November 9, 1989
the walls came down.
6. Kennedy's candidacy started controversially because of his Roaman Catholic faith and his inexperience. Once the public overcame those factors however, the public was drawn to his charisma as well as his fresh ideas. The African American vote clearly was in his favor, and Kennedy was elected to the presidency. Kennedy's first speech as president had a considerable impact on motivating many young Americans. So it can be said that Kennedy’s presidency started off considerably well. However throughout his presidency, flaws in his seemingly invincible aura began to show. His age and inexperience became a huge negative factor for him when speaking to the county’s enemies. The failure of the Bay of Pigs as well as his failure to make any peace in the civil rights movement also contributed to his dwindling popularity. It is safe to say that by 1962, Kennedy’s popularity significantly decreased.
7. From the years 1955-1965, there was a huge civil rights movement for African Americans across the country. Rebellions such as The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started on December 1, 1955. That was the day when the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses to gain equal rights on city buses. Sit-ins at local restaurants and Freedom Riders furthered the process of raising awareness for their cause. The famous Martin Luther King Jr. was a figure head in the civil rights movement for his empowering speeches. However, Kennedy did little to help the pleading African Americans. Finally, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race.
ReplyDelete8. Sexual freedom was a huge topic of change during the 1960s. The American youth became more relaxed about topics that once were taboo. Women began to take control of their sexuality and trade in long skirts for short mini's without pantyhose. Journalist and psychologist wrote articles and commentary speaking of sexual freedom. Furthermore, homosexuals who lived in secret came out of the closet, and casual sex was on the rise. Birth control, though controversial, became more common and women enjoyed feeling in control of their bodies. Issues such as pornography, marriage breakdowns, single parent families, welfare state dependency, drugs and youth crime are all seen as having their origins in ‘sexual freedom’ of the sixties.
Sources:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cuba-62.htm
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war16.htm
http://www.isis.aust.com/stephan/writings/sexuality/revo.htm
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/index.html
http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm
1) My role is that of United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell Taylor. Though Taylor was prominent during the Kennedy years he initially rose during the Eisenhower administration. After serving as commander of allied forced in Korea and as commander in chief of all forces in Asia he assumed the role of Chief of Staff of the Army. He served in this position from 1955 to 1959 and was a staunch advocate of greater reliance upon traditional conventional ground forces rather than nuclear weapons. Retiring in 1959, he authored, An Uncertain Trumpet. The work largely consisted of Taylor’s ideas on how ground forces could be built for the nuclear age. He wished to make them more effective and more flexible. President Kennedy asked Taylor, who of course accepted, to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He would become a critical member of ExComm during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He would also advise both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on the developing situation in Vietnam. He would go on to serve as Ambassador to South Vietnam under Lyndon Johnson
ReplyDelete2) Tensions between the two superpowers were high. During the 1960 presidential campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon advocated for a strengthened military and a tougher line against communism. Kennedy even spoke of the need to close a (false) missile gap with the Soviets. He even criticized the Eisenhower administration for permitting the establishment of a communist state ninety miles from American shores. Kennedy’s career had taken place in a world dominated by the struggle between these two competing systems and nations. In his Inaugural Address, Kennedy forcefully stated that the America would, “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty." There was little doubt that the foe was the Soviet Union and its proxies. The 1961 Vienna Conference was dominated by these tensions. The conference took place soon after Kennedy had come to power and dealt with a wide variety of issues. However, the central issue was Berlin. The Soviets had threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany. Western access to West Berlin would be imperiled. Both sides were unwilling to sheath their rhetorical sabers. After Khrushchev stated that war was possible Kennedy responded, “Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be a war. It will be a cold winter.” Kennedy would order substantial increases in American ICBM forces, added five new army divisions, and increased the size of the nation’s air power reserve. Kennedy also demonstrated that he had not shied away from the doctrine of containment by sending five hundred Special Forces troops and 2,000 advisors to South Vietnam. In July of 1961 the Soviets detonated the largest atomic bomb ever, sixty megatons, in response to Kennedy’s actions. In August of that same year, the Berlin Wall would be constructed and halt the flow of refugees from East to West Germany.
3) After his election, Kennedy was briefed on a classified plan to depose the Castro regime through the use of a small army of Cuban exiles. The plan relied, in part, upon the support of the Cuban people and even elements of the Cuban military. By November 1960 the CIA had trained these exiles in basic guerrilla tactics and assault landing procedures. However, the classified operation became almost common knowledge in Miami and Castro himself learned of the plot. After taking office, Kennedy asked that the operation be untraceable back to the United States. Thus, the landing point was changed from near the Escambray mountains (which would provide refuge) and to the Bay of Pigs. The plan was launched on April 15, 1961. There were to be two airstrikes but Kennedy canceled the second after the first strike was publicized as American backed. The Cuban Air Force eliminated the rest of the obsolete air armada. Twenty thousand Cuban troops cornered the exiles and forced their surrender. The Bay of Pigs strengthened Castro in the eyes of the Cuban people. They saw him as a savior beating back “imperialist” Americans. As Che Guevera said, “Thanks for Playa Girón. Before the invasion, the revolution was weak. Now it's stronger than ever.” Khrushchev perceived Kennedy as an indecisive President who could not finish the job. Khrushchev’s vision of Kennedy as young, weak, and naïve would carry over to the Vienna Summit, where he adopted a confrontational stance. This impression of Kennedy would allow Khrushchev to rationalize placing nuclear missiles in Cuba.
ReplyDelete4) The crisis began when a U-2 spyplane photographed the construction of nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy met in secret for days with what would become ExComm to discuss the American response. ExComm itself was deeply divided. The hawks included Vice President Johnson, who compared Cuban problem to a snake. The “doves” included Robert McNamara. Their greatest fear was that military action would lead to all out nuclear war. Kennedy decided to institute a naval blockade of Cuba. On October 22, Kennedy revealed to the nation the existence of these missile on Cuban territory and his intention to begin the naval blockade. Soviet ships laden with missiles were sailing towards Cuba. Would the Soviets ignore the blockade and if they did so, how would the United States respond? This question haunted the world for a week after the October 22nd address. Eventually the Soviets blinked. Khrushchev realized that the possibility of war truly existed. The Soviet ships turned around in return for a US promise not to invade Cuba. Furthermore, the United States agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey (this fact remained a secret for twenty five years).
5) Among the most prominent issues was that of Indochina. After the Japanese surrender, the French attempted to reassert their control over their territory in Indochina. In Laos, a communist resistance calling itself the Pathet Lao formed. The royal government, supported by the United States, would continue to fight the Pathet Lao after the French had retreated. President Eisenhower committed millions of dollars of aid and teams of military advisors to Laos. Yet these efforst were largely failing as Kennedy took office. Eisenhower warned Kennedy that American forces might be needed to stave off defeat. However, Kennedy settled for a divided government composed of communists, pro-American forces, and neutral factions. As fighting intensified in neighboring Vietnam, Laos would descend into civil war. It would house the Ho Chi Minh trail and become a covert battleground between North Vietnam and the United States. In Vietnam as well, a Communist resistance fairly popular among the people found itself battling the South Vietnamese government. The United States had formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in response and had sent seven hundred military advisors to South Vietnam. The nation’s government was corrupt and inept. It also oppressed Buddhist monks. Diem, who was Catholic, offended the Buddhists who made up the great majority of the Vietnamese people. Kennedy concluded, “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists”. Yet Kennedy still sent 16,000 “advisors” to Vietnam and pushed Diem’s government to enact economic and social reforms. In November of 1963, before Kennedy’s assassination, the US secretly supported a coup attempt against Diem (who had made it politically untenable for the US to support him by his continued persecution of Buddhist monks).
ReplyDelete6) Prior to his presidency, Kennedy had been somewhat dogged by worries that his Catholicism would be a conflict of interest. Would he take his orders from the American people or the Pope? Through a speech in Houston affirming his belief in the complete separation of church and state, Kennedy largely dispelled those notions. However, his administration did have quite a rocky start. Soon after taking office, the Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred. Kennedy was roundly criticized by those on the right for not “finishing the fight”. His administration was painted as inept and feckless. Furthermore, Kennedy’s domestic agenda did not fare very well either. Though he was able to gain support, especially among Republicans, for civil rights reform, a coalition of conservative Democrats and most Republicans helped to block his agenda. He proposed Medicaire and the plan was labeled “socialist” by the American Medical Association. At the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy’s approval ratings were the lowest they would be throughout his presidency. Though Kennedy was a young president loved by much of the country, there was still very substantial opposition to him and his policies in the halls of Congress.
7) Race had played a part in Kennedy’s presidential race. He had phoned Coretta Scott King after her husband had been arrested in Georgia. JFK won 70 percent of the black vote. Upon taking office, Kennedy was wary of dealing legislatively with civil rights. Instead, he appointed many blacks to executive positions. Kennedy spoke out in favor of school desegregation and praised the mayor of cities that had chosen to integrate. He also strengthened the Civil Rights Commission and appointed Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson as head of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Attorney General Robert Kennedy dispatched four hundred federal marshals to protect Freedom Riders. These riders rode segregated buses throughout the south to protest segregated busing. This was a relatively unpopular step for the president to take. Furthermore, James Meredith, an African-American Air Force veteran was denied enrollment to Ole Miss. The President mobilized the National Guard and in the face of opposition from the Governor of Mississippi, Meredith was eventually enrolled. In the spring on 1963 the nation was gripped by events in Birmingham, Alabama. Martin Luther King had organized protests in the “most segregated city in America”. Images of young black children being attacked by police dogs and other scenes of brutality forced the administration to begin to push for a civil rights bill. In August of 1963, civil rights leaders organized a march on Washington to push for a civil rights bill. One of the most memorable aspects of the march was King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
ReplyDelete8) The early 1960s were filled with important domestic events as well. The invention and sale of the birth control pill was the medical basis for the sexual revolution. The pill made possible the looser attitudes that would come into the mainstream in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Malcolm X arrived on the national stage. In stark contrast to the conciliatory methods of Dr. King, Malcolm X advocated, at times, violence in order to achieve goals. Malcolm X did not envision blacks living in a fairer America but advocated black nationalism. President Kennedy also launched a massive quest to send Americans to the moon when he stated that America’s goal was to put a man on the moon before “the decade was out”. Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, launching the modern environmental movement. Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which called on women to establish identities separate from their husbands.
Citations:
American History: A Survey by Alan Blinder (Textbook)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm
JFK biography
http://historycentral.com/sixty/60's/main.html Major Events of the 1960s
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/
JFK Presidential Library
Jessica Shragher
ReplyDeleteCouncil Rock High School South
Roswell Gilpatric-Deputy Secretary of Defense
1. My role is Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense. Gilpatric was handpicked by President John F. Kennedy as the Deputy Secretary of Defense in 1961, and served this role until 1964. When the Cuban Missile Crisis began to unfold, he was appointed to the EXCOMM team. This group of men, all appointed by President Kennedy, assessed the Russian missile threat in Cuba. When the Cuban Missile Crisis started to get tense, many members of the EXCOMM team wanted to bomb Cuba to eliminate the threat of a Russian nuclear attack. Gilpatric’s biggest achievement came at this time when he stepped in and told President Kennedy that it would be best for the United States to go into this with “limited action.” It was this step in that changed the direction of the decisions made by President Kennedy and the EXCOMM team. Gilpatric also served as a go between for the Pentagon generals and the White House.
2.The relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Kennedy administration were not very warm. The United States and the Soviet Union were the two top world powers, but both had conflicting views in Capitalism versus Communism. The spread of the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe after World War II worried the democracies of the Western Hemisphere. The United States wanted to help its Western allies economically with the Marshall Plan. The U.S. extended this plan to the Soviet Union but they refused. This was mainly because of the acceptance of free elections which went against the Soviet Union’s communism. When the Berlin Wall began construction, Khrushchev was said to have initiated the construction of the wall. President Kennedy acknowledged that the United States could only hope to defend West Berlin and West Germans. Kennedy had offered peace talks with Khrushchev but Khrushchev had cancelled.
3. The Bay of Pigs invasion was an unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Eisenhower’s administration had originally planned the invasion, to be handled by the CIA. The United States had already begun to train anti- revolutionary Cuban exiles. In 1961, 1300 exiles invaded Cuba. However, it was a complete failure, resulting in 90 exiles killed and the result taken as prisoners. This failure ruined Khrushchev’s impressions of Kennedy. Kennedy’s bold decision to invade Cuba led Khrushchev to believe that the young president was not smart with his strategies and would be easy to defeat. With this screw up, Khrushchev saw that finishing the Cold War composedly would become less likely than ever before. He saw Kennedy’s ‘inexperience’ and ineffectiveness and planned to take advantage of it. Khrushchev became more willing to test the new president as a world leader.
ReplyDelete4. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union decided to establish intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cuba. This was because they wanted to neutralize the U.S.’s growth of strategic missiles and protection of their communist ally from an attack by the United States, Cuba. On October 14th, an American U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba discovered missile sites. Photographs are taken and provide hard evidence that the Soviet Union was keeping missiles in Cuba. Kennedy and the group EX-COMM discuss possible diplomatic and military courses of action. Throughout EX-COMM’s discussions, many had argued for an air strike of Cuba. Another U-2 flight over Cuba discovered intermediate range (IRBMs) SS-5 nuclear missiles. The Soviet Union denied any missile installations. After a meeting with his advisors, Kennedy orders a defensive quarantine instituted as soon as possible. Kennedy then addressed the nation in a televised speech, telling the American public that there were offensive missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev offering that the missiles would be removed from Cuba if the United States agreed to not invade Cuba. The next day another letter came in from Khrushchev again and offered that the missiles would be removed only if the U.S. removed its own missiles in Turkey. The Kennedy administration accepted to the first letter but ignored the second. Khrushchev agrees to remove missiles from Cuba, with a belief that the United States would not interfere with Cuba anymore. A nuclear war had been avoided narrowly.
5. Other foreign affairs the United States dealt with in the early 1960s included the affairs in Vietnam. Kennedy sent troops to South Vietnam after Vice-President Johnson visit to Vietnam. Kennedy was against North Vietnam’s attacks on Laos. The United States was in support of the neutrality of Laos. Kennedy then created the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). Communist North Vietnam was in a war with South Vietnam. The United States wanted to keep communism from spreading into South Vietnam.
ReplyDelete6. The United States viewed Kennedy as a young, somewhat inexperienced president. His president represented the ascendance of youthful idealism after World War II. Kennedy was the first Catholic president. However, with the Bay of Pigs invasion Kennedy’s credibility was decreased because of the failure and his lack of leadership. His credibility increased tremendously with the avoidance of a nuclear war with the success of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some American citizens weren’t too sure of Kennedy’s serious when he first started out because of how young he was, but, many began to realize how serious and skillful he really was.
7. From 1955-1968, there were huge movements in Civil Rights for blacks. Blacks were fighting against segregation in public places. Through this they organized peaceful sit-ins and other peaceful demonstrations. Freedom Rides also began. Universities were no longer able to be segregated based on color. In 1963, about 200,000-300,000 demonstrators marched to Washington, D.C. Here, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. After the march, King and other civil rights leaders and Kennedy met. The Kennedy administration seemed committed to passing a Civil Rights Bill but it wasn’t positive if there would be enough votes in Congress. Kennedy was assassinated not too soon after, so, Lyndon B. Johnson took over on the Civil Rights Movement in the white house.
Starting in the 1960s, there had been a sexual revolution in the United States. The number of women having premarital sex increased tremendously. President Johnson was the first president to endorse the birth control pill. The pill was an affordable way to avoid pregnancy. This helped women hold jobs and get more education without having to worry about getting pregnant. The 60’s showed the first time when homosexuals came out. More people began to believe that being a homosexual was just another sexual orientation, not a mental retardation. The 60’s also presented the idea of “free love.” Sex was now more open and done with multiple partners.
ReplyDeleteSources
http://aseancooperation.com/which-modern-day-us-president-had-the-best-foreign-policy/180/
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/The-Kennedy-Years.topicArticleId-25238,articleId-25227.html
http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/bay_of_pigs.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/timeline.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnfkennedy
Mitchell Weinberg
ReplyDeleteLyndon B. Johnson
United States Bloc
What is your role? What is your character’s task in the US government? What achievements did he have during the Kennedy administration?
My role is Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the Vice President of the United States under the Kennedy administration. He did not have many achievements, if any, because Kennedy, while giving him work to do on numerous committees such as the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the Peace Corps Advisory Council, and the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, but Johnson regarded this as busy work.
What were Soviet/US relations like during the Kennedy administration? What was going on between the two nations? What events happened that helped reflect the tension between the two nations?
Soviet/US relations were tense during the Kennedy administration. They were in a sort of constant staring contest. The two countries were in the middle of an arms race. This tension was reflected in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the ongoing Cold War.
What happened at the Bay of Pigs invasion and how did this affect Khrushchev’s view of Kennedy? How could this changed view affect Khrushchev’s later decisions regarding the United States (think Cuban Missile Crisis)?
At the Bay of Pigs, a Cuban port, the US amassed an invasion force that would have stormed the island and overthrown Communist Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, but Castro’s troops were there waiting. This led to a massacre of American soldiers. Kennedy assumed full responsibility for the fiasco but he made him look inept as president. This led Premier Khrushchev to think of him as a weak president that he can take advantage of. This could have affected Khrushchev’s later decisions regarding the United States in the paint was of a mind that he could just bully Kennedy.
What was the Cuban missile crisis? How did the Kennedy administration handle this crisis? How did this event change relations between the Soviet Union and the United States?
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the name given to the event occurring from October 22-28 of 1962 in which the Soviet Union placed missiles in ally Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Both countries were made nervous by the threat of attack: the US by the missiles in Cuba and the USSR by US missiles in Turkey, 150 miles from Russia. The Kennedy administration handled the crisis by placing a naval blockade around Cuba while secretly negotiating with Soviet Premier Khrushchev, which resulted in the removal of Russian missiles from Cuba and US missiles from Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis made US/Soviet relations even more tense, but out of this tension came a heightened willingness to negotiate.
Besides the Soviet Union what were some other foreign issues the United States had to deal with in the early 1960s? Explain.
The Berlin Crisis was the issue that ensued when East Germany contemplated using force to stop the emigration of its people to West Germany. This ended in the erection of the Berlin Wall. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was an agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union that these nations would no longer test nuclear weapons underwater, in the atmosphere, or in outer space. It allows the underground testing of nuclear weapons as long as the debris falls outside of the boundaries of the testing nation. Finally, it states that the three countries will work towards disarmament, ending the armaments race, and attempt to stop contaminating the environment through radioactive substances.
How did the United States view Kennedy during his role as president? Did any views change from 1961 to 1962? Explain.
ReplyDeleteKennedy’s presidency is, and was, referred to as “Camelot”. Being that Camelot symbolizes a utopian society, to be given this name shows that the United States loved Kennedy. His administration was given this name during his time in office so that perception was always there, and never changed.
What was going on in the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s? How did the Kennedy administration handle this domestic issue?
During the early 1960’s a string of nonviolent protests began all across the South, including the bus trips of the “freedom fighters”. Also, Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested at this time and writes his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. The Kennedy administration had promised during the campaign to act swiftly on the issue of Civil Rights, but it did not really act all.
Besides the Civil Rights movement what were some other domestic issues in the United States during the early 1960s (consider the sexual revolution, the birth control pill, etc)? Explain.
The Kennedy administration had to deal with a lag in the national economy that was coming off its post-World War II boom. Also, Kennedy was instrumental in getting a space program started in a man on the moon.
1. What is you role? What is your character’s task in the U.S. government? What achievements did he have during the Kennedy’s administration?
ReplyDeleteMy role is Abraham Ribicoff, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. My character’s task in the U.S. government is to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. No, Abraham Ribicoff did not have any achievements during the Kennedy administration.
2. What were Soviet/US relations like during the Kennedy administration? What was going on between the two nations? What events happened that helped reflect the tension between the two nations?
The Soviet /US relations during the Kennedy administration was nowhere near good. After the Soviets separated as our allies, the United States became fearful of the Soviets expansion of Stalinism, which was the theory and practice of communism in the political system. The United States tried to prevent Stalinism from going into effect and in order to do so the United States had to try and remove the mastermind, Fidel Castro. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the failed Operation Mongoose were events that helped reflect the tension between the two nations.
3. What happened at the Bay of Pigs invasion and how did this affect Khrushchev’s view of Kennedy? How could this changed view affect Khrushchev’s later decisions regarding the United States?
The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. This invasion was a major fail on our part, because the Cuban armed forces defeated our armed forces in three days. In doing so we seemed very unorganized and unprepared to the Soviets. This made the Soviets and Nikita Khrushchev begin not taking us seriously. This changed view could affect Khrushchev’s later decision regarding the United States by making them believe that they could get away with anything and not be caught. Such as, hiding secret missiles in Cuba.
4. What was the Cuban missile crisis? How did the Kennedy administration handle the crisis? How did this event change relations between the Soviet Union and the United States?
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. In 1962, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States were having a confrontation. The confrontation was that we feared the Soviet Union’s expansion of Stalinism. Stalinism was the theory and practice of communism in the political system. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1928-1953, brought this “theory and practice” forth. We tried to prevent Stalinism from going into effect. In order to do so we had to try and remove the mastermind of this idea, Fidel Castro. The Kennedy administration handled this crisis by President Kennedy announcing the find of the secret missiles in Cuba to the public, and the quarantine of Cuba. He also stated that if a missile were shot from Cuba, it would be considered an attack from the Soviet Union. President Kennedy also demanded the removal of the Soviet’s weapons from Cuba. Khrushchev agreed to the demands as long as we did not invade Cuba. The relations between the Soviet Union and the United States became a little closer, because he spoke over in Germany and told them that he was going to fight against communism.
5. Besides the Soviet Union what were some other foreign issues the United States had to deal with in the early 1960’s? Explain.
ReplyDeleteThe United States dealt with another major foreign issue, the Berlin Wall. Built on August 16, 1961, the Berlin Wall was a symbol of communism and separated West and East Berlin. The Kennedy administration made polite protests at length via the usual channels, but without fervour, even though it was a violation of the postwar Potsdam Agreements, which gave the United Kingdom, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin. A few months after the barbed wire was erected, the United States government informed the Soviet government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force.
6. How did the United States view Kennedy during his role as president? Did any views change from 1961 to 1962? Explain.
The United States views of Kennedy during his presidency were changing constantly. At times the United States would love Kennedy, because of the great things he would be doing. He would speak on helping third world countries economically, but also to spread democracy to their countries. He created groups such as the Peace Corps in 1961 to help out these third world countries. People would volunteer to go to these countries to help build roads and hospitals, and to help educate citizens around the world. This was when the United States loved Kennedy. When he was showing how giving and thoughtful he was. But, these positive views would change to bad from 1961 to 1962. Kennedy would start to make very bad decisions during certain situations. Such as, the Bay of Pigs, how the Cuban armed forces defeated our armed forces in just three days. In doing so the United States seemed very unorganized and unprepared to the Soviets. This made the Soviets and Nikita Khrushchev begin not taking the United States seriously. This changed the views of many Americans towards Kennedy. They began asking is he too young to run this country and can he take control of it.
7. What was going on in the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s? How did the Kennedy administration handle this domestic issue?
In the early 1960s four black students had a sit-in at a white diner. They were not fed, but they were able to sit at the counter in the diner. This non-violent protest sparked many other non-violent protests. Six months later the four black students were able to eat at that same diner. These sit-ins were becoming very effective with other little segregated activities or places. Such as, the pool, libraries, theaters, etc… The Kennedy administration had to handle these civil right domestic issues by protecting the African-Americans. James Meredith in 1962 became the first black student to enroll in the University of Mississippi. Kennedy had to send 5,000 troops to Mississippi in order to protect Meredith and to prevent riots.
8. Besides the Civil Rights movement what were some other domestic issues in the United States during the early 1960s. Explain.
ReplyDeleteThere were many other domestic issues during the 1960s. There were two nuclear warheads that landed in North Carolina. A B-52 bomber disintegrated in mid-air and caused the two warheads to fall down to earth. One parachuted down to safety, while the other fell down to earth at mach-1 and landed in a farmer’s field. Neither warhead exploded. Another domestic issue in the United States was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys were riding through Dallas, Texas and waving to on-lookers. Once they arrived on Elm Street shots were fired. John F. Kennedy had been shot in the head and the shoulder. He was later pronounced dead a one o’clock in the afternoon. The entire nation mourned the loss of their president.
Spartacus Educationl. 13 December 2009
< http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm>.
WWW-VL: HISTORY: USA: 1960-1969 13 December 2009
http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1960s.html
Civil Rights Timeline: Milestones in the modern civil rights movement 13 December 2009
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
Examining the Presidency of John F. Kennedy 13 Decemeber 2009
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/examining-the-presidency-of-john-f-kennedy.html
I guess I’ll just comment on my character (General Maxwell Taylor) since I haven’t found anyone to respond to really. Kennedy is often given a good deal of credit for resisting the military’s call to invade Cuba. While Kennedy undoubtedly deserves credit for demonstrating a cool temperament, it is unfair to characterize the military establishment entirely as warmongering generals with little regard for human life. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was one of the few military officials who had long called for a stronger, more vigorous commitment to conventional forces. This belief was based largely on tactical reasoning. If the Soviet Union presented the United States with less than a total challenge the United States would be unable to respond. The policy of massive retaliation would not be credible. Regardless of the reasons behind his view, Taylor can hardly be regarded as a buffoonish warmonger.
ReplyDelete