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Chapter 20. Section One Kennedy and the Cold War. Objectives:. To describe The Camelot Years To describe and evaluate our 1960’s military policy To describe the crisis over Cuba To describe JFK’s assassination…. Election of 1960.
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Chapter 20 Section One Kennedy and the Cold War
Objectives: • To describe The Camelot Years • To describe and evaluate our 1960’s military policy • To describe the crisis over Cuba • To describe JFK’s assassination…
Election of 1960 • John F. Kennedy, Dem. (young, inexperienced, Catholic, charismatic) • Richard Nixon, Rep. (experienced, not as charismatic) • First televised debate – “That night, image replaced the printed word as the national language of politics.” Kennedy won.
Kennedy won the vote of the African Americans; Robert befriended Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family.
“The Camelot Years” – JFK and his beautiful young family led a presidency of elegance and artistic achievement.
JFK’s Cabinet was considered “the best and the brightest” • Sec. of State – Dean Rusk • Sec. of Defense – Robert McNamara • Attorney General – Robert Kennedy (younger brother)
JFK felt Soviets were gaining more allies in the 3rd world. • Third World – poor underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America that were not aligned with the Soviets or the Americans. • JFK blasted Eisenhower for losing Cuba to the Communists.
JFK’s foreign policy was “flexible response” – strengthening non-nuclear military capacity. • We doubled military spending.
Special Forces, or Green Berets were created.
Eisenhower had warned against so much defense spending. It permeated all levels of society. • Both the US and Soviet Union could annihilate each other – so the strategy of “mutually assured destruction” served as a deterrence.
Crisis over Cuba: • 90 miles off coast of Florida. • Fidel Castro took over in 1961 and cut off relations with the US. He sought aid from the Soviets. • In the Cuban revolution, he had promised his people he would deliver them from poverty, inequality, and dictatorship. • Castro quickly took US controlled sugar land.
Exiled Cubans built a revolutionary movement in the US. • Pres. Eisenhower had secretly given the CIA permission to train these exiles for an invasion of Cuba. • JFK approved the plan. Apr. 17, 1960, Bay of Pigs Invasion took place.
JFK called off air support at the last minute. • Everything went wrong. Castro’s troops captured and killed the invading army. • JFK was embarrassed and forced to pay ransom for surviving commandos.
map on p. 675 • Castro was strongly tied to Soviet Union. Khrushchev promised to defend Cuba by sending Soviet weapons, including nuclear weapons. • 1962, US spy planes spotted Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
Cuban Missile Crisis: • JFK informed the nation about the missile sites. For the next 6 days, we faced the possibilities of a nuclear war. • The US set up blockade of Cuba. If the Russian ships broke the blockade, we would go to war.
The 2 sides made a deal… • Khrushchev removed the missiles from Cuba and we agreed not to attack Cuba again. • Later, we removed missiles from Turkey. • We opened a direct hot line between Washington and Moscow, so there would be no mistakes in communication. • Castro began to close Cuba’s doors….
Berlin Wall (p. 677) • 1961, East Berlin (Communist) Germans were leaving by the hundreds. • Soviets built a wall separating East and West Germany. The Berlin Wall became a symbol of Communist oppression.
Limited Test Ban Treaty – no nuclear testing in the atmosphere, both US and Russians agreed.
“New Frontier” • “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier.” • This was JFK’s plan for liberal changes in the gov’t. • However, he did not have a popularmandate since he was elected by a slim margin, so he got few ideas passed.
We were entering a recession when JFK took office; his accomplishments in the economic area were minor.
One of the promises JFK made was to form a Peace Corps – successful program for young people who volunteer to assist in developing nations of the world.
JFK est. the Alliance for Progress – loaned money to Latin Am. countries.
Space Race: • 1961, Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. • JFK spent lots of $ on US space program. • 1969 – Neil Armstrong took first steps on the moon. • “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The Other America – book by Michael Harrington, showed the world the true extent of poverty in America. • JFK began to take a more aggressive approach to poverty and segregation in the South.
Who really killed JFK? • November 22, 1963 – Dallas, TX. JFK was assassinated in a car in front of the Texas School Book Depository. • Zapruder, a citizen, filmed the shooting….. • Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. • A couple days later, he was killed by Jack Ruby.
On July 27, 1963, Lee was accompanied by Dutz and Lillian Murret (his aunt and uncle) and Marina to speak at the House of Studies at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. There he discussed his experiences in the Soviet Union before an audience of Jesuit seminarians. • Among a variety of views he expressed was the following: Question:Why don't the Russians see they are being indoctrinated and they are being denied the truth by these jamming stations? • Answer:They are convinced that such contact would harm them and would be dangerous. They are convinced that the state is doing them a favor by denying them access to Western radio broadcasts. • Source: Commission Exhibit 2649, 25H727-728.
Conspiracy theories rose even though Oswald’s prints were on the gun that killed JFK. • The Warren Commission was set up to study the case. It was determined in 1963 that Oswald acted alone. But a new study in 1979 concluded that it was probably a conspiracy. Papers were also released in 1994 and others will be released in 2017.
VP Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One.
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