John F. Kennedy

D

Bay of Pigs Invasion

When the communist Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, the Caribbean island became a focus for the Cold War and many Cubans fled to the United States. During the Eisenhower administration the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had begun to train Cuban exiles secretly for an invasion of Cuba. When Kennedy became president, he approved the invasion.

In April 1961 about 1,500 Cuban exiles made an amphibious landing in Cuba at a place called Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). Their plan was to move inland and join with anti-Castro forces to stage a simultaneous revolt; instead, Castro’s forces were ready to meet the invaders. Neither did the revolt in the interior materialize, and air support, promised by the CIA, never came. The exiles were defeated and most of the survivors were taken as prisoners. Castro demanded money for their release. Kennedy refused to negotiate with Castro, but he took steps to encourage both businesses and private citizens to reach an agreement with Castro and to contribute to the ransom. On December 25, 1962, 1,113 prisoners were released in exchange for food and medical supplies valued at approximately US$53 million.

E

Alliance for Progress

Most other Latin American countries had the same grave social, economic, and political conditions that had led to Castro’s success in Cuba. Many of these nations seemed ripe for a revolution that could easily be exploited by the communists. Upon taking office, President Kennedy looked for a programme that would accelerate change in Latin America by strengthening democratic institutions. In March 1961 he introduced the Alliance for Progress, and in August it was established by the charter of Punte del Este. The Alliance for Progress was to be a Latin American version of the Marshall Plan. All Latin American nations except Cuba joined the Alliance for Progress, pledging “to bring our people accelerated economic progress and broader social justice within the framework of personal dignity and individual liberty”. The United States promised US$20 billion for the first ten years. The success of the Alliance’s economic programmes, however, was limited by the gravity of the problems that they confronted.

F

Cold War Confrontation With the Soviet Union in Europe

In August 1961, in an effort to prevent East Germans nationals from fleeing to the West, the communists ordered a wall to be built on the border between East and West Berlin. When East German soldiers also began blocking the Allied route through East Germany into West Berlin, Kennedy sent a force of 1,500 soldiers. The troops went unchallenged. Communist interference with Allied travel to and from Berlin stopped.

G

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the world’s closest brush with nuclear war. In 1960 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev decided to use Cuba as a base to house nuclear missiles that would put the eastern United States within range of nuclear missile attack. Khrushchev, when asked, denied that any missiles were being supplied to Cuba, but in the summer of 1962 US spy planes flying over the island photographed Soviet-managed construction work and spotted the first missile on October 14.

For seven days President Kennedy consulted secretly with advisers, discussing possible responses. Finally, on October 22, Kennedy gave a televised address about the discovery of the missiles, demanded that the Soviet Union remove the weapons, and declared the waters around Cuba a quarantine zone. Kennedy called upon Khrushchev “to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations” and warned that an attack from Cuba on any nation in the western hemisphere would be considered an attack by the USSR on the United States itself.

At the same time, US troops were sent to Florida to prepare to invade Cuba, and air units were alerted. American ships blockaded Cuba with orders to search all suspicious-looking Soviet ships and to turn back any that carried offensive weapons.

For several tense days Soviet vessels en route to Cuba avoided the quarantine zone, while Khrushchev and Kennedy discussed the issue through diplomatic channels. Khrushchev, realizing his weak military position, sent a message on October 26 in which he agreed to Kennedy’s demands to remove all missiles. The following day, before the United States had responded to the first note, Khrushchev sent another, trying to negotiate other terms. Kennedy decided to respond to the first message, and on October 28, Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove the weapons. In return, Kennedy secretly promised not to invade Cuba and to remove older missiles from Turkey. Kennedy called off the blockade and spy planes confirmed that the missile bases were being dismantled. Nuclear war had been avoided.

H

Cold War Crisis in South East Asia

In South East Asia, as elsewhere, the United States and the USSR competed to establish governments favourable to themselves. Both Laos and South Vietnam were threatened by communist rebellions. In July 1962 Kennedy’s roving ambassador, W. Averell Harriman, negotiated an agreement that arranged for a neutral coalition government in Laos headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma. The coalition government, which consisted of both communist and non-communist elements, was shaky, but it survived for some time.

Kennedy was less successful in South Vietnam where US military advisers had been training the South Vietnamese army since 1954. The South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem was threatened by a communist-dominated guerrilla movement, called the National Liberation Front, which was supported by many of the people living in the countryside. The Diem government proved unable to defeat the communists or to cope with growing unrest among South Vietnamese Buddhists and other religious groups. In 1961 Kennedy demonstrated America’s commitment to South Vietnam by increasing the number of military advisers from 700 to 15,000 and ordering them into combat.

Kennedy soon realized that Diem was more interested in maintaining his own hold on power than in defeating the communists and introducing democracy in South Vietnam. In 1963, when Kennedy was informed of a planned coup to overthrow Diem, he chose to leave the matter in the hands of the US ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., whom he knew to be in favour of the planned coup. The coup was successful, and Diem was killed in the back of a military personnel carrier. However, the new government was unable to keep the guerrilla war from spreading, in spite of increased US aid.