Kennedy (Foreign Policy) Flashcards
Bay of pigs
Using Cuban exile seemed a cheap and easy way of getting rid of Castro
The invasion was a disaster because :
-Cuban exiles and US newspapers forewarned Castro
-Invaders landed miles away from the mountains to which they were supposed to flee if anything went wrong
-Castro was very popular in Cuba
-The exiles were killed or captured.
-Kennedy suffered worldwide humiliation
-castro moved closer to the Soviets and announced he was a communist
Berlin Wall crisis
Khrushchev announced increased defence expenditure and without warning the East Germans sealed of the frontier with West berlin using wired fences and 4 days later a wall between west and east berlin.
Significance of the Berlin wall crisis
-Stopped East Germans escaping East Germany.
•Which is good US propaganda as the communist have to wall their people in.
• the war stabilised both western east Germany the brain drain was good for the west.
-Increased West antagonism and anxiety with the soviet bloc.
-Increased Cold war tensions
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviets put nuclear missiles on Cuba 90miles from the US coast.
-Khrushchev resented American missiles being based in Turkey and wanted to show them what it feels to live in sights of nuclear weapons
-Khrushchev wanted to impress critics at home and in China
-He felt as he had gotten away with building the berlin wall he could get away with the installation of missiles and Cuba
Kennedy’s response the Cuban missile crisis
Kennedy had B52 bombers on red alert
-He set up a 800mile blockade line around Cuba and decreased it to 500 miles to give Khrushchev time to think.
-2 soviet ships neared the 500 mile blockade and Kennedy prepared for a possible invasion of Cuba but Khrushchev halted the ships.
-Khrushchev offered to get missiles out if Kennedy stopped the blockade and demanded the removal of American missiles from turkey.
-At first Kennedy ignored the second offer
-ambient Kennedy publicly promised not to invade Cuba and sick secretly promised to withdraw American missiles from Turkey.
Significance of the Cuban missile crisis
-The west considered the crisis of triumph for Kennedy
-A hotline was installed between the Kremlin and the White House so that in future crisis the Soviet and American leaders could communicate directly
-soviets an American signed the first treaty that attempted to put a break on the nuclear arms race -The Partial Nuclear Test treaty 1963
Kennedy & Diem
-Kennedy stepped the financial aid to Diem to enable him to increase his army
-Kennedy increased the number of advisors there
-Nevertheless all the support Diem’s soldiers continue to lose
Military failings of Diem
Battle of Ap Bac:
-5 US helicopters and three pilots were lost and ARVN refused to mount a rescue mission
-The vietcong won the battle of ap bac
The strength and preparedness of the Vietnam has not been expected
Significance of the Battle of Ap Bac
-It drew unprecedented attention in the US where the South Vietnamese performance was unfavourably reviewed.
-Showed that Diem was militarily incapable of winning the war
Strategic Hamlets
Fortified villages in which Vietnamese peasants would be isolated from the vietcong.
-Unfortunately, displayed upon their discontent at having to pay for and build the fortifications
-peasants resented being relocated from the lands that they had farmed for generations and the ancestral graves which meant so much to them.
Anti-buddhist policies
Vietnamese had to adopt a French culture, including Catholicism.
However, the majority of the population were Buddhist so there were likely to be clashes.
-Diem banned flags for the celebration of the Buddha’s birthday when 10,000 Buddhist protested. Diem sent soldiers and seven Buddhist were killed.
Coupe to remove Diem
The ARVN plotters knew they would have America’s tactic support in their coup.
Large had publicly denied any US involvement
After the general coupe, DM flood the government buildings and was found dead the next day.
-by the US not saying that the general shouldn’t go ahead with the assassination provided the ARVN and with the go-ahead
Americans are now morally obliged to support the next leader
US position as a world power
The US had masterminded defensive organisations such as NATO, SEATO, CENTO
-Americans still insecure during Kennedy‘s Presidency because the USSR still possessed nuclear capacity to destroy US
-Kennedy establish his peace corps which was young volunteers sent to help poorer nations. Kennedy hoped that it would counter Soviet propaganda that depicted United States as selfish exploiting weak nations and to show American national values superior to soviet values.
-US remained by far the worlds most prosperous nation
