THE JFK YEARS1960-1963
Nixon Debates
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Berlin Wall
The Thirteen Days
Assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
•Elected President in1960 (Democrat)
•First ever televisedPresidential debates:JFK vs. Nixon
•JFK youngest Presidentever elected: 42
•Barely defeats Vice-President Richard M.Nixon
•Nixon wanted to chargefraud in the election
“Camelot”
The Kennedys
•Politically Prominentfamily – very wealthy
•Father Joseph Kennedyone of the participantsof 1938 MunichConference(appeasement)
•Reputation a problemfor JFK (weakness)
•Appoints brother Bobby(RFK) to Attorney-General
•Kennedys not well likedor respected in theWhite house by oldEisenhower Gov’tpeople
Containing Communism
•“NEW FRONTIER”
•Cuba is the thorn in theside of the USA
•90 miles off the coast ofFlorida
•Castro’s radicalCommunist Gov’t athreat to the USA
•CIA plan to invade Cubaand overthrow Castro inthe works fromEisenhower years
•Plan presented to JFKwith full support fromJoint Chiefs
•JFK agrees to the plan
Bay of Pigs InvasionApril 19, 1961
•1,500 anti-Castro Cubanexiles land at Bay of Pigs,Cuba
•CIA and JFK advisorssure a Cuban uprisingwould occur
•Poorly planned andexecuted scheme failsmiserably
•Invasion force wiped outin 3 days – 1,200captured
•No such uprising – badCIA Info
•Castro solidifies powerand popularity in the faceof USA aggression
“The USA looked like fools to our friends, like rascals to ourenemies, and incompetents to everyone else” -New York Times on Bay of Pigs Invasion
•JFK publicly acceptsblame for the fiasco
•JFK privately claims theCIA manipulated andlied to him
•JFK cleans house atCIA but still is formingCuba invasion plans
•Tensions run high forJFK & Soviet PremierNikita Khrushchevmeeting 2 months laterin Austria
•JFK gets bullied byKhrushchev
Berlin Wall
•Khrushchev wary ofUSA aggression
•Berlin is hot spot forSoviets
•E. Berlin is poor andunder strict rule
•W. Berlin is wealthyand free
•By 1961, 3 million hadfled to the West
•Khrushchev (USSR)closes the border anderects a 12 foot, 96mile wall - closes offEast Berlin from WestBerlin
•Becomes ultimatesymbol of harshCommunist rule and ofthe Cold War
Beginning of aCrisis
•USSR and Cubachallenge AmericanContainment policy
•Cuba secretly importsNuclear missiles fromRussia to resist anotherUSA invasion
•USA U-2 spy planesdiscover missiles Oct.12, 1962
•USA already has JupiterMissiles in Italy,England, & Turkey –which has angeredRussia
U-2 Pictures
Range of the SS-4 Sandal Missile
USA Reaction
•JFK assembles a teamto weigh options andsolutions
•Determine missiles willbe operational in 13Days
•Military wants to strikeCuban Missile Sites
•JFK staff afraid JointChiefs setting up for awar (redeem for Pigs)
•JFK decides toblockade (quarantine)Cuba to stop missileshipments
•Can still bomb missilesites if have to
Cuban Missile Crisis
•Horrible psychologicaleffect on Americanpublic
•Russia tries to run theblockade
•USA running out oftime, prepares to strikethe missile sites
•US U-2 spy plane shotdown over Cuba
At the Last Minute…
•Russian ambassadorcuts a secret deal withRFK to end crisis
•1. USSR removesmissiles from Cuba
•2. USA pledges not toinvade Cuba
•3. USA pledges toremove old Jupitermissiles from Turkey in6 months
•The “Hot-Line” phoneinstalled between USAand USSR
