Eisenhower & Kennedy
The Cold War Reaches The Brink
President Truman
Increases in Tension Under
the Truman Administration
1. The Berlin Blockade
2. The Fall of China
3. The Korean War
What is next?
Office of the President
1945 to 1953
1952 Presidential Election
1952 Presidential Election
Dwight Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson
Eisenhower & Nixon Elected to Office
1956 Presidential Election
Dwight Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson
Eisenhower & Nixon Re-Elected to Office
President Eisenhower
Increases in Tension Under
the Eisenhower Administration
4. Sputnik (ICBM Creation)
5. The U2 Incident
What is next?
Office of the President
1953 to 1961
1960 Presidential Election
Episode 7: Hail to the Chief
Eisenhower
20:00
1960 Presidential Election
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (D)
Richard Nixon (R)
Senator from Massachusetts
Vice President under Eisenhower
The Debate That Changed the World
Nixon Kennedy Debate - 9.26.1960
Question.
What won John F. Kennedy the 1960 Presidential Election?
1. Religion
2. Name/Father
3. Age
Question.
What were three problems that John F. Kennedy faced while
running for President in 1960?
1960 Presidential Election
John F. Kennedy v. Richard Nixon
Kennedy & Johnson Elected to Office
Presidential Inauguration of JFK
President Kennedy
Increases in Tension Under
the Kennedy Administration
6. Bay of Pigs Incident
7. The Berlin Wall
8. The Cuban Missile Crisis
What is next?
The Cuba Problem
Office of the President
1961 to 1963
Bahia de Cuchinos
The Bay of Pigs Incident
Fidel Castro
“By the beginning of 1960, Cuba was for all
practical purposes a Communist dictatorship and,
in military perspective, a Soviet satellite.”
“When Kennedy took over early in 1961, he found a proposal… for [1,200]
armed Cuban exiles… to be landed in an area called the Bay of Pigs to
detonate a popular uprising… the operation was a total disaster from the start,
primarily because Castro was able to read all about it, in advance, in the US
media… Castro’s troops, well prepared for the incursion, killed 114 of the
invaders and took the rest, 1,189, nearly all of whom were executed or later
died in Castro’s prisons.”
“Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.”
John F. Kennedy
The Berlin Wall
“That same year, Kennedy played a role in another major event of the
decade and the Cold War—the Soviet construction of the Berlin Wall,
which divided the German city into East and West Berlin.
Khrushchev… constructed the Berlin Wall to divide the east and west
sides of the city, tearing apart families and preventing economic
exchange. This move demonstrated the Soviet's might and
willingness to go toe-to-toe with the United States.
To Kennedy's credit, he did not back down. He visited Berlin in 1962
and paid tribute to the spirit of Berliners and to their quest for
freedom when he declared to the crowds ‘All free men, wherever they
may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take
pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner.’
He also offered this commentary on the Soviet regime: ‘For those
who say communism is a better system, let them come to Berlin.’
His popularity soared.”
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Thirteen Days in October
1962: Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev worried by US
nuclear missiles in Turkey, sends more than 42 medium
range nuclear-capable missiles, 24 long range
nuclear-capable missiles (never arrived), 24 SAMs, and
42,000 Soviet troops and technicians to Cuba.
Thirteen Days in October
October 14th: US U2 spy planes take the first clear
pictures of the missiles. Moscow denies deployment.
Thirteen Days in October
October 22nd: President Kennedy imposes a sea
blockade of Cuba and puts armed forces on
heightened alert, ready to order a strike on Cuba.
President Kennedy - Cuban Missile Crisis Speech
Thirteen Days in October
October 26th: Moscow announces it will remove
missiles in return for guarantees US will not invade
Cuba and, under a secret deal, remove US missiles
from Turkey.
“There is no doubt the world came close to nuclear war, probable closer
than at any other time, before or since. On October 22nd all American
missile crews were placed on maximum alert. Some 800 B47s, 550 B52s,
and 70 B58s were prepared with their bomb-bays closed for immediate
take off… Over the Atlantic were 90 B52s carrying multi-megaton bombs.
Nuclear warheads were made active on 100 Atlas, 50 Titan, and 12
Minuteman missiles, and on American carriers, submarines, and
overseas bases. All commands were in a state of Defcon-2, the highest
state of readiness next to war itself.
Very.
How Close Was Nuclear War?
“Then and for some years afterwards, [The
Cuban Missile Crisis] was considered the
finest hour of the Kennedy Presidency.”
Kennedy & The USSR
Plans for Peace
November
nd
22 ,
1963
Peter Jennings - The Kennedy Conspiracy
“In his inaugural
address, Kennedy said
that the torch had been
passed to a new
generation. With
Kennedy’s death, the
torch was passed back to
an old generation – the
generation of Johnson,
Nixon, Ford, and Reagan
– leaders who, though
not much older, would
systematically destroy
the promise of the
Kennedy years as they
returned the country to
war and repression.”
“If he had lived, the world would have been different.
I feel quite confident of that.”
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara