1961-1963
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1953-1959 = Cuban Revolution
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overthrew dictator Fulgencio
Batista
59’ - Fidel Castro – new leader
 many reforms
 Land reform – 75% foreign
owned
"Our revolution is
endangering all American
possessions in Latin America.
We are telling these countries
to make their own revolution."
— Che Guevara, October 1962
Raul Castro & Che Guevara
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Eisenhower administration plan to train Cuban exiles for
an invasion of their homeland
March of 1960 - Camps in Guatemala were established
Jose Miro Cardona, leader of the anti-Castro Cuban exiles
in the United States = would lead afterwards
It became common knowledge in Miami
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Kennedy was briefed during lame
duck period
February 1961 authorized BUT
USA support had to be sufficiently
disguised
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Moved location to “Bay of Pigs”
Very cautious
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Assumption: 2 strikes, surprise, set up
new government, people Cuba join in
April 15, 1961 - Only 1 airstrike
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April 17 – land on beach & heavy fire
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Castro waiting with 20,000
Half US air support destroyed ;
Kennedy tried to send more support
but got there too late
1200 surrendered – 100 killed
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did not wipe out air force – WWII bombers
53 million dollars worth of baby food and
drugs given to Castro for release of
prisoners
Dec 62’ first released
“tear CIA to pieces and scatter to the
wind”
“too large to be clandestine
and too small to be
successful.”
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Your Kennedy, what now?
Kennedy took a MUCH more aggressive
stance
retired General Maxwell Taylor made its
report. "There can be no long-term living with
Castro,“
"We will take action against Castro," Bobby
wrote. "It might be tomorrow, it might be in
five days or ten days, or not for months. But it
will come."
Operation Mongoose--a plan to sabotage and
destabilize the Cuban government and
economy, including the possible
assassination of Castro himself
Castro "the top priority of the U.S. government
-- all else is secondary -- no time, money, effort,
or manpower is to be spared, “ JFK
ORTSAC – 62’ – mock invasion
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June 1961, Vienna summit - President Kennedy
& Nikita Khrushchev
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increased tensions between the two
superpowers
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“son older than you” – Khrushchev to Kennedy
discussions regarding the divided city of Berlin.
Khrushchev threatened blocking access to west
Berlin
Kennedy, “we seek peace, but we shall not
surrender”
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By 1961, East lost nearly 2.5
million to the “economic
miracle”/West Berlin.
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Losing workers
August 13, 1961, the people of
Berlin were awakened by the
rumbling of heavy machinery
barreling down their street toward
the line that divided the eastern
and western parts of the city –
wood barbed wire fence
Morning, a ring of Soviet troops
surrounded the city. In one night,
the freedom to pass between the
two sections of Berlin had been
abruptly halted.
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Less than nine
months later,
Khrushchev’s little
fence turned into a
concrete wall with
watch towers,
machine gun posts
and even
minefields.
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Khrushchev said,
“It’s [the wall] not a
very nice solution,
but a wall is a hell
of a lot better than
war.”
Kennedy sent 1500
troops to West
Berlin
27 October 1961
Soviet and American
troops pulled up on
their respective sides
of the Berlin Wall
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Checkpoint
Charlie, located
on the border
between East
and West Berlin
main access
point for Allied
personnel and
Westerners to
cross the border
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After Berlin - "I know for certain that Kennedy doesn't
have a strong background, nor, generally speaking,
does he have the courage to stand up to a serious
challenge." He also told his son that on Cuba, Kennedy
"would make a fuss, make more of a fuss, and then
agree"
Eisenhower to Kennedy "the failure of the Bay of Pigs
will embolden the Soviets to do something that they
would otherwise not do.“
one Soviet adviser wrote about Kennedy, "too young,
intellectual, not prepared well for decision making in
crisis situations ... too intelligent and too weak."[
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Reports of trucks carrying
cylinders at night
U.S. spy planes discovered Sovietmade medium-range nuclear
missiles on Cuba
Oct 14 – clear pictures of
construction
Cuba = ninety miles from the coast
of Florida
Why would the Soviets do this?
Deterrent against US invasion of
Cuba; counter threat to US missiles
in Turkey; balance of power; Berlin
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Oct 15 – images processed/presented
President consults with EXCOMM
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October 22 =U.S. warships began stopping
Soviet vessels bound for Cuban shores
 "quarantine" rather than a blockade
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NSC & top advisors
a blockade[of "navigation in international
waters and air space" constituted "an act of
aggression propelling human kind into the
abyss of a world nuclear-missile war
Negotiations , but still tense
Finally, on October 27 a deal was struck
Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from
Cuba
 the United States promised not to invade Cuba
 Secretly, agree to withdraw missiles from
Turkey
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Nov 20 – quarantine officially over!
Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the
rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the
two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment
may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who
tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be
necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for
me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly
of what terrible forces our countries dispose.
Consequently, if there is no intention to tighten that knot and thereby
to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then
let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let
us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.
Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26,
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Those 13 days were the closest to nuclear war
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MAD discussed
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Both Khrushchev and
Kennedy began searching
for ways to ease the
enormous tension between
the two superpowers
In 1963 they established a
hot line between the White
House and the Kremlin
Later that year, the
superpowers signed a
Limited Test Ban Treaty
that served to ban nuclear
testing in the atmosphere
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-Kennedy felt that Eisenhower had relied too
heavily on nuclear weapons, which could only
be used in extreme situations.
-To allow for a “flexible response” if nations
needed help against Communist movements,
the president pushed for a buildup of
conventional troops and weapons