Exploring American
History
Unit IX- Post War America
Chapter 29 – Section 1
Kennedy and Foreign Policy
Kennedy and Foreign Policy
The Big Idea
The United States confronted Communist nations in Cold War
conflicts around the world.
Main Ideas
• President Kennedy confronted Communist threats around
the world.
• The United States and the Soviet Union raced to send a
person to the moon.
• The Cold War conflict in Vietnam led the United States into
war.
President John F. Kennedy
 35th President - 1961-1963
Democrat
 Who was John F. Kennedy?Election of 1960
“New Frontier”
Kennedy Takes Office
Inaugural Address
• Change
• Anti-Communist tone
• Domestic policy goals
Kennedy’s Advisors
• “the best and the brightest”
• young.
• Robert (“Bobby”) Kennedy
• Cabinet members
Main Idea 1:
President Kennedy confronted
Communist threats around the world.
 President Kennedy was committed to stopping the spread of
communism worldwide.
 Maintained strong military forces
 Expanded nation’s supply of nuclear weapons
 Through Alliance for Progress program, pledged $20 billion in aid to
Latin American countries
 Developed the Peace Corps, which in 1961 started sending volunteers
to developing countries to help with projects such as digging wells and
building schools
How did Kennedy’s foreign policy
reflect his views of the world?
Kennedy’s
Foreign
Policy
Peace
Corps
Alliance
for
Progress
Military Confrontations
Bay of Pigs
•Fidel Castro.
•Cuba too close
•CIA operation
•April 17, 1961–
1,500 Cuban
exiles, Bay of
Pigs; failed.
The Berlin Wall
•East Germans
fled.
•Nikita
Khrushchev
•August 13, 1961Berlin Wall,
•Symbol of the
Cold War.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
October 1962
Kennedy demanded.
Blockade
Ending the Cuban missile crisis.
Effects
Main Idea 2:
The United States and the Soviet Union raced to
send a person to the moon.
 The space race, competition between the United States and Soviet Union
to explore space, heated up in the 1960s.
 April 1961– Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became first person in space.
 May 1961– Alan Shepard Jr. became first U.S. astronaut in space.
 1962– John Glenn became first American to orbit Earth.
 1961– Kennedy outlined bold plan to Congress to land first man on the
moon.
 Congress provided NASA with billions of dollars of funding.
 Began work on Project Apollo
 July 20, 1969– American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz”
Aldrin became first people to walk on moon.
Main Idea 3:
The Cold War conflict in Vietnam led
the United States into war.
 Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh fought the French for
control of Vietnam.
 Presidents Truman and Eisenhower supported France with military aid
 Concerned that Vietminh victory would lead to spread of communism in Asia
 Feared domino theory– that if one country became Communist, nearby
countries would follow
 In July 1954, French and Vietnamese leaders agreed to Geneva Accords.
 Temporary division of Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
 Called for democratic elections in July 1956 to unite the two countries under one
government
Southeast Asia’s Colonial History
 France 1883
 French Indochina.
 Ho Chi Minh
 Japanese occupation.
 Vietminh.
 After World War II
Colonial Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
World War II
 1.
1.
2.
 2.
3.
 3.
4.
 4.
 5.
Vietnam after World War II
The Domino Theory
Domino theory—
1954 -United States
paying 75% of the
war.
The French to lose
Guerrilla tactics
France Defeated
Dien Bien Phu.
U.S. rescue,
The French
surrendered on May
7, 1954.
Losses
guerilla war
The Geneva Conference
Goal17th parallel.
VietminhFrench-
General elections-
The United States-
What policies did Presidents Truman and Eisenhower pursue in
Vietnam after WW II?
Truman
Events
Eisenhower
Growing Conflict in Vietnam
Vietnam’s Leaders
A Civil War
Ngo Dinh Diem
Diem’s opponents revolt.
Diem’s government
North Vietnam helps
rebels.
He favored
the 1956 election
Ho Chi Minh’s
Ho Chi Minh gave land to
peasants
National Liberation FrontVietcong.
The Vietcong
assassinated and
controlled countryside.
In 1960 Ho Chi Minh sent
the North Vietnamese
Army south.
American Involvement in Vietnam
Eisenhower and KennedyDiem became more and more unpopular
1
2
3.
In November 1963- Diem assassinated