The New Frontier

The Election of 1960First televised debates-voting toolKennedy-Catholic, wealthy, influential familyNixon-Quaker, financially struggling family$$$ on financial adsIssues: Economy and Cold WarCuba and Castro? “missile gap”

JFK and the Cold War

Bay of PigsBerlin War

Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba

What is going on in Cuba before the Cold War?

Spanish-American WarTeller Amendment- prohibited annexation of CubaPlatt Amendment-US can intervene in Cuban

affairs1926- U.S companies owned 60% of the Cuban

sugar industry and imported 95% of the total Cuban crop

Havana

Bay of Pigs InvasionApril 17, 1961

1959, Fidel Castro overthrows Battista (US-backed dictator), establishing Communist government.Seized US oil refineriesBroke up commercial

farmsRelied on Soviet aidPolitically repressed

those who didn’t agree with him

Nikita Khrushchev-Expressing intent to

strengthen Cuba militarily

March 1960 Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretly train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba

Eisenhower cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961 (about 2 weeks before Kennedy came into office)

JFK learned of the plot only 9 days after his election but still approved it

April 17, 1961: 1300-1500 exiles, supported by US military, landed on Bay of Pigs

April 17, 1961: 1300-1500 exiles, supported by US military, landed on Bay of PigsAirstrike failed to knock

out Cuban air forceA small advance group

never reached shoreExiles faced 25,000

Cuban troops backed by Soviet tanks and jet aircraft

ResultTroops surrounded, some killed others taken as

prisoners

Cuban counter-revolutionaries, members of Assault Brigade 2506, after their capture at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in April 1961

ResultCastro turned event into public relations triumph

Kennedy looked embarrassed, took blame

Negotiated for surviving commandos – paid $52 million in food and medical supplies

Kennedy said no more communist expansion in W. Hemisphere

Castro welcomed USSR aid.

The Berlin Wall Goes UpFrom 1949-1961,

about 2.5 million East Germans had fled East Germany to West GermanySkilled workers,

professionals, intellectuals

Destroyed economy of East Germany

Barrier needed

Berlin Wall goes up cont. The original wall built of

barbed wire and cinder blocks, was subsequently replaced by a series of concrete walls (up to 15 feet [5 metres] high) that were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, gun emplacements, and mines. By the 1980s this system of walls, electrified fences, and fortifications extended 28 miles (45 km) through Berlin, dividing the two parts of the city, and extended a further 75 miles (120 km) around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany.

Cuban Missile CrisisAutumn 1962, Cuba has received 1000s of USSR

missiles, jets, boats & personnelCuba was a new Communist stateCuba provided a launch base for USSR inter-

continental missiles (ICMs)Khrushchev wanted to test strength of new US

president, JFKKhrushchev wanted to force JFK into bargaining

over US missile in Europe

What happened during the October Crisis?

Soviet technicians and equipment arrives in Cuba

14 October 1962, US U2 spy plane takes photos of suspected USSR long-range missile sites on Cuba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M

What should Kennedy do?

Kennedy’s DecisionsNaval blockadeOrdered Soviets from dismantle existing missile

sitesSecret negotiations

Outcome-USSR Removes weapons if….

US removes missiles from Turkey and promises not to invade Cuba

Limited Test Ban Treaty

“New Frontier”Lacked a popular mandate – a clear indication

that the voters approved his plansPeace CorpsAlliance for Progress

Race to the Moonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_JlSdRCg7g

LBJ’s “Great Society”