The 1960s and Cold War Part Two

Election of 1960

JFK (Democrat) vs Nixon (Republican; served as VP under Dwight D. Eisenhower)

• JFK

  • Roman Catholic (different from most people), Irish, handsome, WWII bet

  • FIRST Catholic US President

  • Black Vote - Youngest ever elected

  • Put his brother RFK as attorney general

  • Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) as Vice President

  • “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”

• TV Debates (4 total) - JFK looked a lot better than Nixon and while Nixon clearly won the debate, JFK won the crowd with his appearance

• Voting Age - “If I were 21, I would vote for Kennedy” - everyone loved him

JFK

Jaquelene Kennedy

• Married JFK at Saint Mary’s Church in Newport

  • Had the wedding at Hammersmith Farm in Newport, RI

• They had two kids - JFK JR and a Girl

• Great Marriage…on the surface

On the inside…

• Multiple affairs

• JFK had a back injury - would take 50 plus pills a day

• Wore a back brace to help his back

JFK’s Domestic Goals (INSIDE the country)

1) Get the economy going again

2) Defense and Space programs (NASA)

JFK’s Foreign Goals (OUTSIDE the country)

1) Continuing Policies - Eisenhower Doctrine and Containment

2) “Flexible Response” not just to nukes

3) Peace Corps

4) Alliances for Progress - Financial aid to Latin America

The Cold War & The Space Race

• The Soviet Union had the first dog, cat, monkey, etc. on the moon

• Soviets

  • October 1957: Sputnik 1

  • November 1957: Laika (Dog)

  • April 1961: Yuri Gagarin

  • June 1963: Valentina Tereshkova

• USA

  • May 1961: Alan B Shepard (First American in space)

  • July 21, 1969: Neil Armstrong (First Man on The Moon)

    • Buzz Aldrin (Second Man on The Moon)

Bay of Pigs (Bahia de Cochinos)

• Cuba: 1959 Baptista out, Fidel Castro in

• Cuba goes communist - 85 miles away from the USA

• USA plans to remove Fidel Castro

  • CIA, Anti-Castro refugees

  • 1961: 1,500 rebels invade

• 72 hours…

  • JFK made an joke of himself and left both him and the USA embarrassed

  • Cuba and the Soviet Union grew closer

• Nikita Krushchev (Leader of Soviet Union) sees JFK and USA as weak

• Communist = 1 JFK = 0

Berlin Crisis (1961)

• Stalin is NOT alive at this point

• Nikita wants the Western Powers out of East Germany and Berlin

• Soviets cut off Berlin so JFK sent in troops and nukes

• Berlin Wall goes up to halt mass Exodus from East Berlin and it stays up until November of 1989

Berlin Wall

• 1961: The Berlin Wall went up

• 1989: The Berlin Wall went down

• 1990: East and West Germany joined again

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 1962

• The Cuban Missile Crisis was a direct and dangerous confrontation

• Between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War

• IMPORTANT: The moment when the two superpowers came CLOSEST TO WWIII and Nuclear Conflict

Soviets Missiles in Cuba

• Shift in Soviet Policy to “First Strike”

• Missile Launch Towards America

  • USA would have 5 minutes to react

• Reaching as far North as Washington D.C.

• Could kill 80% of the USA’s population

• Seriously would degrade the USA’s ability to retaliate

• Fears of Crisis spread to Europe, Berlin, and NATO

• USA option…

  • Launch missiles at Cuba before the Soviet missiles become operational & then a USA land invasion 8 days later to remove all and oust Castro from power

13 Days in October (1962)

• The most intense period of the Cuban Missile crisis

• The Soviets gave the Cubans defensive and offensive weapons

• Fields, U2 planes, 85 miles away

• October 22, 1962: US Naval Blockade around Cuba ordered by JFK

• US / SU gear up for WWIII…..13 Days…..

• Nikita and JFK play a deadly game of nuclear chicken

• Soviets blink, and the nukes are removed from Cuba, but there’s more

• RFK and Turkey (RFK was the brains behind it all)

• This event marks a historic turning point in US / SU relations, Hot Lines, and the Football

Important Facts

October 27, 1962: Rudolf Anderson was the only US fatality during the Cuban Missile Crisis

• He died when his U2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by SA2 surface to air missiles over Cuba

JFK Assasination

• November 22, 1963 at 12:30 pm