Kennedy's Foreign Policies

Question 1

How did relations with Khrushchev develop when Kennedy came to power?

Answer 1

• met in Vienna in 1961
• discussed Berlin, which had been a bone of contention since Stalin’s failed blockade
• Kennedy felt Khrushchev had ‘savaged’ him
• Khrushchev felt Kennedy was likeable but naive

Question 2

How did the situation in Berlin change under Kennedy?

Answer 2

• Khrushchev erected a barbed wire barrier between East and West Berlin, followed by a wall
• anyone caught without a permit faced imprisonment and those trying to cross illicitly were shot
• Kennedy said that a wall was better than a war
• Khrushchev saw Kennedy’s lack of belligerence as proof that Kennedy was a coward that could be pushed around by the Soviets

Question 3

What was the Bay of Pigs fiasco?

Answer 3

• plan inherited from Eisenhower to overthrow Castro using Cuban exiles who had fled to Florida
• Kennedy authorised CIA plan as a show of strength
• invasion, known as bay of pigs, was a fiasco as majority of exiles were captured and those who escaped failed to persuade locals to rise up, as Castro was more popular than their alternative
• resulted in Khrushchev taking advantage and forming a closer trading relation with Castro
• by 1962, Soviet missiles had been placed in Cuba

Question 4

What were the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Answer 4

• closest the world had ever been to a nuclear war after a U2 spy plane discovered evidence of missiles in Cuba
• soviet ships stopped from going to Cuba and Kennedy ordered flights to be increased from once to twice a day
• ex-comm suggested quarantining Cuba and began discussions about invasion
• Khrushchev sent a telegram offering to remove the missiles as long as Kennedy didn’t invade Cuba, and a second telegram demanding that he also removes missiles in Turkey
• Kennedy agreed to both, the second secretly

Question 5

What impact did the Cuban missile crisis have?

Answer 5

• Kennedy basked in public adulation as the public were not made aware of the removal of missiles in Italy and Turkey as a result
• missiles removed within months and a hotline was set up between the Kremlin and the White House to allow easier communication
• Khrushchev weakened as the government started to erode his power - within two years he had been deposed

Question 6

How did Kennedy deepen involvement in Vietnam?

Answer 6

• saw Vietnam as a military problem rather than a diplomatic problem - sanctioned the build up of advisors and the provision of further aid to Diem
• at the start of Kennedy’s administration, there were 800 military advisers in South Vietnam, by the end there were 23,000 as well as the 250,000 members of the South Vietnamese army
• US soldiers trained South Vietnamese in their fight against the Vietcong - the fact that their vast number couldn’t defeat 12,000 Vietcong was a strong warning regarding the nature of guerilla warfare

Question 7

How did Kennedy attempt to counteract guerilla warfare and how did this backfire?

Answer 7

• adopted tactic of ‘flexible response’, using different fighting and propaganda methods
• amongst these tactic called ‘strategic hamlets’ - involved moving peasants to fortified villages protected by the South Vietnamese army
• however peasants resented this and were influenced by the Vietcong anyway, who gave them food and treated them respectfully

Question 8

What did Diem’s persecution of Buddhists result in?

Answer 8

• self immolation of a Buddhist monk in 1963
• when CIA discovered plan for one of Diem’s own generals to assassinate him, failed to intervene
• international criticism of the US’s role in supporting Diem
• William Westmoreland felt it was now their responsibility to sort out the mess they had created