Kennedy, Bay of Pigs, &The Cuban Missile Crisis

Kennedy 1960 Election Victory

• 1960: Democrat JFK vs Republican Richard Nixon

– JFK: dashing, young, intelligent

– Nixon: conservative, anti-Communist, questionable morality

– Televised debate: tired, haggard Nixon, vs tanned, youthful Kennedy

• JFK’s “Camelot” presidency: the “best and the brightest” advisers, including brother Bobby as Attorney General

Fidel Castro’s Rise in Cuba

• 1950s: Cuban dictator Batista, allied with US corporations

• 1959: Castro, working with Che Guevara, seized power

– At first, praised democracy, equality, and end to poverty

– Nationalized several US sugar factories, alienating US

– As US turned against Castro, USSR increased support for him

– Many Cubans, most wealthy, fled to Miami

1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion• Under Eisenhower, CIA trained

Cuban exiles to invade Cuba to topple Castro

• After inauguration, Kennedy reluctantly approved plan to invade Cuba

• 1961: Cuban exiles, supported by US ships, landed at Bay of Pigs

• Routed by 25,000 Cuban soldiers, supported by Soviet equipment; no US air support

• Severe political blow to Kennedy, and US diplomatic relations around world

• Antagonized already bad relations with Cuba; turned Cuba increasingly toward USSR

Cuban Missile Crisis• 1962: flow of Soviet weapons to

Cuba increased dramatically• US gained intelligence

information that Soviets were installing nuclear weapons in Cuba

• October 14, 1962: US photographs showed Soviet missiles in Cuba

• Kennedy warned that missile attack from Cuba would cause US to retaliate against USSR, demanded that USSR remove missiles

• US created naval blockade around Cuba to stop Soviet shipments

• Televised situation left America in moment-to-moment fear: nuclear war?

Cuban Missile Crisis Concludes• Kennedy and Khrushchev

agreed defuse the situation – Remove missiles from Cuba– Kennedy promised not to invade

Cuba• After agreement, Soviet request:

remove US missiles from Turkey• US ignored second request, and

accepted first agreement• US secretly agreed to remove

nuclear missiles in Turkey• Kennedy criticized by Cuban

community for “losing Cuba”• Khrushchev criticized in USSR

for losing face to USA: forced to resign

• Began new era of Cold War: lessen tensions to avoid nuclear conflicts

Cuban Missile Crisis Aftermath

• US ended all trade with Cuba (policy continues today)

• Cuban exiles in Miami continue to hope for return to power in Cuba

• Cuba, under Fidel, sparked controversy:– Poor human rights record; many

refugees attempted to enter US– Strong commitment to medical

aid throughout Latin America– Before Venezuela’s Chávez,

Castro was most vocal leftist critic of US policy in Latin America

Kennedy Assassination

• November 1963: JFK shot during parade in Dallas, TX

• Lee Harvey Oswald arrested as the lone gunman (many other theories have been proposed)

• Oswald killed by Jack Ruby while led to the courtroom (Ruby, convicted of the murder, died in jail of cancer before his appeal trial.)

• Lyndon Johnson became president