JFK and The Cold War

Bay of Pigs Invasion

• On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.
• Because we were unable to stop the threat of communism within Cuba at this time, they continued to have relations with Russia.
• Which led to the Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

• On October 22, Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union had placed long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba.
• Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine to stop the delivery of more missiles, and demanded the existing missile sites be dismantled.
• Then, after a flurry of secret negotiations, the Soviet Union offered to remove the missiles if the United States promised not to invade Cuba.
• The Cuban missile crisis forced the United States and the Soviet Union to consider the consequences of nuclear war. In August 1963, the two countries agreed to a treaty that banned testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.

Berlin Wall

• In June 1961, Kennedy faced another foreign policy challenge when he met with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, Austria.
• Kennedy refused and reaffirmed the West’s commitment to West Berlin.
• Khrushchev retaliated by building a wall through Berlin, blocking movement between the Soviet sector and the rest of the city.
• The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of Cold War divisions.

Death of President

• On November 22, 1963, Kennedy and his wife traveled to Texas. As the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the crowded streets of Dallas, gunfire rang out. Someone had shot the president twice.
• Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of killing Kennedy, appeared to be a confused and embittered Marxist who had spent time in the Soviet Union.
• The bizarre situation led some to speculate that the second gunman, local nightclub owner Jack Ruby, killed Oswald to protect others involved in the crime.
• In 1964 a national commission headed by Chief Justice Warren concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. The report of the Warren Commission left some questions unanswered.

Cold War in Space

• In 1961 Yury Gagarin, a Soviet astronaut, became the first person to orbit Earth. Again, as in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, the Soviets had beaten the United States in the space race.
• In 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
• On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V lifted off in Florida, carrying three American astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
• On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin boarded the lunar module, named Eagle, and headed down to the moon. Minutes later, Armstrong radioed NASA’s flight center in Texas: “Houston . . . the Eagle has landed.”
• Armstrong became the first human being to walk on the moon. As he set foot on the lunar surface, he announced: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The United States had demonstrated its technological superiority over the Soviet Union.