1961-1963

1953-1959 = Cuban Revolution

overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista

59’ - Fidel Castro – new leader many reforms Land reform – 75% foreign

owned "Our revolution is

endangering all American possessions in Latin America. We are telling these countries to make their own revolution."

— Che Guevara, October 1962

Raul Castro & Che Guevara

Eisenhower administration plan to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland

March of 1960 - Camps in Guatemala were established

Jose Miro Cardona, leader of the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the United States = would lead afterwards

It became common knowledge in Miami

Kennedy was briefed during lame duck period

February 1961 authorized BUT USA support had to be sufficiently disguised Moved location to “Bay of Pigs” Very cautious

Assumption: 2 strikes, surprise, set up new government, people Cuba join in

April 15, 1961 - Only 1 airstrike did not wipe out air force – WWII bombers

April 17 – land on beach & heavy fire Castro waiting with 20,000

Half US air support destroyed ; Kennedy tried to send more support but got there too late

1200 surrendered – 100 killed 53 million dollars worth of baby food and

drugs given to Castro for release of prisoners

Dec 62’ first released “tear CIA to pieces and scatter to the

wind”

“too large to be clandestine and too small to be successful.”

Your Kennedy, what now? Kennedy took a MUCH more aggressive

stance retired General Maxwell Taylor made its

report. "There can be no long-term living with Castro,“

"We will take action against Castro," Bobby wrote. "It might be tomorrow, it might be in five days or ten days, or not for months. But it will come."

Operation Mongoose--a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy, including the possible assassination of Castro himself

Castro "the top priority of the U.S. government -- all else is secondary -- no time, money, effort, or manpower is to be spared, “ JFK

ORTSAC – 62’ – mock invasion

June 1961, Vienna summit - President Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev “son older than you” – Khrushchev to Kennedy

increased tensions between the two superpowers- discussions regarding the divided city of

Berlin. Khrushchev threatened blocking access to

west Berlin Kennedy, “we seek peace, but we shall

not surrender”

By 1961, East lost nearly 2.5 million to the “economic miracle”/West Berlin. Losing workers

August 13, 1961, the people of Berlin were awakened by the rumbling of heavy machinery barreling down their street toward the line that divided the eastern and western parts of the city – wood barbed wire fence

Morning, a ring of Soviet troops surrounded the city. In one night, the freedom to pass between the two sections of Berlin had been abruptly halted.

Less than nine months later, Khrushchev’s little fence turned into a concrete wall with watch towers, machine gun posts and even minefields.

Kennedy sent 1500 troops to West Berlin

27 October 1961 Soviet and American troops pulled up on their respective sides of the Berlin Wall

Khrushchev said, “It’s [the wall] not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than war.”

Checkpoint Charlie, located on the border between East and West Berlin

main access point for Allied personnel and Westerners to cross the border

After Berlin - "I know for certain that Kennedy doesn't have a strong background, nor, generally speaking, does he have the courage to stand up to a serious challenge." He also told his son that on Cuba, Kennedy "would make a fuss, make more of a fuss, and then agree"

Eisenhower to Kennedy "the failure of the Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets to do something that they would otherwise not do.“

one Soviet adviser wrote about Kennedy, "too young, intellectual, not prepared well for decision making in crisis situations ... too intelligent and too weak."[

Reports of trucks carrying cylinders at night

U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet-made medium-range nuclear missiles on Cuba

Oct 14 – clear pictures of construction

Cuba = ninety miles from the coast of Florida

Why would the Soviets do this? Deterrent against US invasion

of Cuba; counter threat to US missiles in Turkey; balance of power; Berlin

Oct 15 – images processed/presented President consults with EXCOMM

NSC & top advisors October 22 =U.S. warships began

stopping Soviet vessels bound for Cuban shores

"quarantine" rather than a blockade a blockade[of "navigation in international

waters and air space" constituted "an act of aggression propelling human kind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war

Negotiations , but still tense Finally, on October 27 a deal was struck

Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba

the United States promised not to invade Cuba

Secretly, agree to withdraw missiles from Turkey

Nov 20 – quarantine officially over!

Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.

Consequently, if there is no intention to tighten that knot and thereby to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.

Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy,

October 26,

Those 13 days were the closest to nuclear war MAD discussed

Both Khrushchev and Kennedy began searching for ways to ease the enormous tension between the two superpowers

In 1963 they established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin

Later that year, the superpowers signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty that served to ban nuclear testing in the atmosphere

-Kennedy felt that Eisenhower had relied too heavily on nuclear weapons, which could only be used in extreme situations.

-To allow for a “flexible response” if nations needed help against Communist movements, the president pushed for a buildup of conventional troops and weapons