Kennedy Administration

Kennedy and The Cuban Missile Crisis

By Connor and Cody

In Georgia Martin Luther King Jr. and 33 other African American demonstrators were arrested for sitting at a segregated lunch bench. King was sentenced to hard labor and the Eisenhower administration refused to intervene and Nixon took no public position. When Kennedy immediately telephoned King’s wife to express his sympathy, this act of civil rights would ultimately help Kennedy win the votes of the African American community.

 

When in office, Kennedy believed that the most urgent task in fighting the soviets was to redefine the nation’s nuclear strategy. He did not want to risk the threat of using nuclear arms over minor conflicts. He increased defensive spending in order to boost conventional military forces, and he created an elite branch of the army called the Special Forces. He also tripled the nuclear capabilities of the United States. In Cuba, Castro came to power and seized American and British oil refineries in Cuba. Castro broke up commercial farms and turned them into communes. The congress passed a trade embargo, which forced Castro to rely heavily on Soviet aid. In 1960, the CIA secretly trained Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba, which they hoped would trigger a national uprising and revolt against Castro. Kennedy had his doubts but would ultimately approve. When the force landed on the Bay of Pigs, nothing went as planned, and the Cuban- American trainees were met by 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet tanks and fighter jets. This disaster embarrassed Kennedy. He publicly took the blame for the problem. Castro had a powerful ally in the Soviet Union who promised to defend Cuba and promised to defend Cuba with Soviet Nuclear missiles. On October 15^th, Soviet missile bases were spotted in Cuba, whose missiles could reach American cities in one minute. On October 22^nd, Kennedy informed the Nation of the existence of the missiles and of his plans to remove them. For the next 6 days, the possibility of a nuclear holocaust frightened the world. A few days after, the Soviets ordered the removal of the missiles in order for the Americans to not invade Cuba. The Americans then secretly agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey. Kennedy did not escape the criticism of the event. People criticized Kennedy of practicing brinkmanship when private talks might have resolved the conflict without the threat of nuclear war. Others believed that he passed up an ideal chance to invade Cuba and oust Castro. After the event, Castro closed Cuba’s doors to American. In other words, all of the Cuban refugees in American couldn’t come back. 

(Kennedy Administration)