Cuba+Historical+briefing

Courtesy of the Education Department, Kennedy Library and Museum
During World War II, despite mutual suspicion and distrust, the United States and Great Britain joined the Soviet Union in an effort to defeat their common enemy, Nazi Germany. The alliance began to crumble immediately after the surrender of the Hitler government in May 1945. Tensions were apparent during the Potsdam Conference in July, where the victorious Allies created the joint occupation of Germany. Determined to have a buffer zone between the borders and Western Europe, the Soviet Union set up pr-communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania and eventually in Eastern Germany. Recognizing that it would not be possible to force the Soviets out of Eastern Europe, the United States developed the policy of containment to prevent the spread of Soviet and communist influence and power in Western European nations such as France, Italy and Greece.

These events and decisions marked the beginning of the Cold War, a struggle between communism and the free market systems of Europe and the United States, fought with propaganda, rising military budgets, wars by proxy, covert activities and the political use of military and economic aid. During the decade of the 1940s, the United States reversed its traditional reluctance to become involved in European affairs. The Truman Doctrine (1947) pledged aid to governments threatened by communist subversion. The Marshall Plan (1947) provided billions of dollars in economic assistance to eliminate the political instability that could result in communist takeovers of democratically elected governments. When the Soviets cut off all road and rail traffic to Berlin (1948), the United States and Great Britain responded with a massive airlift that supplied the besieged city for 231 days until the blockade was lifted. In 1949, the United States joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the first mutual security/military alliance in American history.

During the next decade, with the European situation essentially frozen in place, the conflict between East and West took place mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The struggle to overthrow colonial regimes frequently became entangled in Cold War tensions as the superpowers competed to influence and control anti-colonial movements. In 1949, the communists triumphed in the Chinese civil war, setting of a bitter political debate in the United States concerning “who lost China.” In 1950, after North Korea invaded South Korea, the United Nations and the United States sent military forces. When Communist China also intervened, several years of boldly campaigns were fought until a truce was signed in 1953 ending the Korean War.

After the defeat of the colonial French regime in Vietnam (1954), the United States supported a military government in South Vietnam and worked to prevent free elections which might result in the unification of the country under the control of communist North Vietnam. President Eisenhower also approved sending several thousand U.S. military advisors to help train the South Vietnamese army. Closer to home, the Cuban resistance movement, led by Fidel Castro deposed the pro-American military dictatorship in 1959. Castro’s Cuba quickly became militarily and economically dependent on the Soviet Union. In early 1961, the Eisenhower administration broke diplomatic relations with Cuba, tacitly acknowledging the presence of a Soviet foothold just ninety miles off the coast of Florida.

The 1960 presidential campaign was dominated by Cold War rhetoric. John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and both promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. Kennedy warned (inaccurately) of a missile gap with the Soviets and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces. He also criticized the Eisenhower administration for permitting the establishment of a pro-Soviet government in Cuba.

John Kennedy was the first American president born in the 29th century and his entire political career had taken place in the context of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. His inaugural address stressed the contest between the free world and the communist world and he pledged that the American people would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet and hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

During the period between his election and inauguration, JFK was briefed on a plan drafted during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that support from the Cuban people and perhaps even from elements of the Cuban military would lead to the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. Kennedy approved the operation and some 1,400 exiles landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs on April 17. The entire force was either killed or captured. Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure of the operation.

In June 1961, Kennedy met with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. Khrushchev threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany, effectively cutting off Allied access to Berlin. Kennedy was surprised by Khrushchev’s combative tone. At one point, when the Soviet leader identified the Lenin Peace Medals he was wearing, Kennedy retorted, “I hope you keep them.” In August, in order to stop the flood of East Germans fleeing to West Germany, Khrushchev ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall, a massive structure of concrete blocks dividing the two parts of Berlin.

As a result of these threatening developments, Kennedy ordered substantial increases in American intercontinental ballistic forces. He also added five new army divisions and increased the nation’s air power and military reserves. The Soviets meanwhile resumed nuclear testing and President Kennedy responded by reluctantly reactivating American tests in early 1962. In May 1961, JFK authorized sending 500 Special Forces troops and military advisers, supplementing the 2,000 Americans already sent by the Eisenhower administration to assist the pro-Western government of South Vietnam. In February, 1962, the president approved sending an additional 12,000 military advisers to support the South Vietnamese army. These forces arrived in the small southeast Asian nation by June.

In the summer of 1962, Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with representatives of the Castro regime in Cuba to supply nuclear missiles capable of protecting the island against another American sponsored invasion. In mid-October, American spy planes photographed the missile sites while still under construction, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to place a naval blockade around Cuba, while demanding the removal of the missiles and the destruction of the sites. Khrushchev, recognizing that the crisis could easily escalate into nuclear war, finally agreed to remove the missiles in return for an American pledge not to reinvade Cuba. The Soviet leader also decided to commit whatever resources were required for upgrading the Soviet nuclear strike force. His decision led to a major escalation of the nuclear arms race.

In June 1963, JFK spoke at the American University commencement in Washington, D.C. He urged Americans to critically reexamine Cold War stereotypes and myths and called for a strategy of peace which would make the world safe for diversity. In the final months of the Kennedy presidency Cold War tensions seemed to soften as the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was negotiated and signed. In addition, the “Hotline,” a direct line of communication between Washington and Moscow, was established to help reduce the possibility of war by miscalculation.

Early in November, when the number of U.S. military advisors had reached 16,000, a military coup led to the overthrow of the American-supported government of South Vietnam. Seven weeks before the coup JFK had told an interviewer, “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lost it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it – the people of Vietnam against the Communists…But I don’t agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake…[The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate – we may not like I t—in the defense of Asia.” In the final weeks of his life, JFK wrestled with the need to decide the future of the United States commitment in Vietnam.