Kennedy and the Cold War

John F Kennedy and Richard Nixons personal contrasts were greater than the political
differences they shared in the 1960 presidential election. Nixon was a self-made man from a
small California town, but Kennedy was born into a powerful and wealthy Massachusetts family.
The two candidates were relatively the same age, but Kennedys movie-star looks made him look
much younger. In addition to, Kennedy appealed to the younger generation of Americans and
represented Americas future, however, Nixon represented Americas past by tying to
Eisenhowers ideas. Kennedy emphasized a term he called the new frontier for his campaign.
Kennedy played on the fears of the Cold War to help him win the presidential campaign in a
303-219 margin. Kennedy became the youngest and the first Catholic president. However,
Mississippi and Alabama went to the independent candidate, Harry Byrd, but Kennedys brother,
Robert Kennedy, helped boost the African-American vote by asking for Martin Luther King Jr.
to be put on bail. When Kennedy entered the office, most of his advisers were young, just like
him, with some still in their 30s. No one was closer to Kennedy then his brother, Robert, whom
he made the attorney general. Kennedy soon learned that the CIA was secretly training 1500
Cuban exiles in Central America in an attempt to invade Cuba. President Eisenhower had
authorized this program, hoping it would overthrow Fidel Castro, Cubas dictator. Kennedy
considered Castros communism a threat to Latin America. Furthermore, Kennedy felt he
couldnt back out now, and when the CIA promised Kennedy the invasion would succeed, he
gave it the go-ahead. The invasion known as the Bay of Pigs, on April 15, 1961, was a disaster
with many failures in a bomb strike, a land invasion, and publicly, as Kennedys invasion was
ousted by the New York Times. Following the invasion, in June 1961, Kennedy invited
Khrushchev to meet him in Vienna, Austria. Khrushchev demanded that the U.S. and its allies
recognize communism in East Germany as an independent nation, and he also demanded that the
U.S. withdraw from West Berlin. Kennedy responded to the construction of the Berlin Wall by
sending 1500 troops to West Berlin. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited West Berlin to
assure that America would not abandon them. Nearly two years later, Kennedy delivered his Ich
bin ein Berliner speech, which translates to I am a Berliner. For several days in October 1962,
the U.S. and Soviet Union teetered on the brink of a nuclear war. Kennedy sought a peaceful
resolution to this crisis known as the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedys foreign policies helped
boost his appeal. The Peace Corps was the most successful and trained and sent volunteers to
educate African, Asian, and Latin American citizens. His Alliance for Progress offered billions
of dollars to aid the construction of schools, hospitals, power plants, low-cost housing, and roads
in Latin America. Kennedy followed the Cold War by introducing the flexible strategy. This
involved strengthening conventional American forces so they would be ready for another nuclear
crisis.