History test 7
2. Explain the factors leading up to the "Bay of Pigs" invasion and identify its political consequences in Cuba. 877
Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro's attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his inflammatory anti-American rhetoric, and Cuba's movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led U.S. officials to conclude that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere.waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow Castro's government. The plan immediately fell apart-the landing force met with unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro's military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles' supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured. he requested additional Soviet military aid.
3. What did Khrushchev threaten to do when he met with Kennedy in Vienna in June, 1961 and what did he actually do two months later in Berlin? 876
In June, 1961 Khrushchev met with Kennedy in Vienna and threatened to make a treaty with East Germany to cut off Western access to Berlin. The president refused to be bullied and the Soviets backed off of their initial threats but two months later began to build a concrete and barbed wire barrier that became known as the Berlin Wall that would separate East and West Berlin and plug the heavy population drain from East Germany to West Germany through the Berlin funnel. Prior to the wall being erected anyone who wished to leave East Germany only had to step across into West Berlin and fly into the democratic country of West Germany.
3. Explain the who, what, when, where, why and how of the Cuban Missile Crisis and identify the political consequences for Khrushchev. 877, 879
In October 1962 aerial photographs taken by American spy planes revealed that the Soviets were secretly installing nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev saw an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro's Cuba and make good its promise to defend Cuba from the United States after the Bay of Pigs invasion. He believed that President Kennedy was weak and would not react to the Soviet move.Kennedy, fearing that an attack might trigger nuclear retaliation from the Soviets, opted on October 22, 1962 for a naval "quarantine" of Cuba and that same day, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev declaring that the United States would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed, and return all offensive weapons to the U.S.S.R. . Behind the scenes Kennedy's brother Bobby also met with the Russian ambassador and discretely promised that the American government would remove all its missiles from Turkey (this discrete promise was not put in writing for fear that it would make America look like it had capitulated to the Russians.The political consequences for Khrushchev were considerable. A disgraced Khrushchev was ultimately hounded out of the Soviet "Kremlin" and became an "unperson". Hard-line militarists in Moscow, vowed to never be humiliated again in a nuclear face-off and launched an enormous program of military expansion.
1. Why did Kennedy pledge to "get the country moving again" in his inaugural speech and what type of people did he surround himself with to achieve this? 874
Kennedy pledged to "get the country moving again" after years of complacency, conformity and a "balanced, middle of the road course" some Eisenhower critics of his presidency called a case of the "bland leading the bland". Kennedy, on the other hand, was the youngest president ever to be elected and he surrounded himself with one of the youngest cabinets which included his 35-year-old brother, Bobby, who was appointed Attorney General and most of whom had attended Harvard or Yale and knew each other from either college or social settings. These appointees made up the inner circle surrounding Kennedy and where known for aura of brash confidence, and self-conscious sophistication.
5. Identify every country and/or sea that borders North & South Vietnam, indicate each country/sea location by compass direction and in general identify the region of the world where these countries/seas are located. 878 and inset
North and South Vietnam are bordered by the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean to the East; The Gulf of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to the West and China to the North. This region of the world is known as Southeast Asia.
6. Explain the events that took place in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 and identify some of the take aways for the "rising baby boom generation" 881 ("Take aways" is a term of art. Please look it up if you don't know what it means)
On November 22, 1963, while riding in an open limousine in downtown Dallas, Texas, President Kennedy was shot in the brain by a concealed rifleman and died within seconds. Within hours Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president For the "baby boom" generation the take-aways could not be more clear. To them he was an inspirational figure, cut down in the prime of life, whose apparent vigor, charisma, and idealism had been lost to a generation and even when his image was tarnished in later years with allegations of womanizing and involvement with crime figures the ideals he enunciated continue to live on in the American psyche of the baby boom generation.
1. Explain the purpose of the Alliance for Progress and discuss its effectiveness. 877 and LINK Below
President Kennedy was determined to improve relations with Latin America through peaceful economic cooperation and development—which would also inhibit the rise of communist-leaning insurgents such as Cuba's Fidel Castro. Kennedy proposed, through the Alliance for Progress, launched in 1961, to loan more than $20 billion to Latin American nations that would promote democracy and undertake meaningful social reforms, especially in making land ownership possible for greater numbers of their people. Hailed as a Marshall Plan for Latin America, it was the largest US aid program created for the developing world at that time. In response to Kennedy's plea, Congress voted for an initial grant of $500 million in May 1961.but its success was marginal and there were many reasons that the program was ultimately a failure. American congressmen were reluctant to provide funds for land redistribution programs in Latin America because they felt it smacked of socialism.
4. What factors led to a "new era of... robustly invigorated international commerce... described as globalization? 876
The Marshall Plan, the American initiative passed in 1948 to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion (nearly $100 billion in 2018 US dollars) in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II had been remarkably successful and an American-encouraged European Economic Community (EEC), which was a free-trade area that later evolved in what is today known as the European Union had stabilized and helped Western European countries to prosper by the time Kennedy took office in 1961. In 1962 Kennedy secured passage of the Trade Expansion Act which authorized tariff cuts that promoted trade with EEC countries. This, in addition to other liberalized international trade policies, began an era of international commerce that was so vigorous that a new word was coined to describe it: globalization. (Source: Wikipedia)
5. Explain why Kennedy disliked the doctrine of "massive retaliation" and explain his alternative strategy of the doctrine of "flexible response" and the pitfalls of the strategy. 876-877
The president felt that the massive retaliation policy left him with only two choices in these types of conflicts, humiliation (by not responding) or nuclear incineration (by responding and having the Soviets retaliate with their own nuclear weapons). Kennedy's Defense Secretary McNamara proposed an alternative strategy which became known as "flexible response". In this approach an array of military "options" that could be precisely matched to the gravity of the crisis at hand would be applied. This approach increased military spending on conventional military forces and bolstered the special forces such as the Green Berets who specialized in anti-guerilla fighting.
6. What factors led do the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon and how committed was the United States militarily in Vietnam by the time of Kennedy's death in 1963? 877
The regime was corrupt and with ever more intensity, Diem agitators threatened to topple the pro-American government. In 1961, Kennedy ordered a sharp increase in the number of "military advisors" (U.S. troops) into South Vietnam. These forces were allegedly sent to foster political stability and to help protect Diem from the communists (in the North) long enough to allow him to enact promised social reforms.ok over the government. Kennedy had made dangerously deep political commitments and by the time of Kennedy's death, he had ordered more than 15,000 American soldiers into the "Asian slaughter pen". (Source: U.S. Library of Congress)
4. Identify some of the actions taken by Kennedy after the Cuban Missile Crisis to deescalate future "nuclear face-off(s)". 879
pushed for a nuclear test ban treaty and on October 7, 1963 Kennedy signed a ratified treaty. The treaty prohibited nuclear weapons tests or other nuclear explosions under water, in the atmosphere, or in outer space and allowed underground nuclear testing as long as no radioactive debris fell outside the boundaries of the nation conducting the test. Another barometer indicating a thaw in the Cold War was the installation of a "hot line," between Moscow and Washington in August, 1963 that permitted immediate teletype communication in case of a crisis. (Source: JFK Library).
2. What was Kennedy's "New Frontier"; what programs did it include and how successful was it? 874-875
the Democratic slogan to inspire America to support him. Kennedy's New Frontier included the establishment of the Peace Corps, a challenge to place the first man on the moon before the end of the 60's, legislation that raised the minimum wage, increasing Social Security benefits, raising money for research into mental illness and allocation of funds to develop impoverished rural areas. It was not as successful as hoped.
