John F. Kennedy
From WolfWikis
The Kennedy Administration and Latin America
- In 1961, President Kennedy took office. Fidel Castro had come to power in 1959, and brought to the forefront the economic and social problems that Latin America faced. Kennedy warned that for Latin America it was, “one minute to midnight”, and made clear his intentions to halt communism (Leonard, Search for Security: The United States and Central America in the Twentieth Century ).
- Kennedy created the Foreign Assistance Act which provided training for the military and created civic action programs, such as the construction of roads, schools and hospitals.
- Kennedy also enacted such programs as the Peace Corps and the Food for Peace programs. All of these programs were meant to remedy the social and economic crisis and to broaden political participation in order to end the need for communism.
- Although these new policies were helpful, it would take much more to remedy the social and economic ills of Cuba.
Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
- During Kennedy’s administration the Soviet Union and the United States engaged in a standoff with nuclear weapons; the Cold War. This standoff scared millions of Americans and they lived in constant fear. In 1962 it became known that the Soviet Union had put strategically placed missiles in Cuba. Many historians believe that during this time, which came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, was perhaps the closet the US came to an actual nuclear war (Medland, The Cuban Missile Crisis: Evolving Historical Perspectives).
- In the past it was believed that Cuba actually had very little to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba is seen by many as just an outpost to the Soviet Union and actually had very little control over the situation (Brenner, Cuba and the Missile Crisis). Throughout the years, however, new information has been revealed that proves that Cuba had much more to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis than previously thought (Cuba and the Missile Crisis). Fidel Castro is quoted as saying,
"If the United States had not been bent on liquidating the Cuban revolution there would not have been an October crisis. This was first demonstrated with economic aggression and then with the organization of subversive forces against Cuba, the Bay of Pigs invasion. Were we right or wrong to fear direct invasion? Didn't the United States invade the Domincan Republic? Didn't the United States bomb North Vietnam? Didn't they carry out an exausting war for years in South Vietnam? How could we be sure that we would not be invaded? And this thought determined the setting up of strategic missles in Cuba."
- This quote illustrates how the United States was viewed in Cuba and in many other Latin American countries. Brenner illustrates an overwhelming sense of distrust in Cuba at this time and the previous eighteen months after the Bay of Pigs towards the United States.
- There were several events that intensified this mistrust, the most significant one being Cuba’s suspension of membership to the Organization of American States, or OAS in 1962(Cuba and the Missile Crisis). The Cubans believed that this was a prepatory act in order to get ready for an invasion. A few weeks after this event a revolutionary told a journalist that during a talk that he had with President Kennedy indicated that an attack was imminent and that the Administration wanted to invade Cuba with an exile army ( Brenner, Cuba and the Missile Crisis). During this time the U.S. was threatening to cut off aid to countries who traded with Cuba, and these actions were seen by Cuba as a way to destroy their government.