Jelly Donuts and other JFK Foreign Policy Measures.

Jelly Donuts and other JFK Foreign Policy Measures

Bay of Pigs: Cuba Issues Begin… 1961

• CIA had been training a group of Cuban exiles in Mexico called the 2506 Brigade

• Plan to launch a guerrilla attack and overthrow Castro and his Communist regime

• Fail

What happened?

• U.S. B-26 Bombers launched an attack on April 15, 1961 to take out Cuba’s small air force. They were painted to look like Cuban planes so the story would be that Castro’s own pilots were going against him.

• Night of April 16, the 2506 Brigade launched a decoy invasion to pull Castro’s troops away from the Bay of Pigs

• April 17, Brigade landed on Cuba (1400). Cuban military had warning and was waiting.

• Ended by April 19 with Castro’s government gaining more strength and the U.S. embarrassed and reinforced the image that they cannot be trusted

Bay of Pigs is in a low populated area with few military installations and was thought to give the 2506 a beach foothold

Fail? But why??

• 1961 CIA’s “Survey of Cuban Operation”

• 1. CIA went from guerrilla to overt operations (didn’t avoid “plausible deniability” so the finger was pointed at the U.S.)

• 2. Didn’t examine the risks or communicate them to gov’t officials

• 3. Leadership of exiles was weak

• 4. Lack of rebel organization in Cuba

• 5. Lack of intelligence on or analysis of Cuban forces

• 6. Poor internal management

• 7. Lack of overall quality staff

• 8. Not enough Spanish-speaking U.S. staff, lack of resources and facilities

• 9. No contingency plan

• = Director Dulles of CIA resigns

• = Cuba continues to have invasion drills

Ich bin ein Berliner

• Berlin Wall:• Erected August 12-13 in the middle of the night by

East German military

• Put up barbed wire fencing and cut down phone lines

• Side you woke up on is where you were going to stay

• Why? • By the 1960s East German had lost a lot of their

population to the west (better jobs, family, etc.)• Soviets and East Germans had failed to take over

West Berlin

Trapped!

- East Berliners could NOT cross: not for work, not to see family.

- Checkpoints to access West Berlin

Mainly for westerners

Checkpoint Charlie was the main one

Another brick in the wall

- 100 miles long, splitting the city and surrounding West Berlin to separate from the rest of Eastern Germany

- East German soldiers had permission to shoot anyone who attempted to cross

- 100-200 East Germans were killed

- Initially, the fence was fencing and barbed wire- Replaced with concrete block- 1965 – concrete with steel girders- 1975 – concrete slabs : 12 ft high X 4 ft wide- 1989 – it “fell”

- Found an inner wall and a 300 sq ft “no man’s land” with bunkers and minefields

mmmm... Donuts….

• Kennedy delivered a speech June 26, 1963 on a visit to West Berlin

• It symbolized the 1st time the U.S. acknowledged East Berlin as part of the Soviet Bloc

• He said “I am a Berliner” but the translation was flawed and could be interpreted as “I am a jelly donut”

• He meant that one should be proud to be from Berlin as it represented a refuge of democracy in the midst of the oppressive Soviet Bloc

“When Disaster Strikes”

13 DAYS of FEAR!

Cuban Missile Crisis: Timeline

• 9/4/1962: Kennedy gives a speech warning Khruschev about placing missiles in Cuba

• September 1962: US Spy planes fly over Cuba and see Soviet nuclear missiles

• October 16, 1962 : U-2 photos show missile sights and courses of action are offered

• October 22/1962: Kennedy public declares to Quarantine Cuba

• October 27, 1962: Deal struck with Soviets where NATO removes nuclear missiles from Turkey and USSR removes nuclear missiles from Cuba

• November 20, 1962: Kennedy declares quarantine over

• August 1963: Soviets and Americans reach an agreement to limit their production of nuclear weapons and ban above ground testing

http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/454577-new-cuban-missile-photos-2.html#document/p6