The Kennedy Presidency   Term Paper ID:27143 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Describes some of the incidents & achievements of the Kennedy Administration, focusing on foreign affairs. Concludes that the Kennedy presidency was one of unfulfilled promises.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 8 sources, 11 Citations, MLA Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Describes some of the incidents & achievements of the Kennedy Administration, focusing on foreign affairs. Concludes that the Kennedy presidency was one of unfulfilled promises. Paper Introduction: INTRODUCTION John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President of the United States for less than three years, yet he had a major impact on the country and on foreign and domestic policy for the next decade or more. Some of his actions produced effects that were beneficial, and others can be seen now as more problematic, notably enmeshing the country in the Vietnam War. Kennedy's presidency began in a spirit of glamour and change and ended in the assassination of the president. The United States became involved in the situation in Vietnam during the Eisenhower Administration, but it was during the Kennedy Administration that U.S. involvement increased and American troops were committed to the support of South Vietnam. Herbert S. Parmet describes the Kennedy years: "'Camelot' began Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.Walton, Richard J. New York: David McKay, 1976.Morgenthau, Tom. The Kennedy administration essentially followed a similar program andagain went against Kennedy's own advice from a decade before. His personal popularity always remainedoddly apolitical, divorced from any policy or program" (Miroff 22). There remain questions about thevalidity of the election of Kennedy, especially because of peculiarities inChicago, and the era was woefully short because Kennedy was assassinated in1963. John Newhouse, in his book on the nuclear threat, cites what may havebeen the most threatening moment in the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisisin which President Kennedy ordered all nuclear missiles removed from Cubaand challenged Khrushchev directly when he set up a blockade to prevent theSoviets from delivering any more weapons. This administration followed the course that would becontinued by subsequent administrations--maintain a military presencebecause to do otherwise would make America appear weak, and fight againstcommunist aggression based on the domino theory that if one country fell,more would follow. The Bay ofPigs invasion was in April 1961. Kennedy'spresidency began in a spirit of glamour and change and ended in theassassination of the president. The Eisenhower Administration broke offrelations with Cuba 17 days before Kennedy assumed office (Walton 39). Miroffalso finds that Kennedy was not fully committed to legislative issues.Miroff further believes that Kennedy was not the populist he has beendepicted as, stating that Kennedy "regarded the American people more asspectators than participants in the political drama" (Miroff 24). in missiles, bombers, and deliverablenuclear warheads. This did not mean any reduction in the rate of the productionof nuclear bombs, however. New York: Dial Press, 1983.Reeves, Richard. He followed a domestic course that precluded battling for the fulfillment of the economic and social welfare needs of the Democratic party's postdepression constituency. The Cuban militia crushed the invasion in a few days(Miroff 113). A major issue forKennedy was to convince businessmen that he was on their side (Parmet 343-344). Winkler says that theKennedy era at the beginning of the 196 s was unlike anything that had beenseen before or that would follow. President Kennedy. Eisenhower thought he could bringabout an end to the problem without direct troop involvement, but thepolicy did not work: Although it was not yet recognized in Washington, the Eisenhower administration's commitment to making South Vietnam another "showcase" of communist containment was already crumbling. The Kennedy erabegan in a spirit of exhilaration and youth that infected the wholecountry, but many of the hopes at the beginning went unfulfilled by thereality: "Kennedy was a popular president, a star of the media unlike anyPresident before or since, but his Presidency fell far short of anynational political awakening. Warslike that in Vietnam were being fought as surrogate wars. It was not an era of peace, and the Bay of Pigs and the CubanMissile Crisis in particular brought the Communist threat close to Americanshores for the first time. In truth, America had been involved in Vietnamfor many years before the issue became the catalyst for social protest andpolitical reprisals in the U.S., and for much of that time the publicignored what was taking place. CONCLUSION Parmet sums up Kennedy as a President who failed to make the changeshe had promised: He "stood up" to Kruschev but capitulated to Congress. Despite its best intentions, America had become inextricably associated with a repressive government presided over by an imperial tyrant who had little if any contact with his own people (Chafe 263). This was also the era in which Southeast Asiawould become more important with the war in Indochina, soon to be known asthe Vietnamese War. New York: Vintage books, 1988.Parmet, Herbert S. Theywanted to spark a rebellion against the Castro regime. Moreover, the growing involvement of the U.S.in Vietnam over the next few years would only increase tensions once again,bringing to a head once more the tensions between the nuclear powers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.Miroff, Bruce. to test its new strategy of "flexible response" to Soviet aggression. JOHN F. Its policies continue to have consequences, its problems have to beaddressed by its successors, and its triumphs continue to serve the peoplelong after the administration itself is out of office. The way it ended dashed those hopesand led to increased tensions and new demands during the rest of the 196 s. KENNEDY The image that came to be accepted for the Kennedy years was derivedfrom the Broadway show Camelot. . New York: Harper & Row, 1985. "At the Brink of Disaster." Newsweek (October 26, 1992), 36-39.Newhouse, John. Parmet describes the Kennedy years:"'Camelot' began with smoke from a defective rostrum and closed with aburst of gunfire in the street of an American city. Modern America: The United States from World War II to the Present. Texas was growing more and more hostile to theAdministration at the time, and among the groups identified as dangerousand working in that area were right-wingers, the far left, anti-CastroCubans, Puerto Rican nationalists, and black militants. in this crisis was that the world would be a more stable placefor a time. He hassuggested that military involvement in South Vietnam would never achievethe intended goal. It was then believed that the Soviets had no more than44 operational intercontinental ballistic missiles and 155 long-rangebombers. New York: Viking Press, 1972.Winkler, Allan M. The United States, on the other hand, had 156 such missiles, 144sub-launched Polaris missiles, and 1,3 strategic bombers: "Deployingmedium-range missiles in Cuba gave Soviet forces a significant increase inthe number of warheads that could reach the United States--though it isunlikely that Khrushchev had nuclear war in mind" (Morgenthau 36).Khrushchev wanted to achieve parity with the United States, and he saw theCuba gamble as the easiest way to alter the nuclear balance in favor of theSoviets. Kennedy. Nuclear warbetween the principals was unthinkable, and this meant that surrogate warswere fought in which second parties substituted for the superpowers.President Eisenhower was the first to formulate the "falling domino" theoryof how communism might spread from one country to another (Newhouse 1 ).This view was repeated by later U.S. Convinced that the Eisenhower administration's reliance on nuclear deterrence and massive retaliation was inappropriate in a world full of trouble spots of differing dimensions, Kennedy and his foreign policy advisors embarked on a major buildup of conventional forces and counterinsurgent techniques (Chafe 265). If this provedimpossible, they intended to hide in the mountains and conduct guerrillawarfare. The image of Camelot stood for the youngpresident and his wife and for the youthful attitude that seemed to comeinto American politics along with them. There is little doubt that the way the Kennedy Administration endedcontributed to the mythology of the time so that Kennedy's presidency wasviewed as more expansive and effective than it really was. The Kennedy administration had one other reason: . American involvement started with fullawareness on the part of the American government that, as Eisenhower said,it would be a great tragedy for the United States to become involved in anall-out land war in Asia (Chafe 259). The CIA was optimistic about the plan, while Kennedy had somedoubts but went along anyway, hoping the people would rise up against theCommunist leaders. Pragmatic Illusions. JFK: The Presidency of John F. administrations as they fought to keepeach perceived domino from falling under the control of the communists,just as the Soviets fought to bring more and more territory under communistcontrol. Cold War and Counter-Revolution. . Yet, no administration simply ends as abruptly as this. One consequence of the successof the U.S. INTRODUCTION John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President of the United States for lessthan three years, yet he had a major impact on the country and on foreignand domestic policy for the next decade or more. Herbert S. The Bay of Pigswas a failure, and it convinced Khrushchev that Kennedy would back down ifconfronted. Works CitedChafe, William H. The United States became involved in the situation in Vietnam duringthe Eisenhower Administration, but it was during the Kennedy Administrationthat U.S. This has been trueof the Kennedy Administration as of others. At the time of his death, Kennedy was making a journey to garnersupport for his policies and to raise money for the 1964 election cycle(Reeves 657). The Kennedy Administration had much to say aboutlabor, about civil rights, and about effecting change in the politicalculture. So ended just over athousand days of elegance, alluring prose, chivalrous masculinity, anddrama" (Parmet 3). Historian Allan M. Theinvasion involved 14 Cuban exiles under the direction of the CIA. His effectiveness on Capitol Hill was limited, and he even appeared submissive. Some of his actionsproduced effects that were beneficial, and others can be seen now as moreproblematic, notably enmeshing the country in the Vietnam War. The fact that the Soviets were losing the arms race was afactor, for Khrushchev knew, as did the United States, that the SovietUnion was lagging behind the U.S. involvement increased and American troops were committed to thesupport of South Vietnam. It was a forward looking period, not as much as many people mayhave thought, but more so than had been seen before. The missile crisis derived from the Bay of Pigs fiasco and was amanifestation of the arms race between the superpowers. The Camelotera offered hope to a new generation. He had vowed to "get America moving again" but failed to deliver in key ways (Parmet 353).In addition, the problems of Vietnam, Communist China, and a disintegratingcitation in Latin America would be left to future Presidents to address. In the foreign policy area, the Kennedy years involved a series ofcrises beginning with the Bay of Pigs invasion, a fiasco that wouldcontribute to an even greater danger, the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Unfinished Journey. Black Americansstarted using nonviolent protest as a political tool on a widespread basis,and this would become the vehicle of choice for a number of disaffectedgroups over the next few years and into our own present era. Vietnam was a situation that seemed to develop slowly in theconsciousness of the American public until much of the country seemed todiscover rather suddenly that the nation was enmeshed in a growing war towhich there seemed no end. War and Peace in the Nuclear Age. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.