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Essay Subject: Examines U.S. foreign policy in the 1960s.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines U.S. foreign policy in the 1960s. Contends that policy was based on Cold War ideology & policy of containment, especially of Communism. & the Soviet Union. American failure in Cuba & Vietnam. Actions of Presidents Kennedy & Johnson. Cuban Missle Crisis, Bay of Pigs, escalation of war in Vietnam. Paper Introduction: The American failures in Cuba and Vietnam in the 1960s were due in large part to the fear, arrogance and ignorance of Cold War policies that developed in the aftermath of World War II. By the 1960s, the foreign policy of the United States was based on Cold War ideology and the policy of containment of communism, especially Soviet Communism. This policy held sway in Cuba and Vietnam in the 1960s, from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon. Containment as a policy became so increasingly entrenched through the succeeding administrations that it carried the strength of an addiction for the leadership of the country. The basis of U.S. foreign policy was the conviction that the world was controlled by two forces---the U.S., representing goodness, and its evil enemy the Soviet Union. Once this Cold War policy was in effect, it had a life of 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. Strategies of Containment. The American failures in Cuba and Vietnam in the 196 s were due inlarge part to the fear, arrogance and ignorance of Cold War policies thatdeveloped in the aftermath of World War II. Waltonwrites: In any case, it should have been obvious to any sensible man . Therevolution of Castro in Cuba and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam were examples ofsuch indigenous uprisings, which the U.S. failed to see or chose not tosee, although the U.S. Theworld was seen by every President from Eisenhower to Nixon in the 196 s asan ideological, military, economic and political battleground betweenCommunism and Democracy, between Socialism and Capitalism, between Evil andGood. Cuba played a much less significant role in the foreign policies ofJohnson and Nixon than did Vietnam. The foreign policy failures of the U.S,in Cuba and Vietnam were both direct results of a foreign policy based onCold War ideology, which blinded U.S. commitment there(Ambrose 196-197), and that Johnson simply continued Kennedy's policies.Whether Kennedy would have or could have averted the disaster, the policyof the U'S. . Although Nixon took over in 1969 with thepromise of peace, or peace with honor, the U.S. in the 196 s realized forthe first time that it could not do as it wished through its might inVietnam, but it took twenty years (from the fall of the French) to learnthat lesson. military personnel was relatively small, and thoughKennedy increased the number of advisers, he sent no combat troops. With his assassination and the ascension of Lyndon Johnson,strict Cold War ideology was re-established, with the Vietnam War its majorconsequence: That Johnson . was the supporter ofan increasingly corrupt and dictatorial government in South Vietnam, butthe number of U.S. that the plan was doomed. leadership throughout the 196 s continued to follow Cold Warpolicy which erroneously and disastrously assumed that all political andeconomic reform movements in Third World nations were not indigenous butwere inspired instead by the evil Communist leaders of the Soviet Union.For a foreign policy to be sane, at the very least, and, at best, effectivein achieving desired goals, that policy must be based on the latestaccurate information and by an ability to objectively assess changingpolitical realities. In fact, the French in Vietnam and Batista inCuba were unconditionally supported by the "freedom-loving" Americanleaders. It will never be known whether he would have averted a war inVietnam, but his test-ban treaty with the Soviets, his denunciation of theCIA after the Bay of Pigs disaster, and his plan to withdraw some troopsfrom Vietnam indicate at least a willingness to consider more flexibilityin that policy. . . American Foreign Relations Reconsidered, 189 -1993.New York: Routledge, 1994.Perez-Stable, Marifeli. The U.S. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1982.Kolko, Gabriel. had previouslyshown no inclination to free Vietnam from the imperialist French or Cubafrom the dictator Batista. Eisenhower's foreign policy under Dulles was to wagesecret wars and overthrow governments through Machiavellian CIA-sponsoredmachinations, as in Iran and Guatemala. Of course, the U.S. U.S.-Cuban relations had grown worsein the two years since Castro's 1959 takeover from Batista, as Castro movedtoward the Soviet sphere. The basis of U.S. New York: Viking, 1972.----------------------- 1 In any case,as Kennedy took over, relations with Cuba were terrible. Kennedy certainly entered office under the pall of the same Cold Warideology and its containment policy, as evidenced by his "missile gap"rhetoric, his increase of advisors in Vietnam, and the Bay of Pigs invasionof Cuba. New York: Oxford U P,1993.Walton, Richard J. The U.S. The exiles suffered a complete defeat, withdeaths, injuries and most captured by Castro. (Walton 45). policy became rooted not in reason and thelatest information, but in the ignorance and fearful fervor of anti-communist, anti-Soviet ideology: This preoccupation with ideology also led the [Eisenhower] administration to attribute to the Russians a clarity of strategic vision not possible in the western democracies. . The predictable occurred. However, defyingAmerican Cold War ideology, Cuba's revolution was homegrown, not bred inMoscow: "Cuba was experiencing a social revolution with profound historicalroots and extraordinary popular support" (Perez-Stable 8 ). Aswith Cuba, he inherited a policy that was rooted in Cold War ideology, inwhich another indigenous people were seen as puppets of the Soviets insteadof a fiercely independent people fighting against all odds for theirfreedom from external domination of any sort. Presidents from Eisenhower through Nixon had to havedeliberately ignored such information which made clear that revolutions inThird World nations were not inspired by Soviet intrigue but wereexpressions of indigenous rage at repression from within and without. Today, forty yearsafter the Bay of Pigs, Castro remains in power, no threat to the U.S.,although the vestiges of Cold War policy toward Cuba have deeply hurt theCuban economy and the Cuban people. Eisenhower had been deeply involved in waging war against Vietnam---through the puppet government in the South---for over six years beforeKennedy took office. The Bay of Pigs wasinherited by Kennedy from Eisenhower. From 1962 on, Cuba faded as a foreign policy issue, giving way toVietnam. The Vietnamese were anindependent people who had fought the French, the Japanese, and then theFrench again, until the U.S. in the 196 s supported any leader in the world that wasanti-communist, regardless of the way he treated his people or exercisedhis power. Cold War and Counterrevolution. The stage was set for the disaster of the Bay of Pigstwo months later. leaders to the unique nature of boththe Cuban and Vietnamese wars of liberation. Conversely, for Kennedy, Cuba played acentral role, while Vietnam was largely secondary, but growing as an issuewhen he was assassinated. The decisions of Lyndon Johnson were responsible for leading the U.S,into its greatest foreign policy disaster, and those decisions were rootedin the ideology of the Cold War. Once this Cold War policy was in effect, it had a life of its own,and no leader of the U.S. That is, throughout the 196 s, bothnations were viewed by American leaders as pawns of the Soviet communists.U.S. Again, Kennedy was successful in gettingthe missiles out of Cuba with no nuclear war, but the Cold War ideology ofhis and Eisenhower's administrations had created the crisis in the firstplace. By the time Kennedy entered office, the U.S. . . The Cuban Revolution. This policy heldsway in Cuba and Vietnam in the 196 s, from Eisenhower to Kennedy toJohnson to Nixon. However, as Walton writes, the Cold War policy ofthe U.S. . . If the Cuban Missile Crisis was effective in the short-run, the Bayof Pigs was an unqualified disaster for Kennedy. seems . and in this manner its symbolic role enormously enlarged the stakes involved there. leaders saw it as their responsibility to struggle to rescue Cuba andVietnam from their evil Soviet captor. In Kennedy's first new conference, he claimed the Castro "movement"had been "seized by external forces" (Walton 41). would remain in Vietnam foranother half decade.The Vietnam War split the nation into hateful camps for almost a decade(some might argue that such a division continues today), cost the UnitedStates over fifty thousand lives and billions of dollars for no purpose,ended one Presidency (Johnson's) and dominated the national politicaldebate when other crucial issues required such debate. Two of the major foreign policy events in Kennedy's briefadministration were the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in1962. Works CitedAmbrose, Stephen E. The decision of the United States to enter the Vietnam War was anunqualified disaster. New York: Pantheon, 1985.Martel, Gordon, ed. What happened, according to Gaddis, is that the policy makers of theU.S. . New York: Penguin, 1993.Gaddis, John Lewis. . in the 196 s toward Vietnam was the perfect example of Cold Warideology in its worst manifestation: By increasingly making credibility [of Cold War policy] the overarching consideration in the escalation of the war, America's leaders positioned Vietnam in the world power balance and postwar history, . Anatomy of a War. He became more flexibletoward the communist enemy later in his term, but in the beginning he was aCold Warrior, and Cuba was his first chance to demonstrate his policy. To be fair, Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis can hardlybe termed a "failure," for the immediate objective of the removal of Sovietmissiles from Cuba was accomplished, and the nuclear war which was fearedwas averted by Kennedy's leadership. TheBay of Pigs had been planned by Cold Warriors in the CIA and the military,and they either lied to Kennedy about the chances for success in invadingCuba (using the Cuban exiles as their stand-ins) or they were ignorant ofthe truth of Cuban support for Castro. Moscow had, Dulles insisted, a carefully prepared and superbly implemented program which . Colossal self-confidence made it appear virtually certain that its power could compensate for any surprises (Kolko 114). . . By the 196 s, the foreignpolicy of the United States was based on Cold War ideology and the policyof containment of communism, especially Soviet Communism. In fact,Eisenhower had broken off diplomatic relations with Cuba 17 days beforeKennedy took office. For Kennedy, the Vietnam War was a gradual learning experience. One good thatemerged from it, to some degree, was that it called into question the black-and-white ideology of Cold War thinking. . The U.S. gradually entered the fray after France's 1954defeat. had the courage or wisdom or politicalindependence to try to fully alter that policy insofar as it would haveaffected policy toward Cuba or Vietnam. Kennedy was responsible for the disaster, however, as he would laterpublicly declare, although Walton writes there was virtually no oppositionto the invasion from anybody in the administration (Walton 43). The Bay of Pigs disaster was bad enough, but it further pushed Castrointo the Soviet sphere, increasing his fear of the U.S., which in turn ledto the placing of Soviet missiles in Cuba and the Missile Crisis in 1962.Kennedy is credited with averting nuclear war in that crisis, but his Bayof Pigs was one major cause of that crisis. may well have brought about Castro's change: "How much of this wasdeliberate choice and how much was encouraged by the increasing politicaland economic difficulties with the United States is difficult to say."Walton adds, however, that "Cuba was, and is, fully entitled to have anykind of government it wants, even communist" (Walton 39-4 ). However, overall, the policy of theU.S., beginning with the Bay of Pigs, was to rid Cuba of Castro, and thatpolicy did indeed fail (and continues to fail some forty years later). sank into a kind of groupthink in which the Soviet Union was seen asthe embodiment of evil and U.S. . shared the world view of almost every other policymaker . has brought a small Communist group into control over one-third of the world's population (Gaddis 14 ). supported Castro briefly when it became clear thatBatista would be overthrown. Rise to Globalism. Today, Vietnam is Communist, yet American corporations stumble overone another for their share of the Vietnamese market. In fact, it could be even be said that it was not adecision at all, but rather a drift based on Cold War assumptions. . All questions of morality or international law aside, how could Kennedy have expected 14 poorly trained men [Cuban exiles] without adequate air cover or naval support successfully to invade a land defended by well- motivated, well-trained and well-armed men who vastly outnumbered the invaders? Containment as a policy became so increasingly entrenchedthrough the succeeding administrations that it carried the strength of anaddiction for the leadership of the country. After a spy plane flying overCuba photographed missile installations, a confrontation ensued pittingsuper-power against super-power. clear: that appeasement did not pay; that America's primary interest lay in containing the expansionist aspirations of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (Martel 132). . . . The U.S., blinded by Cold warignorance and arrogance, believed that it could do in Cuba what it had donein Guatemala in 1954 with the overthrow of Arbenz. All the important leaders supported this logic until its deficiencies appeared after the damage had been done. . foreignpolicy was the conviction that the world was controlled by two forces---theU.S., representing goodness, and its evil enemy the Soviet Union. . Ambrose suggests that Eisenhower's commitment to Vietnam wasminimal, that Kennedy is the one most responsible for U.S. These facts reveal the false ideals underlying American Cold Warideology. . 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.