Franshesca Montejano
Instructor: Earnest Buck
English 1301/ Section 2016
11/28/13
Word Count: 1098
Kennedy’s Unfinished Presidency
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was considered to be a man of peace who wanted to resolve anything with war, and people in the world itself. There has been many controversy over the work he did behind desk of presidency such as Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and his Test Ban Treaty. During all those situations, Kennedy did as much as he wanted to, or at least what he could until he got assassinated early 1960’s. John F Kennedy may have gotten the Bay of Pigs wrong, but following thru with the Cuban Missile Crisis, but after all he went thru since the day he walked in on office, the question many ask, Was he a good enough president after all? This paper will briefly go through what Kennedy did behind the desk as President by connecting his major political dilemmas before his death.
Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs was the idea of training 1400 Cuban exiles, who considered themselves “Brigade 2506” to invade their own homeland because of their disputes with Fidel Castro communist government (Sasser).The president before Kennedy, Eisenhower, had approved of training in Cuba in March 1960. Kennedy authorized the plan in February 1961 with only one thing; if U.S support was hidden during it. He claimed to the citizens that U.S had no involvement towards what was happening in Cuba. On April 14, the CIA attempted to send 16 B-26 bombers disguised as Cuban planes, Kennedy replied with "Well I don't want it on that scale,..I want it minimal.” (Craughwell and William). So they let out on 8 B-26’s planes that had attempted to destroy the Cuban airfields, but only did little damage, not enough to sweep it all. That attempt was only three days of the invasion, allowing Castro to ruin the plan even before the invasion was to take place and that is exactly what he did. On the 17th of April, Brigade 2506 landed onto Cuba and came down within minutes because of Castro’s troops ready to shoot them down. Almost 1200 Brigade members surrendered and 100 were killed. Although the members were captured, Castro and Kennedy never negotiated a deal to let them be released until 20 months later, exchanging the prisoners for baby food and medicine in December 23, 1962 (“The Bay of Pigs”). If you think about it why would Kennedy think to make this a secret, when he failed miserably in his own plan? Well that explains why he tried to, but he still had to confess to America about his failure in which many started doubting him as a president such as Khrushchev.
Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy also had enemies, such as his biggest nemesis Fidel Castro, and one who was his enemy but turned out to understand political points to our president, Khrushchev. At first Soviet Union Khrushchev became closely allied with Castro, delivering nuclear bombs to Cuba. Kennedy found out by an American spy plane that took pictures of Soviet delivering and setting up the bombs, but Kennedy avoided Castro or Khrushchev to find out about his discovery. His plan to prevent the nuclear bombs from the Soviet Union from being delivered was called “quarantine” (“Cuban Missile Crisis”), and he addressed that to the nation of October 22 in a televised address. Khrushchev and Kennedy met a few times and came to a conclusion. They both shared differences but had a similarity in one thing and that is maintaining peace in the world (Hutton). While doing so Khrushchev stopped delivering supplies to Cuba in exchange Kennedy would not invade Cuba, which frustrated Castro more in the end.
Kennedy’s Test Ban Treaty
Kennedy believed banning the use of nuclear weapons. That if any war was to happen it would be used with civil arms, and no need of bombs (Nash 285). But would anyone believe that after the Bay of Pigs? He and Kennedy had a few meetings of debating to do so right after the Bay of Pigs but at the time Khrushchev believed Kennedy