President Kennedy Foreign policy - Assignment Example

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy 1960-1965 President Kennedy Foreign policy The US and Cuba have had an interest in one another even beforethe independence movement. However, after the Cuban revolution of 1959, the relations deteriorated and led to tension and confrontation. In fact, the challenge was on US to have diplomatic relations with Cuba, while Cuba has maintained the diplomatic embargo with the US. The challenge has not been addressed since the development of the rivalry. President John Kennedy was a democrat and the focus was on vulnerability to attacks by the communists. The approach by Kennedy led to him being labelled as the Adlai Stevenson a term used to refer to the Democratic Party 1952 and 1956 candidate. Before his election success, President Kennedy was unaware of the planned invasion of Cuba. In fact, he criticized the role of Eisenhower administration for failing to offer support to the anti-Castro Cubans in their fight for freedom. However, the reverse was true; the Eisenhower government has planning and invasion into Cuba which Kennedy was briefed after the elections and opted to continue with the process. The argument posed was the effect of withdraw of America from the support of the anti-Castro revolt would demoralize Cubans and lead to serious challenge in the relationship between Cuba and the US. Explain the meaning of the following statements American university speech The American university speech was a speech issued by the American universities during the cold war period. The universities advised the then president John Kennedy not to plunge the nation into another war bearing in mind that the U.S had not yet fully recovered from the horrors of the Second World War. The Bay of Pigs invasion The Bay of Pigs invasion was a major unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the paramilitary group on April 1961. During the challenge, President Kennedy was involved in the action. However, the group was defeated within three days by forces controlled by the Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro. The president was new in office but consented to the plan of Cuban invasion. Initially, President Eisenhower was concerned with the direction taken by the Cuban prime minster and has indicated the need to stop Castro from ascending to power. The attack by the US involved 1400 paramilitaries divided into five infantry battalion. The Cuban battalion was headed by José Ramón Fernandez, but the brigade was taken over by Fidel Castrol. The invasion led to loss by America with the capture soldiers being interrogated and sends back to the US (Traynor, 2001, p. 279). In fact, the win strengthens the position of Castro’s administration and the claiming of the socialist approach in the country. The success led to the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962. The failure of the invasion was a major challenge for the country especially in relation to foreign policy. In fact, before the ascension to power of John Kennedy, the Cuban-American relations were sour which led to his approval of the invasion. Castro government ordered the country’s refineries under the US corporations to process crude oil from Russia which they decline because of the pressure from the US. In response, Castro expropriated the refineries and nationalizes them under the state control. In response, the US cancelled all its sugar import from Cuba. The action led to Castro nationalizing all the US owned assets in the island. The action included nationalizing the banks and sugar mills which were owned by the US. The straining of the relations was further increased by sinking of the French vessel Le Coubre in the Havana harbor in 1960 (Traynor, 2001, p. 280). The meeting of the Organization of American states in Costa Rica illustrated the relationship between the two countries. in fact, the Us secretary of state publicly claimed that the Cuban government was following the Bolshevik pattern by taking over trade unions as well as suppressing civil liberties. In addition, it was blamed for removing the freedom of speech and press. Further, there were claims that international communist were using the Cuba as the operational base. In response, Castro used racism in New York as the defense. He claimed that the American poor were living under the bowels of the imperial monster. The failed invasion left the US president with an egg on his face leading to poor and negative comments from president of Uruguay (Traynor, 2001, p. 267). The president stated in his response that the invasion made Castro much stronger. The senate later confirmed that intelligence had tried to assassinate Castro eight times between 1960 and 1965 as well as supporting plans against the Cuban leaders. Tension between the two countries reached fever pitch after the U.S. reconnaissance plane photographed the soviet construction of the intermediate-range missile. Explain why the differences in interpretation offered in source A and B are so significant Source A offers its take on the foreign policies of John Kennedy. It asserts that the success of the international policy of Kennedy was pegged on the evaluations done by the CIA and other intelligence sources. On the other hand, source B asserts that despite having a massive structure for the foreign policy, it was not easy to achieve success in all the ventures that the government was involved in globally. It was vital for the country to focus on areas of concern such as Cuba and Southeast Asia and the cold war era. With reference to source A and B, how successful was Kennedy’s foreign policy? The American government and the foreign policies have been changing over the years. In fact, the major challenge of the American government is how to handle the dynamic international politics which leads to shift of bases. The present challenge was witnessed in the past during the presidency of John F Kennedy. The growing invasions in Vietnam and Laos were the major focus of Kennedy administration policy towards the Southeast Asia and the globe. The documentation of the foreign relations indicates the nature and perception of the American government in relation to the challenges faced in the world. Volume XXIII compilations show how the president’s policy shaped the relationship of the country with the south East Asian countries. In addition, the compilation covers issues Southeast Asian treaty and the bilateral compilations of the US relation with Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. The policy was affected by the existence of war and invasion (Traynor, 2001, p. 276). In spite of the challenges in communication, the US facilitated the development of the various sectors including the development tradition or culture facilitating the development of international relations around the world. War in Laos and South Vietnam facilitated the need for the government of Thailand to source for additional security commitments from the US. There were private assurances with the major assurance coming from the secretary of state Dean Rusk and the foreign minister than at Khoman. The document was published and received in March 1962. The assurance led to the dispatching of troops to Laos in Thailand signaling the allegiance to the south and giving assurance to Thailand. With the war in Vietnam, it was impossible for the government to develop harmonious relations with all the partners in the treaty, which led to the development of friction between Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia and the US. However, the US relationship with Burma was not affected by the conflicts in South Vietnam and Laos. The Vietnam War and other conflicts in the Southeast Asia shaped the government foreign policy. During the war, President Kennedy’s government tried to win over Sukarno’s Indonesia through facilitating its claim to the west Irian. Initially, the secretary of state Mr. Rusk was skeptic about Sukarno and the attachment to Netherlands, which was a NATO ally. Netherlands faced challenge in managing West New Guinea and the challenge led to the US changing it stand from a neutral point to the support for the dispute in West New Guinea. The resultant effect of the change was massive because it led to change in the policy guiding the country. The president played an integral role in the struggle to help Netherlands and Indonesia (Traynor, 2001, p. 275). He brokered the deal the set the two countries at peace. The first approach was to stop the Indonesian from guerrilla war approach and accept the offer placed on the table by the Netherlands government. However, opposition of the creation of the Federation of Malaysia complicated the relationship between the US and Philippines. Even Indonesia was aggrieved by the move and the challenge led to friction between America and the Southeast Asian countries. Philippines opposition took the form of diplomatic campaign based on the initial claim to part of Malaysia. However, Sukarno opposition used the policy of confrontation similar to the initial approach employed in West Irian. The other countries around the region were not affected by the insurgence in Laos and South Vietnam. These regions include Burma which was a different. However, Burma suffered from a legacy of the Chinese civil war by a Chinese nationalist party which obtained irregulars from the US through Taiwan and the move led to the formation of a virtually autonomous and hostile state within Burma. The focus of the US was hampered by the anti-American riots which led to the assurance from President Kennedy. Kennedy assured the U Nu republic that the government would deal with the irregular responsive by withdrawing them. However, even before the assurance by the president Burma had already received similar assurances from the US leading to the stop of the irregular responsive. Despite the assurances, they were not able to develop good relationship between the two countries. The U.S. foreign policy was shaped significantly witnessed the involvement of the military in the external aggression. The involvement of the U.S. in trying to help the uprising in Cuba led to serious challenge in the policy. President Kennedy’s government was not able to achieve success in the approach due to several factor including poor tactics and evaluation. In spite of the massive involvement in the foreign policy issues, the president tenure was marked with failures both in the west and in South America. However, he was able to achieve success in Southeast Asia and Vietnam by offering to listen to the locals and develop positive relations with the governments. The involvement in the international issues led to streamlining of the whole foreign policy of the country especially when addressing the challenge of invasions. Reference Traynor, J. (2001). Mastering Modern United States History. London: Palgrave Master Series. Read More