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Exploring American
History
Unit IX- Post War America
Chapter 29 – Section 1
Kennedy and Foreign Policy
Kennedy and Foreign Policy
The Big Idea
The United States confronted Communist nations in Cold War
conflicts around the world.
Main Ideas
• President Kennedy confronted Communist threats around
the world.
• The United States and the Soviet Union raced to send a
person to the moon.
• The Cold War conflict in Vietnam led the United States into
war.
President John F. Kennedy
 35th President - 1961-1963
Democrat
 Who was John F. Kennedy?-
War
Hero, Irish Catholic, Famous Political Father,
Writer, Congressman and Senator . Youngest
President
 Election of 1960
 Republican- Nixon
 Democrat- Kennedy
 Issues- Republican have a
stagnate economy, no help to old,
poor and minorities, Recession
was imminent. Schools poor,
Defense poor
“New Frontier”
 “The Great Debates” a series of four
one-hour debates on Television
 Large audience- the whole nation
 Kennedy looks good
 Outcome- Kennedy win cliffhanger
Kennedy Takes Office
Inaugural Address
• Focused on change
• Strong anti-Communist tone
• Did not specify his domestic policy goals because so
much division existed over domestic issues
Kennedy’s Advisors
• Gathered a group some called “the best and the
brightest” as his advisors
• Most of Kennedy’s advisors were young.
• Closest advisor was his brother, Robert (“Bobby”)
Kennedy
• Cabinet members had less influence than White House
advisors.
January 20, 1961 (02:42) – “Ask not what your country can do for you”
Main Idea 1:
President Kennedy confronted
Communist threats around the world.
 President Kennedy was committed to stopping the spread of
communism worldwide.
 Maintained strong military forces
 Expanded nation’s supply of nuclear weapons
 Through Alliance for Progress program, pledged $20 billion in aid to
Latin American countries
 Developed the Peace Corps, which in 1961 started sending volunteers
to developing countries to help with projects such as digging wells and
building schools
The Peace Corps (02:18)
How did Kennedy’s foreign policy
reflect his views of the world?
Kennedy’s
Foreign
Policy
Peace
Corps
 Believed in peace that did not have to be enforced with
weapons of war
 Believed in peace for Americans and for all men and
women around the world
 Trained and sent volunteers to Africa, Asia, and Latin
America to serve for two years
 Most volunteers were young college graduates
 Increased goodwill toward the United States
Alliance
for
Progress
 Offered billions of dollars in aid to Latin America to build
schools, hospitals, roads, power plants, and low-cost
housing
 Intended to counter communism’s influence
Military Confrontations
Bay of Pigs
• Cuban rebel Fidel Castro
overthrew the Cuban
government and established a
Communist state.
• Proximity of Cuba worried
Americans.
• Kennedy approved CIA
operation to remove Castro
from power.
• April 17, 1961– About 1,500
Cuban exiles landed by boat at
Cuba’s Bay of Pigs but the
invasion failed.
• Kennedy faced criticism for the
disastrous invasion.
The Berlin Wall
• Many East Germans fled to
democratic West Germany.
• Soviet premier Nikita
Khrushchev demanded that
the border be closed and
threatened war.
• August 13, 1961– East
German government began
building the Berlin Wall, a
barrier of concrete and barbed
wire between East and West
Berlin.
• Wall became symbol of the
Cold War.
Castro and the Bay of Pigs - :50 sec.
August 20, 1961 (02:33) – Berlin Wall
The Cuban Missile Crisis
 In October 1962, American spy planes discovered Soviets installing nuclear
missiles in Cuba.
 If launched, missiles could reach American cities in minutes.
 Kennedy demanded removal of the missiles.
 U.S. Navy formed a blockade around Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from
bringing more weapons.
 Soviet ships turned back, ending the Cuban missile crisis.
 Effects
 Soviets later agreed to remove missiles from Cuba.
 Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba and to remove some missiles in Turkey
and Italy.
 United States and Soviet Union set up a telephone “hotline” so leaders could talk
directly to each other at a moment’s notice.
 United States and Soviet Union signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,
which banned the testing of new nuclear weapons aboveground.
October 28, 1962 (02:54)
Main Idea 2:
The United States and the Soviet Union raced to
send a person to the moon.
 The space race, competition between the United States and Soviet Union
to explore space, heated up in the 1960s.
 April 1961– Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became first person in space.
 May 1961– Alan Shepard Jr. became first U.S. astronaut in space.
 1962– John Glenn became first American to orbit Earth.
 1961– Kennedy outlined bold plan to Congress to land first man on the
moon.
 Congress provided NASA with billions of dollars of funding.
 Began work on Project Apollo
 July 20, 1969– American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz”
Aldrin became first people to walk on moon.
Moon Landing (02:17)
Movie Clips: Humans in Space – 2:00
Main Idea 3:
The Cold War conflict in Vietnam led
the United States into war.
 Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh fought the French for
control of Vietnam.
 Presidents Truman and Eisenhower supported France with military aid
 Concerned that Vietminh victory would lead to spread of communism in Asia
 Feared domino theory– that if one country became Communist, nearby
countries would follow
 In July 1954, French and Vietnamese leaders agreed to Geneva Accords.
 Temporary division of Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
 Called for democratic elections in July 1956 to unite the two countries under one
government
Southeast Asia’s Colonial History
 France gained control of Vietnam by 1883 despite fierce resistance
from the Vietnamese.
 The French combined Vietnam with Laos and Cambodia to form
French Indochina.
 Ho Chi Minh led a growing nationalist movement in Vietnam.
 During World War II, the Japanese army occupied French
Indochina.
 A group called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or the
Vietminh, fought the Japanese.
 After World War II, the Vietminh declared independence, but the
French quickly moved in to reclaim Vietnam.
Colonial Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
 Real name is Nguyen That
Thanh; Ho Chi Minh means
“He Who Enlightens.”
 Participated in tax revolts
against the French.
 Joined the French Communist
Party.
 Believed that a Communist
revolution was a way Vietnam
could be free of foreign rulers.
World War II
 Japan occupied French
Indochina.
 Ho Chi Minh organized the
Vietminh to fight the Japanese.
 Japan surrendered to the Allies
in 1945, and the Vietminh
declared Vietnam to be
independent.
 Ho Chi Minh hoped for U.S.
support of their independence.
 The French reclaimed Vietnam
after World War II.
Vietnam after World War II
The Domino Theory
 Domino theory—the belief that
communism would spread to
neighboring countries if Vietnam
fell to communism
 To avoid this, the United States
supported the French during the
Vietnam War.
 By 1954 the United States was
paying more than 75 percent of
the cost of the war.
 The French continued to lose
battle after battle.
 Vietminh used guerrilla tactics
effectively.
France Defeated
 French soldiers made a last stand
at Dien Bien Phu.
 French forces hoped for a U.S.
rescue, but Eisenhower did not
want to send U.S. soldiers to Asia
so soon after Korea.
 The French surrendered on May
7, 1954.
 After eight years of fighting, the
two sides had lost nearly 300,000
soldiers.
 The Vietminh had learned how to
fight a guerilla war against an
enemy with superior weapons and
technology.
The Geneva Conference
The goal of the Geneva Conference was to work out a
peace agreement and arrange for Indochina’s future.
According to the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was
temporarily divided at the 17th parallel.
Vietminh forces controlled the North and the French
would withdraw from the country.
General elections were to be held in July 1956 and would
reunify the country under one government.
The United States never fully supported the peace
agreements fearing that Ho Chi Minh and the
Communists would win the nationwide election.
What policies did Presidents Truman and Eisenhower pursue in
Vietnam after WW II?
Truman
 Saw Vietnam in terms of the Cold War struggle against
communism
 Supported France; unwilling to back the Vietminh
because many were Communists
 Communists seized China in 1949.
Events
Eisenhower
 Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950.
 Communist-led revolts in Indonesia, Malaya, and the
Philippines
 Believed in the domino theory
 Sent arms, ammunition, supplies, and money to the
French forces in Vietnam.
North and South Vietnam
North Vietnam
• Communist state led by Ho Chi
Minh
• Introduced land redistribution
plan and thousands killed and
imprisoned during process
• Funded and supplied
Communist guerilla forces,
called the Vietcong, for South
Vietnam’s NLF
South Vietnam
• Western-style government led
by Ngo Dinh Diem, supported
by United States
• Poor leadership resulted in
many problems.
• Growing numbers of South
Vietnamese began to support
Ho Chi Minh and Vietminh.
• Diem refused to allow South
Vietnam to participate in
elections.
• Diem‘s opponents form
National Liberation Front (NLF)
and began fighting against
Diem’s government in late
1950s.
Growing Conflict in Vietnam
Vietnam’s Leaders
 Ngo Dinh Diem became the
president of South Vietnam in
1954.
 Diem’s government was corrupt,
brutal, and unpopular from the
start.
 He favored Catholics and the
wealthy.
 Diem cancelled the 1956 election
that would unify Vietnam under
one government.
 Ho Chi Minh’s leadership in North
Vietnam was totalitarian and
repressive.
 He gave land to peasants, which
made him popular.
A Civil War
 Diem’s opponents in South
Vietnam began to revolt.
 North Vietnam supplied weapons
to Vietminh rebels in South
Vietnam.
 The Vietminh in South Vietnam
formed the National Liberation
Front and called their military
forces the Vietcong.
 The Vietcong assassinated many
South Vietnamese leaders and
soon controlled much of the
countryside.
 In 1960 Ho Chi Minh sent the
North Vietnamese Army into the
country to fight with the Vietcong.
American Involvement in Vietnam
 Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy sent military advisers and special
forces to South Vietnam.
 U.S. military accompanied South Vietnamese army on combat missions.
 By 1963 about 16,000 U.S. military personnel were serving in Vietnam.
 Diem became more and more unpopular
 Would not hold elections
 Ordered troops to fire on Buddhist demonstrators
 Opponents began to consider violence as only option.
 In November 1963 a group of South Vietnamese army offices seized power
and killed Diem.
U.S Involvement in French Indochina
War- Truman
 President Harry Truman
began covertly
authorizing support for
the French in their
attempt to retake
Indochina, giving
money and supplies in
an effort to suppress
the rebellion, and in
July 1950 he
announced publicly that
the U.S. was doing so.
U.S Involvement in
French Indochina
War- Eisenhower
Former General Dwight
D. Eisenhower became
President of the United
States and first
advanced the so-called
domino theory, warning
that if America did not
support France in
stopping the
Communists in
Indochina, all of the
Eastern, India and
Southeastern Asia would
fall to the "Communist
Bloc".
 1950- U.S. begins to help the French with money and arms.
 1953- Eisehower asks for $60 million in aid to French.
 1954- The U.S. is paying for 80% of the war between the
French and the Vietnamese communists.
Kennedy and Indochina






Laos and the coalition government (Pathet Lao)
Problems in Vietnam
1956 National Elections- Geneva Accords
Civil War
President Diem
Government Opposition- many groups, Buddhists,
Communists all joined the NLF- National Liberation
Front (“Vietcong” nicknamed by Diem)
 Overthrow of Diem- “Coup”, and military junta.
 Kennedy sending supplies, money and advisors
(16,000 by 1963.)
Increasing U.S. Involvement
Diem’s Overthrow
 Diem’s government continued to
grow more and more unpopular.
 He arrested and killed Buddhist
protesters.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
 To increase the American military
effort in Vietnam, Johnson needed
to obtain authority from Congress.
 U.S. leaders said they would
withdraw support if Diem did not
change his ways.
 Johnson asked Congress for this
authority claiming that the USS
Maddox had been attacked by
North Vietnamese torpedo boats
in the Gulf of Tonkin.
 Diem refused to change his stand
against Buddhists, and the United
States began to support a plot to
overthrow Diem.
 Johnson claimed this attack was
unprovoked, but really the
Maddox had been on a spying
mission and had fired first.
 In November 1963 the South
Vietnamese plotters murdered
Diem.
 The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was
passed on August 7.
America and the Vietnam War – 5:26