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John F. Kennedy's Foreign Policy Analysis

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John F. Kennedy's Foreign Policy Analysis
John F. Kennedy's foreign policy contributed immensely to the conflicts with the Soviet Union in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a result of Kennedy's implementation of a foreign policy that wasn’t effective with resolving problems between the opposing nations in the middle of the Cold War (Bay of Pigs happened in 1961). The Cold War represents a time of distress for the United States, as the population faced a growing threat of communism. The president realized that his tactics were inoperative while carrying out the invasion - the invasion that had been fabricated by the former president, Eisenhower. The invasion would go on to increase tensions between the two powers, rather than resolve them. The Bay of Pigs invasion supports the belief …show more content…
The president soon learned that the leaders of the Soviet Union had different plans regarding the United States and the spread of the communist influence. During these years, the Soviet Union sought to extend their ideas to neighboring countries such as Cuba and other close by European countries in order to eventually make communism a worldwide idea practiced by all prominent nations. This presentation of the Soviet Union's determination portrays a possible reason as to why Kennedy may have felt obliged to engage militarily with the potential communist nation (Cuba) in order to resolve these conflicts of disagreement and reluctance to communism itself. As tensions worsened, military confrontation in Cuba approached. The relationship between Cuba (Fidel Castro) and the Soviet Union (Nikita Khrushchev) is an important one to mention. The connection between these two nations resulted directly with Kennedy's apprehension to the idea of communism gradually spreading to neighboring countries. The relation between Castro and Khrushchev developed during Eisenhower's presidency (1960 to be exact), when Khrushchev gave aid to Cuba. As Eisenhower learned about this growing relationship between the two, he immediately broke diplomatic relations with Cuba (1961 - one of the final acts of his during his …show more content…
This essential attack failed, as the Americans miscalculated and weren’t able to hit as many Cuban planes as was planned (Jones, 2008). Almost no damage was made to Castro's air force, and the failed attack gave the communist Cubans a head start at defending their nation. News about the attack spread around Cuba and the United States quickly. This one miscalculation was enough to send the United States on a downward spiral into more conflict with the communist believers. Increased awareness of this failed air raid drove Kennedy to discard ideas of a second attack. Kennedy's logic behind the discontinuation of the air raids included the fact that as the information spread, Fidel Castro would have time to react and conjure up a plan for defense and retaliation (as he still had many air planes in tact). Trained exiles in Cuba, however, were still following their plan (or assigned mission) to overthrow the dictator. On April 17th, 1961, just two days after the failed air raid (which was enough time to spread the word of American attempt to attack Cuba) the Cuban exile invasion force attacked the beaches along the Bay of Pigs (Jones, 2008). Since the Cubans had already known about the plans of the Americans, they were nothing but prepared to put up a fight, as if they were waiting for the exiles to attack. Other factors contributed
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