IB HOTA cold war - Latin America (Kennedy-Carter)

• Apr 17 1961, 1,400 armed Cubans sail from FL to land in the Bay of Pigs

• Kennedy refused to use air support

• Huge disaster, Castro was ready for invasion

• US linked to the invasion of a sovereign country

• Kennedy took full responsibility

• US and USSR came into direct and dangerous confrontations over Cuba

• Sept 4 American surveillance flight photos show evidence of Soviet arms

• Oct 14 U2 planes took photos showing nuclear activity

• Oct 15 CIA confirms weapons in Cuba

• Oct 16 Kennedy has several options from his advisors

  • Do nothing

  • Pursue diplomatic measures

  • Blockade Cuba

  • Airstrike and Invasion of Cuba

• Oct 22 Kennedy ordered a quarantine around Cuba as blockade meant a legal action assuming a state of war exists.

• Oct 22 Kennedy went on national tv informing the public about weapons in Cuba and the quarantine. He upholds the monroe doctrine

• Oct 23 Kennedy sends a letter to Khrushchev demanding the missiles to be dismantled and returned to USSR

• Oct 23 Khrushchev responds that the blockade was an act of aggression

• Oct 24 he accuses Kennedy of threatening the USSR

• Oct 26 Khrushchev sends Kennedy a late night message saying he wants to avoid a nuclear holocaust

• Oct 27 Soviets want US to remove missiles in Turkey

• Oct 28 1962 agreement was reached but had to keep quiet on the Turkey missiles

• Khrushchev announced that Soviet missiles in Cuba will be dismantled and removed

• Stands as a singular event during the cold war and strengthened Kennedy’s image domestically and internationally

• Both countries were freightened by the event

• June 1963 hotline installed between US and Moscow

• Aug 1963 Soviet-American Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed

• Leads to the Johnson Doctrine 1965

• Latin American proposal for US diplomacy

• Promised $20 billion from public and private money

• Combined Kennedy and Eisenhower’s $500 million aide for LA development

• Money was to improve homes, healthcare, and schools along with land and tax reform

• 100,000 young Americans would be trained to help poor nations to help themselves through training and teaching

• Help US international image

• Built foot bridges over streams

• Dug ditches for irrigation

• Taught math to Tanzanian peasants

• Kennedy’s most innovative and lasting project

• Humiliated Kennedy and CIA wanted revenge on Castro

• 800 sabotage acts, 150 arson attacks, and bombing raids carried out

• CIA attempts to assassinate Castro

Stated that American nations cannot and must not and will not permit the establishment of another Communist gov’t in the western hemisphere

• Nixon sent Nelson Rockefeller to consult on LA

• Visited many LA countries faced by angry demonstrators in Peru, Chile, and Venezuela

• Reported to Nixon that US would have to demonstrate more tolerance for authoritarian rule in LA

• Nixon declared Allende to be a threat and gave the CIA $10 million to prevent him from coming into power

• Allende elected president of Chile in 1970

• Chile had economic problems

• US blocked credit and loans, printing more money and increasing inflation 300%

• Nixon waged economic warfare on Chile

• Nixon cut off all aid

• CIA funded media criticism and strikes

• General Augusto Pinochet led a coup in Sep 1973

• Allende killed himself after the airforce bombed his palace

Carter relinquishes US control over the Panama Canal and guarantees its neutrality.