HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 26 Outline of Last Lecture I Setting the stage II 1950s III 1950s society IV More of Eisenhower V Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement Outline of Current Lecture I Election of 1960 II Kennedy and the cold war III The bay of pigs April 1961 IV Berlin wall August 1961 Current Lecture When we think of the 1960s we think of hippies sexual revolution free love etc but in reality the early 1960s were just an extension of the 1950s Election of 1960 o Kennedy vs Nixon News media TV This election had the first televised presidential debate o Kennedy understood how to represent himself well on TV while Nixon did not This debate made Kennedy seem like an American Sweetheart Nixon Congressional debate Vice president For much of the election he was seen as the front runner Kennedy Pedigree for politics o His father Joseph Kennedy was an ambassador o His brother was supposed to be the politician of the family but was killed in WWII War hero o Served in the Navy as the commander of a torpedo boat that was destroyed by the Japanese He saved a lot of lives o Wrote a book about bravery and courage Kennedy and the cold war o US army special forces Designed to be inserted behind enemy lines or into a communist country and organize gorilla forces to attack back at the communist o Flexible response Direct defense If the soviets attack the US in a non nuclear way we will respond in a non nuclear way we will respond in a non nuclear fashion Deliberate escalation The US would not go directly to mutually assured destruction the US would first go to tactical nuclear response General nuclear response If there are no other options everybody would launch nuclear missiles o Established the peace corps Was created to send people to countries at risk of communism and to demonstrate why America is way better The bay of pigs April 1961 o Attempted invasion of Cuba Cuba had become a communist country and was only 90 miles away from Florida The problem was that the Cuban government already knew when it was going to happen and they were prepared for it o CIA run operation The CIA knew that Eisenhower would have approved US support in the situation but Kennedy was not comfortable with direct US involvement o Eisenhower approved o Kennedy executed the plan This incident essentially secured the communist government in Cuba and gave them a lot of legitimacy The USSR gave them a lot of support after this happened Berlin wall August 1961 o There is a brain drain from East Germany Most educated people were leaving east Germany to go to West Germany o Berlin was the only outlet o 20 of the East German population fled to the West o Construction of the wall was tense The US though we could have possibly gone to war over the wall
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