 | Redoedo (39)
03/05/2004 |  Kennedy's Presidency is remembered as a time of glitz and glamour, but in reality, the tensions of the Cold War all came to a head during this period. First came the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy's biggest misstep as President. JFK certainly was at fault for the invasion, but not in a way that most think. His fault was allowing the invasion to go forth in the first place. Several of his advisers doubted that the guerilla invasion would drum up domestic revolt against Castro in Cuba. Kennedy, with some hesitation, allowed the invasion to go ahead as planned. The basic issue in Cuba is not one between the United States and Cuba. It is between the Cubans themselves., Kennedy said on April 12, 1961. Contrary to popular belief, Kennedy DID NOT promise aircover to the Cuban exhiles. The entire purpose of the invasion was to carry on with it in a manner that would hide any U.S. involvement. Clearly, sending U.S. planes to Cuba would prove tot he entire world that the U.S. was indeed involved. In a desperate last-ditch effort to support the invasion, a limited air strike was approved on April 19, but it would not be enough, and four American pilots lost their lives that day. With regards to the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy's fault, as I wrote earlier, was approving the operation and trusting the CIA. A special report on the invasion released to the public in 1998 concluded that ignorance, incompetence, and arrogance on the part of the CIA was responsible for the fiasco. It criticized nearly every aspect of the CIAs handling of the invasion: misinforming Kennedy administration officials, planning poorly, using faulty intelligence and conducting an overt military operation beyond agency responsibility as well as agency capability. The Bay of Pigs resulted in Kennedy's distrust of the CIA and his military advisers, and the Bay of Pigs experience arguably came into play in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when Kennedy's good judgment and cool thinking averted nuclear war. Had he approved the invasion of Cuba in 1962, it is now known that an invasion of Cuba would've been much more difficult than anticipated. Thousands more Soviet troops were in Cuba than estimated, and the invasion would've caused countless lives and nuclear war with the Soviet Union. As a result of Kennedy's leadership, Krushchev gained great respect for the same man that he once called a lightweight. Relations between the Soviets and the United States greatly improved under Kennedy from that point on. Kennedy also faced a serious crisis in Berlin. The Soviets threatened to sign a treaty with East Germany that would give them control over access routes to Berlin. As a response to the construction of the Berlin Wall, Kennedy greatly increased the number of troops in the region. Kennedy's leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis greatly affected the situation in Berlin, and Krushchev soon backed off and did not sign a treaty with the East Germans. Kennedy also responded quote well to a crisis in India. When the Communist Chinese invaded the northern border of India in 1962, Kennedy authorized the immediate air-lifting of arms to India. This intervention solidified Kennedy's stance against Communism. He was willing to co-exist with Communists, but he refused to allow it to spread into other regions. Meanwhile, tensions over Civil Rights threatened stability here at home, and Kennedy on several occasions authorized the use of national guardsmen to restore order in the south. With time, Kennedy soon understood the importance of the Civil Rights issue, and responded to the crisis quite well overall. In the final analysis, Kennedy's leadership throughout his Presidency was exceptional. The Bay of Pigs was a grave mistake, but he learned from it, and applied that knowledge to the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later. Kennedy's leadership the Cuban Missile Crisis helped to calm tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States, and this can be considered his greatest legacy of all.
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