JFK: The Bay of Pigs and its Fallout on his Presidency, the United States and World History
By CharlieR82
-
JFK Runs For President of the U.S.
On 2 January 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) announced his run for the Presidency of the United States by seeking the Democratic Party Nomination. -
JFK Wins Democratic Nomination
On 15 July 1960, JFK accepts the Democratic Monination to Run For President, making his famous "New Frontier" speech in the Los Angeles Colleiseum:
[W]e stand today on the edge of a New Frontier -— the frontier of 1960s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats. ... Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions... -
The Kennedy-Nixon Debates
On 26 September 1960, 70 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard Nixon in the first-ever televised presidential debate. Nixon's 'five o'clock shadow' and pale looks under lights versus Kennedy's youthful good looks aided by TV make-up, cost Nixon the debate, and by many accounts the election. -
JFK Defeats Nixon for Presidency
On November 9, 1960, JFK became the youngest man and first Roman Catholic elected president of the United States in the closets election in the country’s his history, winning the popular vote by only two-tenths of one percent, 49.7% to 49.5% (119,450 votes) and the electoral college vote by 303 to 219, with 269 needed to win. -
JFK Takes Oath of Office
JFK takes the oath of office administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren on January 20, 1961, at the Capitol with famous "Ask not what your Country can do...." speech}
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." -
Soviets Put First Man in Outer Space
On 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (See Photo) was the first person to fly in outer space. His space flight boosted US fears about falling behind the Soviet Union in technological competition. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA -trained exile fores was launched to over throw Fidel Castro on 17 April 1961, less than three months after JFK assumed the presidency in the United States. JFK, concerned that the CIA and Pentagon were not giving him the straight story on the invasion, withheld direct US military support of the bogged down ragtag exile invaders. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading CIA-trained exile forces within 3 days. -
JFK Announces Race Moon
On 25 May 1961, JFK announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon, stating: "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult...to accomplish..." He repeated it at Rice University on 12 September 1962 (Photo). -
The Building of the Berlin Wall
Following a failed Summit in June 1961 between JFK Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev held in Vienna to improve Soviet-U.S. relations in the wake of the international tension created by Bay of Pigs, Khrushchev announced an increased Soviet alliance with East Germany, then commenced to build the “Berlin Wall” to prevent Western influence on the communist state and keep persons from fleeing East Germany. (More than 20,000 people had already fled following the failed summit. -
JFK Makes Moon Top Priority
On 21 November 1962 NASA Administrator James Webb projected 40 billion dollar price tag of an Apollo moon shot, justified by international prestige and that the rocketry, technology developed...had military and national security value as well. "[G]oing to the moon is the top-priority project. . . . I do think we ought to get it, you know, really clear, that the policy ought to be that this is the top-priority program of the agency and one of the two—except for defense—the top priority..." -
JFK Escalates Early Vietnam War
JFK initially followed the outgoing Eisenhower's Administration lead in Southeast Asia, using limited military action to fight the communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh. He continued policies that provided political, economic, and military support to the South Vietnamese government and in late 1961 increased the number of helicopters, military advisors, and undeclared U.S. Special Forces in the area in response to Viet Cong advances. Troop levels tripled to more than 3,000. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis-World on Brink of Nuclear War
October 15, 1962 a spy plane reconnaissance photograph revealed the soviet union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. For the next seven days the discovery was the best kept secret in government history, while the JFK Administration weighed responses. The world was on the brink of nuclear war. [The U-2 reconnaissance photo (right) showed concrete evidence of missiles in Cuba. Shown are missile transporters and missile-ready tents where fueling and maintenance took place. ''Courtesy of CIA'' -
JFK Reveals Missile Crisis To World
On Oct. 22, 1962, JFK revealed the Soviet Union deployment nuclear missiles in Cuba to the nation, and, “It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory responsAnd, "To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated." [United Nations Photo Right] -
United States At Defcom 2
By 26 October 1962 the Soviet Union said it considered the US Blockade an Act of War, China said 650 million people of China stood with Cuba, and the US raised the readiness level of SAC forces to DEFCON 2. For the only confirmed time in US history, the B-52 bombers were dispersed to various locations & made ready to take off. Some 145 intercontinental ballistic missiles stood on ready alert, twenty-three nuclear-armed B-52 were sent to orbit points within striking distance of the Soviet Union. -
Public and Secret Deals End Crisis Peacefully
The Soviets publicly rejected the US demands. However, 28 October 1962,. JFK and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets agreed to withdraw their nuclear weapons from Cuba and, subject to United Nations verification,in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US agreed to withdraw all US-built Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Turkey and Italy. See Right. -
JFK Signs Nuclear/Hotline Treaty
The Cuban Missile Crisis generated what many believe is the greatest accomplishment of the JFK presidency : the nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union. Signing it on 25 July 1963, JFK called it, "the first step down the path of peace," Saying "Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness," The agreement also created the nuclear “hotline” between Washington, D.C., and Moscow, subsequently made famous by its Red Phone depiction in innumerable Cold War novels and Hollywood. (Photo) -
JFK Says Its Time To Get-Out Of Vietnam
Despite JFK aversion to full-scale invasion, by 1963 US troop levels topped 25,000. On 21 November, 1963 he said, "I’ve just been given a list of the most recent casualties in Vietnam. We’re losing too damned many people over there. It’s time for us to get out. The Vietnamese aren't fighting.. We’re the ones who are doing the fighting. After I come back from Texas, that’s going to change. There's no reason for us to lose another man over there. Vietnam is not worth another American life." -
JFK Assassinated in Dallas
JFK was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (1:30 EST) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas while riding in an open air limousine with First Lady Kennedy Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and the governor’s wife Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade. Almost anyone old enough to watch television at the time, can recall where they were that day when television newscast interrupted broadcast with the announcement that ‘President Kennedy has been shot.' -
Lee Havey Oswald Arrested
Hours after the assassination Lee Harvey Oswald, former US Marine and known communist sympathizer, was arrested by Dallas Police for firing the fatal shot, as the lone gunman, from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. -
Jack Ruby Kills Oswald
Millions of Americans were watching as the arrested alleged lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was shot, while wearing handcuffs and surrounded by a police escort, by private citizen Jack Ruby right after he said into TV cameras and microphones ‘I’m just a patsy.’ -
Johnson Escalates Vietnam War
With the signing of In National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 288 President Johnson, launched a major escalation of the Vietnam War based on the Domino Theory. By wars end, over 58,000 American lives were lost, more than 150,000 were wounded and at least 21,000 permanently disabled. The economic cost of the war financed by deficit spending was estimated at 111 billion dollars between 1965 and 1975. -
Warren Report: Oswald Alone
On 24, September 1964, the Warren Commision's 888 page official government report concluded, to the disbelief of almost everyone, that the JFK was assassinated by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that JFK was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and that both the original FBI investigation & the Warren Commission were seriously flawed. -
Johnson Withdraws From Reelection
Following his historic landslide election in 1964 following the JFK assassination, widespread anti-war sentimant around the nation and particularily within the Democratic party, forced Johnson to withdraw from seeking reelection on 31 March 1968. Subsequent to his withdraw, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968 and riots broke out Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in August, leaving the Democratic Party in a state of chaos heading into the1968 general election. -
Nixon Wins 1968 Presidential Election
On November 5, 1968, the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, an original planner of the Bay of Pigs in the Eisenhower Administration, won the election over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law and order to the nation's cities, torn by riots and crime, and to do whatever ot takes to defeat communists in North Vietnam and elsewhere. -
Apollo 11 Lands American on Moon
On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 landed the first manned spacecraft on the Moon and Neil Armstrong planted the American flag on the Moon. The technology developed in the 1960s space program by NASA, and the aero-space manufacturers they contracted, is credited with paving the way to further advances made in the 1970s and 1980s that made the profusion of technology society presently depends and enjoys worldwide possible. -
War Protest Draws 500,000+
On 15 November, 1969 the Vietnam Moratorium attracted millions of anti-war protesters worldwide, with over a half a million marching on Washington, D.C. alone. -
Watergate Break-In of DNC HQ
Nixon’s ‘win at any cost’ philosophies mentality went beyond the Vietnam war. In his zeal for reelection in 1972, the break-in of the Democratic National Party’s headquarters in the Watergate Hotel was authorized. In what became known as the “Watergate” scandal, secret tape recordings Nixon seratipiously made of all his conversations and was forced by Congress to turn over to investigators revealed he was deeply involved in a “cover-up” of the illegal break-in. -
Tapes Force Nixon Resignation/Reveal Bay of Pigs Paranoia
The April 1974 discovery of the 'Smoking Gun' tape made just days after the break-in forced Nixon to become the US Prseident to resign from office on 9 August 1974. Subsequent studies of all the tapes revealed Nixon, an original Bay of Pigs planner, harbored immense paranoia that new damaging information about the Bay of Pigs/CIA plans would surface, validating JFK's 1961 suspicions and circumspect decisions.
