Kennedy’s term was full of game changing political actions. Among the most defying of his presidency, the biggest event was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many people at the time wondered, how would Kennedy handle the Cuban Missile Crisis? Kennedy wasn’t the first president to have been dealing with the Cuban premier Fidel Castro at this time, the first being the president who served before him Dwight E. Eisenhower. While Kennedy was under a lot of pressure to make the United States next move, he always made his decision making based on what he thought would have the best possible outcome for the citizens of the U.S. and would try to minimize all possible threats.
Kennedy seals off Cuba with the United States navy to create a no entry and no escape quarantine. After many difficult meetings Kennedy decides that having a naval blockade around Cuba would minimize the risk of any of their nuclear missiles from leaving. (JFKlibrary) This action also prevents the Soviets from bringing in more supplies for their military. Kennedy decided it was the best action when he was put in a tough position after an American spy plane caught photographs of nuclear missile sites on the communist island. (Andrew Glass) Kennedy later states on a televised speech that the nuclear weapons have enough reach to strike major cities in the U.S. which includes Washington. (Andrew Glass) During this time the citizens of America start to question Kennedy’s decision making and are now distressed knowing that these people have weapons to potentially destroy the great cities of our nation.
John F. Kennedy is forced to take pursuits that are designed to take down Fidel Castro’s government without getting the United States involved in a nuclear battle. The most well known operation that Kennedy authorized was called “Operation Mongoose”. It was a secret program that was created by the U.S. to take communist out of power. (pbs) This operation was authorized after the Bay of Pigs invasion failure, which was an attempt to over through Fidel Castro made by 1,500 Cuban exiles that were trained and financed by the CIA. (Michael Voss)
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The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion made the Kennedy foundation look weak and actually made the Cubans more inclined to invade us. At this point Kennedy states that America is not afraid of using military force to bring Fidel Castro out of power to protect the people of the U.S. With the first operation failing but John F. Kennedy stating that he is not afraid to use military force and his brother Robert stating ‘We will take action against Castro, it might be tomorrow, it might be in five days or ten days, or not for months. But it will come” it creates hesitation for the Cubans because instead of taking pursuits to attack or invade the U.S. there new main priority is to have Castro protected.
The people of America had mixed feelings about John F. Kennedy and more people turned to disliking how he was deciding to handle the situation because of how the press made the Kennedy administration look after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion but even with all of the backlash Kennedy still tried his best to stay level headed because he knew what was at stake. The press made the comment that the Bay of Pigs invasion would have been successful if the U.S. would have gotten air force involved. Kennedy tried to avoid all talk with the press about the failure being that it was Eisenhower who authorized the operation. (Michael Voss) This is the time where Kennedy decides to authorize Operation Mongoose.
Kennedy tried to keep it underwraps not only so word doesn’t get to Cuba about anything involving this operation but he also thought that it would be best if the U.S. citizens did not know for their own well being. In a pep talk to the team that was given the task of Operation Mongoose Kennedy says that Fidel Castro is ‘The top priority of the U.S. government — all else is secondary — no time, money, effort, or manpower is to be spared.’ (pbs) This being said Kennedy is tired of the standstill with Cuba over their nuclear weapons and wants it to end and bring World Peace.
Unlike in the Bay of Pigs operation John and his brother Robert Kennedy have decided the best route for the U.S. military to take is by doing small, covert operations instead of the full fledged invasion. (mary ferrell) The pressure was so high on the Kennedy administration that one of the most controversial chapters in presidential history happened, which was the hiring of the mafia to help with the assassination of Fidel Castro. There was nothing proven for sure but it was enough to have the press going crazy. The CIA hired mafia hitman Johnny Roselli to kill Fidel Castro. The conspiracy theories started to rise when the FBI director J.edgar Hoover found out about the plot from some FBI surveillance on a mob boss named Sam Giancana. (pbs) Sam Giancana supposedly shared a mistress with John F. Kennedy, which fueled some of the conspiracy theories behind JFK’s assassination in Dallas of 1963. Some believe Operation Mongoose was as disastrous as the Bay of Pigs in its own way because it was expensive, and was an embarrassing failure to the U.S. being that Castro survived all attempts made on him from this operation.
John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert decided to discontinue Operation Mongoose after so many failed attempts because he was afraid that Castro would launch his nuclear weapons at the U.S. and to Kennedy the citizens of America safety is most important. Even when all operations to take out castro were finished at the time John F. Kennedy kept the the naval borderline around Cuba. After thirteen days of unsettled citizens all across America the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Cuban Missile Crisis is resolved after the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to remove russian missiles from Cuba peacefully in return for the United States must respect territorial sovereignty. (History.state)
Once the U.S. has come to terms with Russia and Cuba, the Cuban Missile Crisis is officially over but Kennedy keeps the naval boardline around Cuba for an extra day to make sure that Russia takes back their weapons like they agreed. The Cuban Missile Crisis ending was relief for people all over the world not just the people in America because some believe that this nuclear battle would have created the third world war. (Stephen F. Knott) At the end of it all Kennedy did his very best and everything in his power to keep the U.S safe and out of another war, like he was supposed to no matter the press and peoples’ opinion of how he was handling things.
