The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. No one was sure how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba.
Boor shows this when he writes, “So you figured it would be better if I just hated myself” (265). The only reason his parents told him the truth is Paul confronted them. While they admitted that he had a right to know, they justified their reason for not telling him earlier. Paul may have understood that his parents’ love led to their over protection but he probably distrusted his parents and their ability to tell him the whole truth. Paul’s parents’ choices changed the direction of his life.
Until the Czech coup, the emphasis in Washington had been on economic containment of Communism, primarily through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and a heavy reliance on atomic power as a shield to support it. Truman did not intervene with the coup as they saw it as internal affairs and the west may have of resented it because they could not of done too much with containment. Another reason why the USA may not have of been involved was to avoid war with Russia. Truman responded to the crisis
Smith, whom he deeply respected, telling him, “I’ll tell you something [about JFK’s assassination] that will rock you… Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first” (Holland). Smith pressed for more information, but Johnson refused and assured him, “It will all come out one day” (Holland). Though, Johnson himself delayed this process by refurbishing the limousine Kennedy was shot in, not entering it into evidence, and sealing certain assassination records until
Ronald Reagan Foreign Policy When Reagan became president he began with only one well-defined foreign policy; he wanted to contain the Soviet Union. He wanted to stop them from growing any bigger and wanted to make sure that other countries did not become Communist. He didn’t like how relaxed President Nixon and President Ford had been to try to ease the relationship with the Soviets. He thoroughly believed that the Soviets were taking advantage of how relaxed the United States of America had been. Reagan thought that the United States needed to prepare its military defense systems just in case the Soviets decided to nuke the Americans.
In one Eastern country after another, he created pro-Communist governments not likely to be undermined by a free election any time soon. As for Germany, he took his Soviet sector and reaped billions of dollars of reparations from it annually. The forty-five year separation of East and West Germany was finalized by the Western demand that Stalin not take reparations from their sectors. The United States became even more distrustful of Stalin because he failed to keep his promises. The division of Germany into four regions of interest and also the division of Berlin resulted in an attempt by Stalin to make the Western Allies relinquish control of their sectors.
announced intent to treat with East Berlin, regardless of any third party occupation rights in either sector of the city. A depressed and angry president then assumed his obligation was to prepare the country for nuclear war as the only option, and which he then personally thought had a one in five chance of occurring. In the weeks immediately after the Vienna summit, more than 20 thousand people fled from East Berlin to the western sector in reaction to statements from the U.S.S.R. Kennedy began intensive meetings on the Berlin issue, where Dean Acheson took the lead in recommending a military buildup with NATO allies as the appropriate response. In a July 1961 speech, Kennedy announced his decision to add $3.25 billion to the defense budget, along with over 200 thousand additional troops for the military, saying an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U.S. The speech received an 85% approval rating.
Collective Leadership (1964 - 1971) - Various members, notably Brezhnev and Kosygin Brezhnev (1971 - 1982) - A return to some aspects of Stalin's rule - but not as murderous. Andropov (1982 - 1984) - Attempted some reforms, but died before achieving much. Chernenko (1984 - 1985) - Attempted some reforms, but died before achieving much. Gorbachev (1985 - 1991) - Reformed much about the USSR, eventually leading to the country's collapse. In the 1970s, Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter pursued détente, the reduction of Cold War tensions and achievement of peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union.
For instance, the Cuban missile crises presented some problems for President Kennedy inside the U.S. government. Theorist say that some people inside the U.S. government and the U.S. military were pro war with the Soviet Union and felt that they missed out on an opportunity to go to war with the Soviet Union at the closing of WWII. The Former Soviet Union at that time had a lot of different views with the United States even though we were both considered allies during the war, so it is said that certain people felt that we, being the United States should have went ahead and fought them at the conclusion of WWII. The Cuban Missile crisis to some could have presented the perfect opportunity for the United States to declare war on the Former Soviet Union, some felt. It’s been said that some governmental and military figures felt that President Kennedy portrait America as being weak, by averting a war with the Soviet Union.
They both reinforced their beliefs in the Paris Peace Accords time and time again. While this is the image that they portrayed to the American people, who wanted no part in Vietnam to begin with, Nixon and Kissinger could be seen as men who only wanted to satisfy Americans but not intend to keep their promises of peace. Behind the scenes, it is ultimately realized that Nixon and Kissinger knew full well that the Paris Peace Accords were destined for failure and its sole purpose was to appease Americans domestically and remove POW’s from behind enemy lines (Madaras Pg. 378). As soon as North Vietnam violated the agreements of the Accords, which was all but a guarantee, Nixon would fulfill his promise to South Vietnamese President