President John F. Kennedy and his doctrine

President John F. Kennedy and his doctrine during the Cold War

Introduction

This paper aims to discuss the doctrine used by the President John F Kennedy during the Cold War. Further the diplomatic efforts by the U.S during his time in the office, specific actions and their impact on United States and other countries. According to Roskins, the policies used by the U.S presidents during the war were termed as doctrines by the journalists (Roskin, 2010).The doctrine clarifieswhat each president believed in during that time. During the President John F Kennedy, the main goal of the U.S was to stop communism and to lessen the missile gap in Soviets favor. Thus, immediately when the president took office, he declared strengthening the military and consequently defense budget was increased.

Discussion

The doctrine followed by John F Kennedy during his term from 1961 till 1963 was the doctrine of flexibility and containment of communism. His main aim was to respond with flexibility to the expansion of communism and guerilla warfare. A situation occurred during President Kennedy's term when U.S diplomatic efforts were required in 1962. The need was seen when a surveillance plane took pictures of nuclear missile sites in Cuba by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Union. There were concerns from United States regarding this matter and the Soviet claimed that they were only providing Cubans with weapons for their protection from the attacks by the United States. The tensions between the Cuba and Soviet Union on one side with United States on the other rose and it was considered to be one of the major confrontations of the Cold War (Hermes, 2001). After failed attempt to remove the regime present in Cuba, Khrushchev proposed to keep nuclear missiles of Soviet Union with Cuba. This was achieved to deter any attempt of invasion in the future. However, United States decided to attack Cuba through military blockade. It was demanded by the U.S that missile bases should be destroyed and dismantled and no missiles should be provided to Cuba (Ibid, 1963). A secret agreement between Soviet and U.S president took place which was that Soviets would dismantle their weapons from Cuba and U.S would dismantle its nuclear warheads in Turkey and Italy.Even a U-2 missile was shot by the Soviets, however Kennedy continued with the negotiations and there was an end to confrontation (Jerry, 2002). There were many other issues that concerned the president which included Vietnam, Berlin wall and Laos; however, Cuba stayed his major concern for its territorial importance to United States.

Some historians believed that diplomatic doctrine used by the President could have been more strategic if he was able to involve in negotiations with Khrushchevat an early stage by either involving an international organization.The diplomatic efforts to defeat communism at all costs and initiation of a plan to invade Cuba which was also known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failure to the great disappointment of the U.S as it gave the impression of ...