Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy

Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy

Lisa K. St. Clair

Strayer University

POL 300

August 30, 2012

Professor Brian O'Connell

After World War II, the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its satellite states began a decades-long struggle for supremacy known as the Cold War. During President John F. Kennedys political career the Cold War along with the nuclear arms race became vital international issues due to the concern over the growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The President also had to deal with the previous Eisenhower administration for permitting the establishment of a pro-Soviet government in Cuba. The Kennedy Doctrine refers to foreign policy initiatives towards Latin America during his term in office between 1961 and 1963 which was an expansion of the foreign policy initiatives of the previous administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman. The foreign policies of these presidents all revolved around the threat of communism and how the United States would attempt to contain the spread the communism. President Kennedy devised the tactic of Flexible Response to contain communism and de-emphasized massive military retaliation. His Doctrine of Flexible response couldn’t have come at a better time. The communist eastern European satellite nations were pressing for more freedom of action, and the Chinese opposed the Soviet’s hope for a peaceful coexistence with the U.S. “The Communist bloc, therefore, was in the process of splintering, with groups favoring the Soviet, Chinese, or Cuban brand of Communism emerging in many countries”. Kennedy’s patience and flexibility would soon prove to avert the world from a nuclear World War III.

U.S. Diplomatic Efforts – Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missile crisis was a defining event of the Cold War. In January 1, 1959 Fidel Castro led a guerrilla war against the Batista regime in Cuba and assumes power over Cuba after the Cuban Revolution. Premier Nikita...