Cold War Battles/John F. Kennedy U-2 Nikita Khrushchev John F. Kennedy Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis Lee Harvey Oswald Jack Ruby

U-2 Ike and Nikita Khrushchev met to discuss “open skies” Plan would allow for fly overs of each other’s countries to avoid surprise nuclear attacks Soviets rejected the offer We did it anyway CIA conducted spy flights over Soviet Union using U-2 aircraft

U-2 cont. U-2 was a plane that could fly so high that it was supposed to avoid detection Used to take pictures Ike wanted flights cancelled before a major summit with Khrushchev John Foster Dulles (sec. of state) convinced Ike for one last flight

U-2 cont. May 1, 1960 Francis Gary Powers shot down over USSR Intercepted by Soviet plane Wings ripped off Powers was tried by the Soviets Sentenced to 10 years in prison Powers was traded in ’62 for a Soviet spy that we captured

John F. Kennedy Senator from Mass. Ran against VP Richard Nixon First televised presidential campaign Young family invigorated the country “Camelot” JFK inherited Ike’s policy on Cuba Recently turned communist

Bay of Pigs Ike convinced JFK to continue with a plan to invade and take over Cuba Invasion was run by Cuban exiles Tried to topple Fidel Castro CIA was in charge Nothing went as planned Invaders were met by 25,000 Cuban troops and Soviet tanks

Bay of Pigs cont. Massive failure Kennedy went to TV and took responsibility Still wanted to deal with the Castro issue

Cuban Missile Crisis October 14, 1962 US took U-2 pics of Soviet missiles being sent to Cuba Any missile attack from Cuba would begin a war with the Soviets Kennedy and Khrushchev were at the brink of nuclear war Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba to avoid any more Soviet missiles making it into Cuba

Cuban Missile Crisis cont. Blockade could have been seen as aggressive 13 days of tension Agreement was made to remove missiles from Cuba if we removed our strategic missiles from Turkey Russians already had missiles up and running on Cuba that we didn’t know about

Kennedy Assassination November 22, 1963 JFK and Jackie went to Dallas, TX Rode in an open car Shot three times by an assassin Lee Harvey Oswald Some say that more were involved Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby Lyndon B. Johnson was JFK’s VP