Recollections

Kennedy and the Berlin Wall

1960 was a Presidential election year in the US.

Richard Nixon the Vice President to Eisenhower was expected to win but the Democrat, Kennedy, campaigned heavily on closing the 'missile gap', alleging that the USSR had a big lead and that Eisenhower and by extension Nixon, was endangering the country by being too soft on defence. 

President Eisenhower, an ex-General and Supreme Commander in World War two had become concerned about the arms race and the power of the: 'military-industrial complex' (a term that he coined) and had reduced military size and weapons spending. 

The 'missile gap' (follow the link) was fictional - invented by the Kennedy campaign spin-doctors (and military donors?).

After vehement White House denials the Russians had suddenly wheeled out Powers, together with the material evidence on the plane. Internationally the U-2 Incident was a major loss of face for the US and for the White House and therefore for Nixon. 

Kennedy was far more skilful (and presentable) than Nixon on the new medium of television and this was a gift from above.

Seven months later, in November 1960, the American public very narrowly elected young, good looking John F Kennedy, with his beautiful wife, as President ahead of Nixon. 

In his inaugural address Kennedy promised to: "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty" and that call to arms was a promise he lived up to.  In April 1961 the Cold War got a lot hotter when a CIA sponsored army of expatriate Cubans unsuccessfully attempted to retake Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.  Follow this link to the relevant section from our 2012 trip to Cuba.

The same year the US deployed PGM-19 Jupiter medium range nuclear ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey targeted on Moscow and on military assets identified by the U-2 flights. The Russians responded by deploying their own missiles to Cuba.  But before they could fully install them Kennedy threatened nuclear war if they were not removed.  Both sides then backed down and the US removed their missiles too.  The Kennedy administration kept this secret and pretended that at the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis the Russians had backed down unilaterally.  This is a myth perpetuated even today.

The failed Paris Four Powers Summit agenda had included the joint management of Berlin to limit the city's use by East Germans to leave their country.   As a result of the collapse of the Paris Summit, and the Kennedy Administration's actions that year, on August 13 1961, Berlin was suddenly partitioned and the construction of the Berlin Wall began.

In 1963 Kennedy flew to Berlin to promise continued unflinching US support and used the immortal words:

By year's end he was dead, assassinated, possibly because of US actions in Cuba.

The Kennedy Grave at Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC
Note the eternal flame - not accorded to any other President
Jacqueline is buried here too - not with Aristotle

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