History Soars at Pheonix  

DBQ Project

 

1.    To what extent did John F. Kennedy’s foreign policies help to contain communism?

~Use the following documents and your knowledge of the period of 1961-1963 in constructing your responses.

 

 

Document 1:

 

“Let every word for forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,…unwilling to witness or permit the slot undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

 

Let every nation know, whether it wished us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any for to assure the survival an success of liberty.”

        -Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 1961

 

 

Document 2:

 

 

          “It's all right to seat them. They’re not Americans”

"It's all right to seat them.
They're not Americans," April 27, 1961
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered paper
Published in the Washington Post (48)
LC-USZ62-127069

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Document 3:

 

“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”)”.

        -Address at City Hall in West Berlin, Germany, June 36, 1963

 

 

Document 4:

 

 

“But this secret, swift, and extraordinary buildup of Communist missiles--in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy--this sudden, clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil--is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe.”

                   - President John F. Kennedy - October 22, 1962

 

 

Document 5:

“This Nation is prepared to present its case against the Soviet threat to peace, and our own proposals for a peaceful world, at any time and in any forum-in the OAS, in the United Nations, or in any other meeting that could be useful-without limiting our freedom of action. We have in the past made strenuous efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. We have proposed the elimination of all arms and military bases in a fair and effective disarmament treaty. We are prepared to discuss new proposals for the removal of tensions on both sides—including the possibilities of a genuinely independent Cuba, free to determine its own destiny. We have no wish to war with the Soviet Union—for we are a peaceful people who desire to live in peace with all other peoples.”

-President John F. Kennedy's Speech Announcing the Quarantine against Cuba, October 22, 1962

 

 

Document 6:

 

From the late spring of 1961 until the late fall of 1962, President Kennedy engaged in a great test of strength with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The confrontation began on the question of Berlin, when in June 1961 the president spent two days in Vienna discussing that major issue with the Soviet leader. For some time Khrushchev had threatened to sign a peace treaty with the East German government that would give it control over access routes to Berlin. Kennedy wanted to make sure that Khrushchev "understood our strength and determination." The talks, Kennedy reported upon his return to the United States, were somber: "I made it clear to Mr. Khrushchev that the security of Western Europe, and therefore our own security, are deeply involved in our presence and our access rights to West Berlin; that those rights are based on law and not on sufferance; and that we are determined to maintain those rights at any risk and thus meet our obligation to the people of West Berlin, and their right to choose their own future."

 

 

Document 7:

 

Kennedy established the Peace Corps in March 1961. Through this program, headed by his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, many young Americans were encouraged to contribute their skills to "sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace."

 

Document 8:

 

The Cuban missile crisis was the turning point in the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs, which was a failed U.S. attempt to invade Cuba, the Soviet Union’s highest official decided to install nuclear missiles inside Cuba. When JFK sent American planes to take pictures of military construction sites, he denounced the Soviet action and ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. He also stated that any launch of the missiles would lead to war against the Soviet Union. The Americans were prepared for war. Soviet ships bound for Cuba turned back and the premier of the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles and dismantle the missile sites because they did not want to go to war against the U.S. The blockade ended by the end of the year and the crisis was over as fast as it was started. 

 

 

 Document 9:

 

"Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world, but joined with other free nations, we can ... assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty."-John F. Kennedy, July 4, 1962