American failures in Cuba and Vietnam

Once this Cold War policy was in effect, it had a life of its own, and no leader of the U.S. had the courage or wisdom or political independence to try to fully alter that policy insofar as it would have affected policy toward Cuba or Vietnam. That is, throughout the 1960s, both nations were viewed by American leaders as pawns of the Soviet communists. U.S. leaders saw it as their responsibility to struggle to rescue Cuba and Vietnam from their evil Soviet captor. Of course, the U.S. had previously shown no inclination to free Vietnam from the imperialist French or Cuba from the dictator Batista. In fact, the French in Vietnam and Batista in Cuba were unconditionally supported by the "freedom-lo

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Pigs was an unqualified disaster for Kennedy. The Bay of Pigs was inherited by Kennedy from Eisenhower. U.S.-Cuban relations had grown worse in the two years since Castro's 1959 takeover from Batista, as Castro moved toward the Soviet sphere. However, as Walton writes, the Cold War policy of the U.S. may well have brought about Castro's change: "How much of this was deliberate choice and how much was encouraged by the increasing political and economic difficulties with the United States is difficult to say." Walton adds, however, that "Cuba was, and is, fully entitled to have any kind of government it wants, even communist" (Walton 39-40). In any case, as Kennedy took over, relations with Cuba were terrible. In fact, Eisenhower had broken off diplomatic relations with Cuba 17 days before Kennedy took office. The stage was set for the disaster of the Bay of Pigs two months later. In Kennedy's first new conference, he claimed the Castro "movement" had been "seized by external forces" (Walton 41). He became more flexible toward the communist enemy later in his term, but in the beginning he was a Cold Warrior, and Cuba was his first chance to demonstrate his policy. The Bay of Pigs had been planned by Cold Warriors in the CIA and
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Approximate Word count = 2141
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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