...The Kennedy Doctrine This paper discusses the Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy from the perspective of charismatic leadership. Specifically, it addresses the four characteristics that social scientists have agreed lead to such leadership and their relation to the 1961-1963 Kennedy Presidency: a crisis situation, potential followers in distress, an aspiring leader, and a doctrine promising deliverance. This paper shows that all four of these characteristics apply to Kennedy, and demonstrates their causality of his charismatic leadership persona, which endured long past (and perhaps in part because of) his assassination in 1963. The United States was in a state of controlled turmoil. Unknown dangers were threatened from enemies abroad, while moral concerns further eroded confidence at home. The nation was emerging from a decade of paranoia and fear stirred up by certain high-ranking members of the federal government. In this election year, a Democratic Senator would become one of the youngest men ever elected to the office of President of the United States of America in a historically barrier-breaking election. No, the year is not 2008, and the President is not Barack Obama. Instead, turning the calendars back to 1960 brings us the year that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected the thirty-fifth President of the United States of America, the youngest man ever elected to the office, as well as being the only Roman Catholic to ever hold...
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...The Kennedy Doctrines & US Relations BY Shaconda Peterson POL 300 Instructor Dr. Angela Agboli-Esedebe Date: September 3, 2011 The Kennedy Doctrine refers to foreign policy initiatives of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, towards Latin America during his term in office between 1961 and 1963. Kennedy voiced support for the containment of Communism and the reversal of Communist progress in the Western Hemisphere. The Kennedy Doctrine was essentially an expansion of the foreign policy prerogatives 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 the means by which the United States would attempt to contain the spread of it. The Truman Doctrine focused on the containment of communism by providing assistance to countries resisting communism in Europe while the Eisenhower Doctrine was focused upon providing both military and economic assistance to nations resisting communism in the Middle East and by increasing the flow of trade from the United States into Latin America. The Kennedy Doctrine was based on these same objectives but was more concerned with the spread of communism and Soviet influence in Latin America following the Cuban revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power under Eisenhower during the 1950s. Some of the most notable events that stemmed from tenets of JFK’s foreign policy initiatives in regard...
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...What are the reasons for ethnic conflict and what are the solutions for their resolve? Reasons for ethnic conflict are “internal strife tied to cultural such as values, goals, and practices, tribal animosities between Nigeria and Rwanda, religious conflicts between India and Lebanon, and other ethnic animosities such as racial prejudice with in South Africa.” (2011, p.94-95) A solution for their resolve is “democratic, mature, and enlightened political leadership, a spirit of compromise, and the implementation of politically negotiated solutions such as federalism (“a system of government that emanates from the desire of people to form a union without necessarily losing their various identities.” 2011, p.119) and consociational democracy. “(“A careful division of political power designed to protect the rights of all participants. Which involves: The leaders of all important ethnic groups must form a ruling coalition at the national level, Each group has veto power over government policy, or at least over policies that affect them, Government funds and public employment, such as the civil service, are divided between ethnicities, with each receiving a number of posts roughly proportional to its population and Each ethnic group is afforded a high degree of autonomy over its own affairs.” 2011, p. 120) (2011, p.130) What conditions must be present for a state of relative concord to exist? The conditions are for them to “establishing a basis for coexistence between these groups...
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...President which I have selected for my doctrine analysis is President L. B. Johnson who was the 36th president of the U.S. Lyndon B. Johnson served the nation for four years. Johnson was a democrat from Texas and after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Johnson became the president of the U.S.. Johnson’s involvement in the Vietnam War will always be remembered, as he increased the American involvement in the matter of Vietnam. Due to this decision, the vision of the United States push towards peace and prosperity was distorted and reversed. Johnson was highly criticized due to Vietnam War and was succeeded by Richard Nixon who was a member of the Republican Party. Americans voted republican because the Democratic party was divided into different feuding fractions during the time of Lyndon. B. Johnson. The Doctrine of Johnson was articulated after the intervention of the Dominican Republic in United States in 1965. The domestic revolution was also declared by Johnson stating that intervention of Dominican Republic in the Western Hemisphere is not a local matter. The doctrine of Johnson is considered to be an extension of the Kennedy’s Doctrine. It is considered that this doctrine was proposed to oppose the movements of democracy in Latin America which was in favor of military dictatorship of right-wing in U.S (Levy 2002). Doctrine of Kennedy The doctrine of Kennedy was articulated by President John. F. Kennedy during 1961 and 1963. Kennedy raised his voice against the communism...
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...Diplomatic efforts were the flexible response Kennedy acted upon. Kennedy did not act right away, but rather use a form of strict communication with the Soviets. He knew that rather than acting upon something, one must realize the consequences on their actions and it is better to resolve a problem, rather than acting out on war. Kennedy focused on nuclear weapons in Turkey and helps build an army across other nations. There were many opportunities to attack but rather than potentially losing thousands of men, Kennedy used persuasive negotiation. Kennedy wanted peace from the beginning, and let other nations know that was the main goal, but if the war was really necessary, he was willing to act upon it. Many felt at peace with JFK and knew he would come to aid despite numerous challenges he faced while in office. Communist was spreading and threatening the United States with every move. Khrushchev kept testing Kennedy to see how much of an alliance the United States really had just based upon the fact that Khrushchev kept losing. Kennedy doctrine shut down any advances the Soviet tried to make even with their alliance they did have. With the flexible responses provided, that is the reason we did not go into a nuclear war with...
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...President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, came into office at the height of the Cold War. The president decided to keep the foreign policy of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and also decided that he could expand upon that foreign policy doctrine. President Kennedy wanted to be able to provide the United States with the flexibility to respond to communist expansion. The President believed that the expansion of communism would become a direct threat to the United States and Europe. While Truman and Eisenhower created policies that were mainly based on containing communism in Europe and the Middle East, President Kennedy’s doctrine’s differed from his predecessors in that his doctrine focused on Latin America, especially leading up to and after the Cuban Revolution. President Kennedy believed that the United States should contain the spread of communism by using other alternative means. During President Kennedy’s term in office there were several diplomatic crises that challenged his foreign policy doctrine. The challenges included; The Bay of Pigs in 1961, The Vietnam War in 1962, and The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Although The Bay of Pigs and the United States involvement in Vietnam were seen as major efforts that supremely impacted U.S. foreign policy, it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that almost brought the United States to the brink of a nuclear disaster and clearly solidified President Kennedy’s doctrine as a success. Some pundits suggest that the chance...
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...Kennedy's Flexible Response In 1961 John F Kennedy was made president of the United States of America. He was a younger more open type of man then the past presidents. The most famous quote of his was,”ask not what you can do fr your country,but what you can do for your country.” His doctrine was flexible response. Which was a plan that offered a range of options to choose from in dealing with a host of threats. This was significant at this time because the new approach was dramatically shifted from previous United States administrations. John F. Kennedy's respond to flexibility was the increase use of forces from small to large nuclear weapons with two main principals in hand. By destroying the other country's ability to make retaliatory against the United States of America ,and only attacking cities along with populated cities as the last resorts. Kennedy 'inherited” the Cold War when he became president. His outlook was to send more American military advisers which was 1500 to help rebuild and stop or at least halt the spread of communism. Unlike President Eisenhower he wanted bombing to stop and be the last thing or option used. At the end of World War Two Western and Soviet armies divided Germany. A very small part of East Germany was divided into two cities. They were large amounts of people going to West Berlin which was not under communism. Khrushchev wanted both cites to be under East Germany's controls. Kennedy and Khrushchev met due to USA coming over in WW2and...
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...against the Monroe Doctrine, and the USA had to act on it. The Monroe Doctrine warns all nations to not interfere in American affairs. The Nuclear Missiles that were brought to Cuba were an extreme threat to the United States, therefore, establishing a naval quarantine around Cuba and intervening had to be done for the welfare of the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a conflict between the United States and Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missile bases that were found and being built in Cuba. The conflict only lasted 13 days in the October of 1962. In the short amount of time that the Cuban Missile Crisis transpired,...
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...The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy POL 300 January 31, 2012 The key problem for his presidency clearly would be the Vietnam War. It had driven his predecessor from office, and if it were not resolved in a way that could be turned to political advantage, it would drive him from office as well. Two months after Nixon assumed the presidency, American combat deaths exceeded thirty-six hundred, and there seemed no end in sight. Nixon was in a dilemma, for during the campaign he had said that he had a "secret plan" to end the war but could not divulge it because it might upset the Paris peace negotiations. If his plan involved escalation, Democrats could charge that he was abandoning attempts to reach a peaceful solution and could point to mounting American casualties and prisoners of war. If he negotiated a solution that led to the fall of the government in Saigon, Democrats could charge he had abandoned an ally. Nixon had to find a way to cut American commitments while preserving the non-Communist government in South Vietnam—at least for a "decent interval" so that the overthrow of the regime could not be blamed on the United States (Morgan 2002). Nixon, his national security adviser Henry Kissinger, and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird settled on an approach with several elements. First, the Laird policy for "Vietnamization" was adopted. Responsibility for fighting would be turned over to the Vietnamese, in order to reduce American casualties. Gradually...
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...Pol 300 Contemporary International Problems Assignment 2 – Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy By Monique A. Frey-Jackson August 25, 2014 Professor PAZHWAK, NILLAB President Kennedy, a Doctrine: A doctrine is a form or a system that is put into place whether it is a direction of establishing foreign policy or control politically, that is put into action by a political administrative leader, a community, citizen, group, societies and states. The Presidential doctrine from President Kennedy at the time of the Cold War from 1961-1963 was, “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially to guerrilla warfare.” In 1962, when a surveillance plane by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Union, took pictures of a nuclear missile site in Cuba, there seemed to be a great need for diplomacy. But looking at the relationship prior to that between the United States and the USSR, it was great when they were allies, as the United States gave the Soviet Union millions of dollars of weapons and additional support for their fight against Nazi Germany. The US and Russia became allies, in the liberation of Europe. As the war started to come to the end, countries that were occupied by Soviet forces, which also included “most” of Germany, people wanted to either choose democracy or communism, as the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described this territory as being behind an “Iron Curtain”. The Iron Curtain...
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...January 29, 2015 “A View From The Outside Looking In” Lyndon B. Johnson was elected the 37th Vice President of the United States in 1960 and became president on November 22, 1963 aboard Air Force One following the assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was said to have added Johnson to his ticket to ensure Southern votes, and that may have been the thought, but in reality the right man inherited this great undertaking. During his initial administrative tenure under President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson endorsed the Kennedy doctrine of Vietnam. Oversaw the equal opportunity programs for minorities, and headed the space programs; all while spearheading the negotiations of the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 with the Soviet Union which became the first arms control agreement (Peters and Woolley, 1999-2015, & Bio,2015). With most doctrines, they are started by one president and finished by his successor and Johnson did what was expected. What wasn't expected was the fury in which he led each endeavor. On January 20, 1965 Lyndon B. Johnson began his first term as the elected President of the United States; holding true to his oath, he picked up where Kennedy left off. Moreover, he put out some doctrines of his own; the passage of the Medicaid and Medicare acts, and voting rights for minorities. In 1965, Johnson pushed a legislative agenda known as the "Great Society," which became the most ambitious and influential domestic program in the nation's history...
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...‘Flexible Response’ doctrine. This doctrine was initiated as a means to having alternative methods of dealing with a crisis that could lead to war. The premise then was to prevent war in any form from occurring. But Flexible Response also meant that if provoked or attacked that the United States would indeed defend itself. When Flexible Response was indoctrinated, the U.S. had already had a shaky relationship with Cuba, with which whom the doctrine was set against. The President had allowed a group of armed militias to enter Cuba to overthrow the government, they were unsuccessful. Cuba Cuba is the largest of the islands located in the West Indies. It is 42,803 square miles and just ninety miles from the coastline of the Florida Keys. A person leaving the tip of Florida could travel there in roughly one hour. Prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis the United States had a vested interest in the country, its economics and its politics. Cuba had traded sugar, tobacco and even tourism with the U.S. and many American people had land, homes and businesses there. In fact the relationship likened to that of a parent/child, the U.S. was considering annexing Cuba, with the country being only 90 miles off the coast of Florida, why not? We were assisting them financially, militarily and to some degree politically. I lieu of all of this information it only seemed feasible that we would want to have Cuba as a border state to the U.S. (www.historyofcuba.com). The Doctrine When Fidel Castro joined...
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...“The Truman Doctrine” says, “More than 1,000 villages had been burned, 85% of children were tubercular” (Truman). Europe was in bad shape during the Cold War. Ayers, et al. defines the Cold War as an era of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union conflicting mainly communism( Ayers, et al. 8--) President Truman led the United States during the beginning of the Cold War. President Eisenhower took office after Truman which left President Kennedy as the last president to lead during the Cold War. These leaders created many policies and uses of aid during their time in office to stop the spread of communism. While all of the U.S. Cold War Presidents dealt with the containment of communism, Truman emphasized giving economic aid, Eisenhower emphasized more military use, and Kennedy emphasized the idea of Flexible Response. All three presidents main goal was the containment of communism. American Anthem Reconstruction to the President says the containment policy was implemented to stop the spreading of communism. This policy was created by George F. Kennan in the late...
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...John F. Kennedy and the Flexible Response Stephen D. Burston Prof. Nicholas Bergan POL 300 International Problems 6 November 2011 John F. Kennedy and the Flexible Response During John F. Kennedy’s presidency the United States was seriously concern with stopping the spread of communism throughout the world and there where hot spots that sparked the Kennedy administrations attention. Containment was the United States foreign policy doctrine that proclaimed that the Soviet Union needed to be contained to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. This containment policy meant that the United States needed to fight communism abroad and promote democracy worldwide. During President Kennedy’s time in office he was faced with the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, the Berlin Wall Erecting in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the escalation the United States involvement in Vietnam. John F. Kennedy implemented his own version of the Containment policy with the Flexible Response policy. Kennedy’s Flexible response was the doctrine implement and used during political situations that occurred under his watch. The Bay of Pigs was the first situation John F. Kennedy had to deal with as president. The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidal Castro. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained a force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba all with the support and encouragement of the United States government. The...
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...Stalin and other Soviet leaders to have a direct influence over Eastern Europe and stop Americans the access to these markets, thus denying them to export their democratic influence. The threat of communism looming over the world during the late forties and fifties impacted the foreign policies of the United States. President Truman who was at the helm during the late forties revolved his foreign policies around the containment of communism. Soviets influence in Greece and Turkey made Americans wary of the fact that the continuing influence of the Soviets on other nations can be disastrous. Truman came up with his own Truman doctrine which revolved around the containment policy. The Truman Doctrine did not only influence United States foreign policy in Greece and Turkey but for the next several decades, other American leaders would refer to the doctrine as a justification for United States involvement in Korea, Vietnam, and other nations. The two next Presidents who followed Truman were left to finish the ongoing war against the spreading of communism. President Eisenhower who was elected in 1952 vowed to continue the fight against communism. Eisenhower’s era which was famously named ‘New Look’ focused on building strong nuclear programs rather than building on the...
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