Another major problem Kennedy faced was the missile crises in Cuba. Since 1959 Cuba had been a communist country, led by Fidel Castro. Cuba is very close to the U.S.A. If communists decide to put missiles in Cuba, this would be another major problem for Kennedy to deal with. In 1962 the worst fears were realised, there had been a missile build up in Cuba. On the 22nd of October Kennedy announced he was mounting a naval blockade around Cuba, he also called on the soviets to remove their weapons. On the 23rd of October Kennedy receives a telegram off Khrushchev saying that the Soviet ships will not observe the Naval blockade On the 24th of October the soviet ships reach the blockade and either stop or turn around and head back. Khrushchev sends another fax saying that if Kennedy lifts the blockade he will take his missiles out of Cuba. On 27th Khrushchev demanded that Kennedy also takes his missile bases out of Turkey. On the same day an American U2 Spy plane is shot down by the Russians. Kennedy ignored this and said to Khrushchev he would lift blockade if he would dismantle missile sites. On the 28th of October Khrushchev agreed and the crisis ended. On November 28th the Russian bombers were pulled out of Cuba and Kennedy lifted the Blockade.
On the one hand Kennedy can be seen as a successful President because of his positive image. Kennedy was seen as family man he was very often photographed with his children and family. Kennedy and his wife also possessed move star looks and the people of America found them very attractive. In America people associated good looks with intelligence, therefore Kennedy was a well-trusted man. In 1982 a Harris survey asked the American people about who their favourite ever president was and Kennedy dominated the poll, the people of America said he had the most appealing personality. The impact on the Americans of Kennedy’s death was massive effect. The country’s perception after his death had automatically changed for the better as he is remembered as a wonderful man and a war hero. He was also seen as a war hero as he received a medal for bravery therefore this proved Kennedy image as a war hero. 10 million people around the world tuned into their TVs for up to ten hours at a time to find out about his death.
Kennedy is also seen as a success over the Civil rights act. On June 11th 1963 Kennedy made a T.V. appearance showing his massive support for the African/American Nation an their equal rights. Kennedy stated, “ Who among us would be content to have the colour of his skin changed and stand in his place.” Kennedy was the main reason why Civil Rights Act was so successful. Kennedy asked for a legislation to be passed so that everyone on America would be part of the same community and that all people of America would use the same restaurants, stores and other public facilities. Also Kennedy did more than any other had done before him as he had altogether appointed 40 African Americans to senior posts including 5 as Federal judges. Kennedy had also appointed his brother Robert as an attorney General which made him head of the justice department. As head of justice he bought 57 lawsuits against local official for obstructing African Americans who wished to register a vote. Kennedy created the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity. This made sure that jobs were given equally between Americans and the American African races.
In the film 13 Days it shows Kennedy as being calm under pressure as president of U.S.A. He is given many choices but decides to make his own mind up about how he dealt with the problems. This showed Kennedy to be a strong and dependable president, it shows us that Kennedy does not feel intimidated by the Russian Soviets and does not feel pressurised into making any decision, we see this as he stands up to Khrushchev and the other Soviet Generals. The success shown by the media of this crisis shows the people of America that Kennedy was indeed a successful president.
As we read sources C1 and C2 we start to see a different side of Kennedy, which the public of America and the world did not see. Source C1 shows us many of the affairs that Kennedy had while he was president and married with children. These affairs were with many famous female actresses such as Janet Leigh, Zsa Zsa Gabor and most famously Marilyn Monroe. We are told that Kennedy was just as happy to have sex with prostitutes. Kennedy is shown to have lacked self-restraint and was totally addicted to sex. Theses are things that were well kept secrets from anyone especially the media, as he was such a busy and photographed man. From the source we also get the idea that Kennedy’s wife Jackie had some idea what had been going on.
From source C2 we can see that Kennedy may not have been as successful as the media at the time had made him out to be. Evidence shows us that Kennedy did not have his crew men on his PT109 boat ready at the time of the incident as two of them were lying down and later on supervisor of the PT boats Thomas Glover Garfield said that Kennedy was not a particularly good boat commander.
Kennedy can been seen as unsuccessful as sources C3 and C4 show us that he was not committed to the civil rights act as we see from source C3 he put off action on Federal mortgage loans. In February 1963 Kennedy sent a civil rights package to congress to secure black voting rights. This was a moot point. The president did very little to promote the passing of the bill. Later on Kennedy was forced to change his ways of commitment to the Civil rights after the fighting in Birmingham on May the 3rd. Source C4 shows us the massive differences in the type of community in which the black and the white people live in it shows us that the unemployment figures for the black people is a lot higher even though the population is a lot smaller.
Kennedy can also be seen as unsuccessful over what he did in the Cuban missile crisis as he was a young president and gave a very vulnerable impression to Nikita Khrushchev who was the president of the USSR at the time. Khrushchev wrote the source C5 and he says that he never had any intention of starting a war with the Americans; this shows that Kennedy must have over reacted to the situation. Kennedy was a young president and believed that the security of the U.S. was threatened so Khrushchev sent a note to Kennedy saying that they would remove the missiles providing that Kennedy wouldn’t start a war with Cuba. According to this source all Kennedy did was to send a letter of assurance back to Khrushchev saying that he wouldn’t start a war against the Cubans. Therefore this tells us that there was no need for the heroics, which Kennedy performed, and that he only put the Americans in further danger by making the situation worse than it was. Many historians blame the president for the danger, which had faced America while the Russian bombers occupied Cuba. During this happening Kennedy had one eye on the important mid-term elections coming up in November, we are told that he wanted to win domestic support by taking a tough chance against the Soviets. This shows Kennedy as an unsuccessful president because he is not completing his job properly.
Personally from what I have seen and read about Kennedy I believe he was an unsuccessful president. The interpretations of Kennedy as a president have dramatically changed from the time of his presidency to now 43 years on. There are many reasons as to why he is seen as a success, like the media made sure he was given a good image, therefore the people of America and the world could only believe what they would read in the papers. Other reasons to how Kennedy could be successful such as the way he handled the Cuba missile crises and how he heroically saved his crewmen on his ship and also how he made great contribution to the Civil rights act. These interpretations of Kennedy have come about many different ways. It is said that Kennedy manipulated the media to enforce that he was seen as successful, also to cover many things up like his connections with the mafia and his sex addiction. We now have modern portrayals of Kennedy like the films “JFK” and “13 Days” which show Kennedy in a different light to how we know he was. The death of Kennedy at the time when he manipulated the media and was loved by his country was truly devastating, but we have the benefit of hindsight plus we were not emotionally involved with his death, therefore we judge his character on all evidence that came out on a later date not just what happened at the time. For example in 1975 the world found out about Operation Mongoose, the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro.
However the positive interpretations of Kennedy have come from the sources that wrote about Kennedy at his presidency, also those who were emotionally involved
