History Less Traveled: Cold War, Part 3

If you happen to be new and you want to read previous parts to this series, I would highly recommend clicking PART 1 and PART 2. Enjoy!

Welcome to the third leg of our journey through the cold war. We left off on part 2 with a bit of cliffhanger but I left you with a huge hint. Cuba. JFK is known for many different things as I explained previously. He’s known for his good looks, smarts, speech making, dating Madonna, being assassinated, and brinkmanship. Its alright to laugh here because he was actually a pretty cool guy. However, brinkmanship? What in the world is that you may be asking yourself?  Brinkmanship is a real word that is defined per google as:

the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics.

JFK played a dangerous game especially when it came to facing off against the Soviet Union. You may remember I mention his rallying speech about doing whatever you can for the country. I would describe his foreign policy as brash and bold. All of this to say that JFK got information regarding Cuba and the Soviet plans to put nuclear launch silos in Cuba. The information was part accurate and part propaganda of the Soviets. The Soviets were in fact supplying Cuba with material and helping them build silos. However, this information didn’t come until after the Bay of Pigs.

JFK’s Bay of Missiles 

What if I told you that JFK decided to use a plan made by former President Eisenhower to overthrow Fidel Castro? This plan was based purely on the fact that Castro was an hardcore communist. Fidel Castro is now dead as of 2016. In the plan, code named Bay of Pigs, the US government sent in a team of secret operatives to overthrow the communist government of Fidel Castro. In the bigger scheme this makes complete sense in terms of how the US typically operates and for the security of the US. Eisenhower was no noob at government overthrows. Eisenhower overthrew on the order 2-3 governments, off the top of my head I can remember he did Iran and Egypt. If you hadn’t guessed it was all about the supply of US oil from the middle east. Sound familiar? We’ll come back to this topic later on in the series.

Long story short, JFK’s Bay of Pigs failed miserably. The operatives were met with strong resistance. Fidel stayed in power and became even closer with the Soviets. A little over a year later, the US government spy planes spotted aforementioned construction of missile silos in Cuba by the Soviet Union. This lead to probably what I’ve heard it call the scariest time in American history. In part 1, I mentioned that my parents and grandparents had lived through this time period. Curiously I’ve ask older individuals who lived through to describe what it was like. Imagine having bomb drills at school where you hide under your desk. I even know of school in upstate New York that still has a bona-fide bomb shelter. After the information got out to the American public, obviously fear took over.

The Cuban missile crisis as its become to be known, ended because cooler heads prevailed. In the end, Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev struck a deal. The basic terms were the US remove missile sites in Turkey and the Soviet Union would stop the construction of the sites in Cuba. The US had a crazy two years in 1961-1962. These two events reflect the dichotomies that I harken back to again and again. The US and the Soviet were in a race to both build weapons and prove each economic system was superior. Unfortunately in hindsight, the Soviets never had a chance. The US was chugging along pumping out more nuclear weapons and better economic output than the Soviets could ever have done. Remember the Soviets used a state run economy where the government set the production goals and owned all the businesses.

The Great Legislator 

JFK’s tumultuous tenure as President ended just as chaotic as it had began. JFK was assassinated in Dallas in an open roof limo. (Whoever thought that was a good idea forgot sniper rifles existed. Also after that incident, the President has never rode in an open roof car again) Now if your into conspiracy you can google the various theories about who did it and why and how. Before you do that let me move forward to the man that took over for JFK. His name is Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas. (LBJ for short) LBJ was a career politician who made his name famous in the senate. He worked his way up to the senate majority leader and eventually was JFK’s vice president. When LBJ was handed the reins somewhat abruptly, he used all the congressional experience to his advantage. There’s only really two significant things to discuss with LBJ: The Great Society and the Vietnam War.

The Great Society (Introduction, will be continued in Part 4)

The Great Society is known as LBJ’s greatest accomplishment, his claim to fame. The Great Society is the name of a bundle (quite literally) of legislation that was passed under LBJ’s six years in office. I can’t say that any President will be this productive ever again. However, the jury is out and unfortunately productivity isn’t as important as effectiveness. LBJ’s motives were pure. The problem is that his policy was flawed in similar ways to today’s democratic candidates. Before I start criticizing the man, I want give you a fairly in depth look at some of the important laws that he made. Some of them are actually good. Many of them are quite disappointing.

The Great Society touched almost every facet of American life. What is amazing is how LBJ was able to pull all this together with just SIX years in office. By the way, his first set of  bills passed in 1964. This was only  a year after he took office just two hours after JFK died. The Great Society encompasses things such as: Healthcare, Housing, Education, Poverty, Voting Rights and Civil Rights.  In addition to passing all this legislation, he managed to escalate the Vietnam conflict.

Its safe to say LBJ has an impressive record as President. But his mark left on the American nation is still relevant. A lot of today’s social programs were born in the Great Society. You may not be surprised to know that LBJ’s idol was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal heavily influenced his Great Society. The main difference being that America wasn’t suffering a major economic meltdown in the early to mid 1960s like it was in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Let’s wrap it up there. Next time on Part 4, The Great Society and the escalation of the Vietnam War. You can also expect to see the start of analysis of these events on current times. The Cold War is really going to heat up! Thanks for reading!

Social Media

Minds @gpslife12

Facebook: Garrett’s Life Experience’s Blog