U.S. Cold War Foreign Policy Failures

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the American failures in Cuba and Vietnam in the 1960s were due in large part to the fear, arrogance and ignorance of Cold War containment policies that developed in the aftermath of World War II. The author believes that the problem was the assumption that all political and economic reform movements in Third World nations were not indigenous but were inspired instead by the evil Communist leaders of the Soviet Union. The author states that once this Cold War policy was in effect, no leader of the U.S. had the courage, wisdom or political independence to try to alter fully that policy.

From the Paper:

"Kennedy certainly entered office under the pall of the same Cold War ideology and its containment policy, as evidenced by his "missile gap" rhetoric, his increase of advisors in Vietnam, and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. It will never be known whether he would have averted a war in Vietnam, but his test-ban treaty with the Soviets, his denunciation of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs disaster, and his plan to withdraw some troops from Vietnam indicate at least a willingness to consider more flexibility in that policy."

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