Foreign policy of the John F. Kennedy administration

Rejecting liberal pressure to choose Adlai Stevenson as Secretary of State, and ignoring the powerful senator from Arkansas J. William Fulbright, the president instead turned to Dean Rusk, a restrained former Truman official.

[8] Other key White House aides included speechwriter Ted Sorensen,[9] and advisers Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., press secretary Pierre Salinger, military expert General Maxwell D. Taylor, and party leader W. Averell Harriman.

Memorandum 55 stated that it was the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had the "responsibility for the defense of the nation in the Cold War" and memorandum 57 restricted the CIA's paramilitary operations by stating "Any large paramilitary operation wholly or partly covert which requires significant numbers of militarily trained personnel, amounts of military equipment which exceed normal CIA-controlled stocks and/or military experience of a kind and level peculiar to the Armed Services is properly the primary responsibility of the Department of Defense with the CIA in a supporting role".

[20] On November 29, 1961, American officials declared that the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) allegedly distributed a distorted, editorialized version of the Kennedy interview, given to Izvestiya employee Alexei Adzhubey.

"[26][27] Before the Cuban missile crisis, policymakers in Washington were uncertain whether or not China would break with the Soviet Union on the basis of ideology, national ambitions, and readiness for a role in guiding communist activities in many countries.

Kennedy administration officials concluded that China was more militant and more dangerous than the Soviet Union, making better relations with Moscow desirable, with both nations trying to contain Chinese ambitions.

[31][32] To rally support at home for his "Great Leap Forward", Mao deliberately made the United States a highly visible enemy, and focused even more hostility against India, to the point of low-level 33-day war along their long border in late 1962.

[40] In the days before Kennedy's assassination he told the French journalist Jean Daniel in a White House meeting, to send a message to Castro that he was willing to lift the economic embargo against Cuba so long as the Cuban government stopped supporting leftist revolutionary movements throughout Latin America.

[44] President Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's application to join the Common Market (European Economic Community) in January 1963 after appearing receptive to the idea just months earlier.

[69] Beginning in 1963, Kennedy allowed the sale to Israel of advanced US weaponry (the MIM-23 Hawk), as well as to provide diplomatic support for Israeli policies which were opposed by Arab neighbours, such as its water project on the Jordan River.

Relations between the United States and Iraq became strained following the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy on July 14, 1958, which resulted in the declaration of a republican government led by Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim.

"[75] Eisenhower established a Special Committee on Iraq (SCI) in April 1959 to monitor events and propose various contingencies for preventing a communist takeover of the country,[76][77] and "soon developed a detailed plan for assisting nationalist elements committed to the overthrow of Qasim.

The United Kingdom, which had just granted Kuwait independence on June 19 and whose economy was heavily dependent on Kuwaiti oil supplies, responded on July 1 by dispatching 5,000 troops to the country to deter any Iraqi invasion.

The Kennedy administration's initially "low-key" response to the stand-off was motivated by the desire to project an image of the U.S. as "a progressive anti-colonial power trying to work productively with Arab nationalism" as well as the preference of U.S. officials to defer to the U.K. on issues related to the Persian Gulf.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) sent Qasim a list of demands in August, which included the withdrawal of Iraqi government troops from Kurdish territory and greater political freedom.

Bundy also requested Kennedy's permission to "press State" to consider measures to resolve the situation with Iraq, adding that cooperation with the British was desirable "if possible, but our own interests, oil and other, are very directly involved.

[89][90] The State Department refused requests from the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in Baghdad, Roy Melbourne, to publicly respond to Qasim's allegations out of fear that doing so would jeopardize the remaining U.S. presence in Iraq.

[94] Pertinent contemporary documents relating to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified[95][96] and as of 2021, "[s]cholars are only beginning to uncover the extent to which the United States was involved in organizing the coup,"[97] but are "divided in their interpretations of American foreign policy.

Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James E. Akins, who worked in the Baghdad Embassy's political section from 1961 to 1964, would state that he personally witnessed contacts between Ba'ath Party members and CIA officials,[106] and that:The [1963 Ba'athist] revolution was of course supported by the U.S. in money and equipment as well.

"[109] Qasim's non-Ba'athist former deputy Abdul Salam Arif was given the largely ceremonial title of President, while prominent Ba'athist general Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was named Prime Minister.

The most powerful leader of the new government was the secretary general of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, Ali Salih al-Sa'di, who controlled the National Guard militia and organized a massacre of hundreds—if not thousands—of suspected communists and other dissidents in the days following the coup.

[120] The Ba'athist government collapsed in November 1963 over the question of unification with Syria (where a rival branch of the Ba'ath Party had seized power in March) and the extremist and uncontrollable behavior of al-Sa'di's National Guard.

[123] As Pathet Lao received Soviet support, Kennedy ordered the United States Seventh Fleet to move into the South China Sea and drew marines with helicopters into Thailand.

Congressman in 1951, Kennedy came fascinated with the area and stressed in a subsequent radio address that he strongly favored “check[ing] the southern drive of communism.”[126] However in 1954 as France was fighting a war against the Viet Minh he said that "I am frankly of the belief that no amount of American military assistance in Indochina can conquer an enemy which is everywhere and at the same time nowhere".

Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. arrived, Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu ordered South Vietnam forces, funded and trained by the CIA, to quell Buddhist demonstrations.

During the election campaign, Kennedy managed to mention Africa nearly 500 times, often attacking the Eisenhower administration for losing ground on that continent: "We have neglected and ignored the needs and aspirations of the African people.

Attempts to exert influence on Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba failed, who alternatively brought in Soviet assistance to aid in suppressing the secessionist states.

Kennedy was informed of Lumumba's murder by United Nations ambassador Adlai Stevenson and according to Jacques Lowe who was with him at the time "his hand went to his head in utter despair, 'Oh, no,' I heard him groan".

[197] Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Wayne Fredericks of the Bureau of African Affairs, the Kennedy administration's leading specialist on Africa, played a major role in constructing American policy for the suppression of Katanga.

Rostow argued that American intervention could propel a country from the second to the third stage he expected that once it reached maturity, it would have a large energized middle class that would establish democracy and civil liberties and institutionalize human rights.