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All right students, after having a number of classes with you, enjoying a majority of them, I would hate to tell you I would like a paper to be handed in about a history related subject. I do not want some scribble dribbles put on my desk, I want actual papers. If you give me crap, you will receive what you have given to me. This paper will count ( Read more... )
Here is my paper, Professor Saber.
For many, nuclear war brings to mind a particular type of image: a giant mushroom cloud engulfing the Earth in a wall of smoke, fire, and instant death: annihilation for all humanity as we know it. The idea of a nuclear holocaust once belonged only in science fiction but in October of 1962, this possibility echoed in newspapers all over the world as the two superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States stood at the brink of nuclear war. With this time the common mental image of the mushroom cloud bore a particular significance. However, one of the most provocative and memorable photographs from this period of intense crisis is the one presented in the New York Times of President Kennedy addressing the nation as broadcasted the night before. The image, and the speech accompanying it, cast the United States in a heroic and romantic light to garner support to the president’s stance by villainizing Communism and the Soviets while alleviating the shame earned by the Bay of Pigs from America’s name.
From the end of the Second World War to the early 1990s, the United States and Soviet Union entered a stand-off in the well-named Cold War, best known for how the conflict never escalated into a “hot war” involving battle situations. However, for thirteen days in October of 1962, the world doubted whether or not the Cold War would stay “cold” in what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the Soviet Union continued to extend its borders, the American public grew more and more aware of what this could mean. As illuminated in a Newsweek survey from July 1960, the “international situation ‘towers above all others as the No. 1 issue of the coming Presidential campaign’ “ (Weisbrot 14). Castro overthrew the Cuban government established by the United States in January of 1959 and during the time of the Newsweek survey, Eisenhower had retaliated against Cuba by cutting off imports of Cuban sugar (Finney). A Communist colony so close to the United States scared Americans as they worried about the freedom of their country and the world. Kennedy said, as stated by Weisbrot, “voters asked [me] more often about Cuba and Castro than any other foreign issue” (35). The mental image of the Communist nation as an evil tyrant to be thrown off clearly rang in the minds of Americans during the time period.
Throughout the 1960 campaign, references to Hitler and the French and English “appeasement” tactics ran wild. Nixon and Kennedy both gave distinct militaristic ideas on how they believed the United States should handle the Communist threat. However, Kennedy took that chance first when he was not only elected him to office, but he directly engaged Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. This action ended in defeat and “raised the most serious internal doubts about the President’s judgment, the wisdom of his advisers, and the quality of their advice” (Allison, 187). So, when the Cuban Missile Crisis arose in 1962, several opinions not only of the administration but also of Kennedy himself had to be conceptualized A plan developed by the armed services of the United States, despite serving directly beneath Kennedy, for the “elimination of Communist Cuban thorn… deeply reflected the lesson that these organizations had learned from the Bay of Pigs: the Kennedy administration could not be trusted to do what was required of it” as well as the fact that Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union -the equivalent to the President of the United States-, “both after the Bay of Pigs and after the Vienna meeting… might have misjudged his mettle” (Allison 125, 194 respectively). Kennedy and his administration had to prove to both Khrushchev and his own country that he could stand the test.
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This picture of President Kennedy, as simple and one-dimensional as it seems, projects, in my opinion, a very powerful image of not only Kennedy but also the country he represented. To begin, his posture exemplifies this: he appears not rigid but firm, opposing the enemy with strong but not brute force. The Iron Curtain that divided Germany defined the inflexible ways of the “Commies,” they were unable to see any sort of compromise to the situation to the point that they blockaded West Berlin to where essential supplies had to be flown in by American forces. On the other hand, Kennedy, in his speech, does not use the term “blockade,” despite the militaristic notions he campaigned and assumed mental state of the American people. Despite the fear that America would be seen in the same light as France and Britain in 1930s Europe, the “quarantine” in no way directly threatened the Soviet Union itself, “it began at the lowest level in the use of force and permitted a step-by-step progression up the ladder of coercion, giving the Soviets repeated opportunities to consider again” (Hilsman 102). In a sense to say, “We are not the Commies and we will never be,” especially emphasized by the flag with the eagle on it in the background of the image-the epitome of freedom in the Western world.
Again, in the image presented in the New York Times, Kennedy appears not too far away instead rather very close at hand at a social distance; his upper torso remains the lowest we see of him, as if sitting there with him in his tirade against the Soviets. This further villainizes the Soviet Union because we identify ourselves with Kennedy, he is our hero not theirs. We share a certain level of intimacy with the man who we elected to take care of us in times of crisis like these. This intimacy gives him a romantic and heroic image, as he does not sit as an immature and inexperienced President who the Premier of the Soviet Union does not respect, he sits as a defender of peace and liberty with a level head to handle even the toughest of challenges that the world and its threats can throw. This mentality continues to draw upon the mental images that a single man can stand against evil, like a superhero in modern culture.
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Speaking to the public, and the subsequent attention his image in the newspaper received, may have finally thrown the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs from Kennedy’s shoulders. He stood firm against the Soviet Union without sending in an invasion force or resorting to an alternative militaristic solution. The image represents this through his posture in the picture, drawing away from all of the chatter of “appeasement” tactics during his campaign. We can clearly draw conclusions that he fights for us against the dark forces of the world. He directly spoke to not only the Soviets and the Cubans or even Communists, but to all the past, present, and future enemies of America all around the world. He is one single man redeeming himself and the country he serves and saving the entire world in the process from the threat of nuclear war.
Works Cited
Allison, Grahm T. Essence of Decision. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1971.
Finney, John W. "Nation's Involvement With Cuba Began Under Jefferson's Reign." New York Times 23 Oct. 1962: 21. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Herman B. Wells Library, Bloomington, IN. 21 Feb. 2009
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Glinkin, Anatoli, dir. Defcon 2- Cuban Missile Crisis. Prod. Discovery Channel. Youtube. 23 May 2008. 21 Feb. 2009 .
Hilsman, Roger. The Cuban Missile Crises : The Struggle over Policy. New York: Praeger, 1996.
Kennedy, Robert F. Thirteen Days : A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ed. Richard Neustadt and Graham T. Allison. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company Limited, 1971.
Weisbrot, Robert. Maximum Danger : Kennedy, the Missiles, and the Crisis of American Confidence. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2001.
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