John F Kennedy's Foreign Policy

John F Kennedy As mentioned throughout the textbook, “ Kennedy close advisers believed that Eisenhower’s foreign policy establishment was stultified, slow moving, overly reliant on brinksmanship and massive retaliation, and complacent” (pg.675). They feared the State Department would be unable to implement a new international vision. Even though many felt as such, Kennedy was determined to control foreign policy through a young energetic staffer who was capable of making their own informal contacts within the foreign affairs bureaucracy. Also as mentioned in the textbook, “Kennedy though that Eisenhower and Secretaries Dulles and Herter had all but ceded the newly emerging states in Latin America, Asia and Africa to the communists” (pg.675). Kennedy’s foreign policy did not back up what he mentioned during his inaugural speech in which he stated, “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty”. But what his …show more content…
As mentioned in the textbook, “Congress established the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1961 as a separate entity under Department of States auspices” (pg. 675). Kennedy’s domestic program which was described as “New Frontier”, was encountered with difficulty passaging through Congress. Even though it was problems with getting it passed through Congress, Kennedy was given more time to compromise on his legislative program. Kennedy received some advice which gave him the ideas to propose some new social programs, which included; federal aid for education, medical care for the elderly, urban mass transit, a Department of Urban Affairs, and regional development in Appalachia. The most volatile domestic issue was the Civil Rights. Which were African Americans striving to reverse centuries of social and economic