John F. Kennedy delivers a commencement address that became known as a “strategy of peace” speech at American University on June 10, 1963.
Topics included subjects such as Berlin, disarmament, nuclear weapons testing, the two countries' sharply differing political ideologies, and the spread of communism into Southeast Asia.
For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited—seemingly on the brink of nuclear war—and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The fever pitch of the Cold War led President Kennedy to speak before the United Nations on September 25, 1961, where he poignantly argued that both East and West should reduce their arms and armies to the point necessary to maintain internal order and permit the United Nations to be the international peace force.
Once the Cuban Missile Crisis was officially over, the new task of the Cold War was to establish new norms and open dialogue between the two super powers. Although still decades from the ending of hostilities, Kennedy and Khrushchev did establish a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin and began discussions on a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
In October 1962, James Meredith, an African American who believed that “a greater use should be made of the Negro potential,” enrolled at the segregated University of Mississippi in Oxford. When riots ensued and two people died, President Kennedy sent federal troops to Oxford.
This cartoon, which first appeared in the Washington Post, is representative of John F. Kennedy's role in the escalation of the Vietnam war. JFK's main priority with Vietnam was sending financial aid to South Vietnam in order to support democratic governments, but without becoming too involved.
