page_title: History of United States foreign policy
section_title: Kennedy-Johnson 1961-1969
hierarchical_section_title: History of United States foreign policy / Cold War: 1947–1991 / Kennedy-Johnson 1961-1969
caption_attribution_description: English: President Kennedy meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in the Oval Office. The President knows but does not reveal that he is now aware of the missile build-up.Deutsch: Das Bild zeigt das Treffen von Präsident Kennedy und dem damaligen sovietischen Botschafter in den USA, Andrei Gromyko, im Oval Office. Bei diesem Treffen erwähnte Präsident Kennedy nicht, dass er bereits von den Raketen auf Kuba wusste.
context_page_description: History of United States foreign policy is a brief overview of major trends regarding the foreign policy of the United States from the American Revolution to the present. The major themes are becoming an "Empire of Liberty", promoting democracy, there was also had three different foreign policy choices expanding across the continent, supporting liberal internationalism, contesting World Wars and the Cold War, fighting international terrorism, developing the Third World, and building a strong world economy.
context_section_description: The Cold War reached its most dangerous point during the Kennedy administration in the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis began on October 16, 1962, and lasted for thirteen days. It was the moment when the Cold War was closest to exploding into a devastating nuclear exchange between the two superpower nations. Kennedy decided not to invade or bomb Cuba but to institute a naval blockade of the island. The crisis ended in a compromise, with the Soviets removing their missiles publicly, and the United States secretly removing its nuclear missiles in Turkey.  In Moscow, Communist leaders removed Nikita Khrushchev because of his reckless behavior.
  Vietnam and the Cold War are the two major issues that faced the Kennedy presidency. Historians disagree. However, there is general scholarly agreement that his presidency was successful on a number of lesser issues. Thomas Paterson finds that the Kennedy administration helped quiet the crisis over Laos;  was suitably cautious about the Congo; liberalized trade; took the lead in humanitarianism especially with the Peace Corps; helped solve a nasty dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands; achieve the Limited Test Man Treaty; created a new Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; defended Berlin; and strengthened European defenses. His willingness to negotiate with Khrushchev smoothed the Berlin crisis, and Kennedy's personal diplomacy earned him the respect of Third World leaders.
  On the two major issues, no consensus has been reached. Michael L. Krenn argues in 2017:
  Fifty-some years after his assassination, John F. Kennedy remains an enigma. Was he the brash and impulsive president who brought the world to the brink of World War III with the Cuban Missile Crisis? Or was he the brave challenger of the American military-industrial complex who would have prevented the Vietnam War? Various studies portray him as a Cold War liberal, or a liberal Cold Warrior, or come up with pithy phrases to summarize the man and his foreign policy.
  
  The Containment policy meant fighting communist expansion where ever it occurred, and the Communists aimed where the American allies were weakest. When he became president in November 1963, Lyndon Johnson's primary commitment was to his domestic policy, so he tried to minimize public awareness and congressional oversight of the operations in the war. Most of his advisers were pessimistic about the long term possibilities, and Johnson feared that if Congress took control, it would demand "Why Not Victory", as Barry Goldwater put it, rather than containment.  American  Boots on the ground in Vietnam skyrocketed  from 16,000 soldiers in 1963 to over 500,000 in 1968, plus many others in support roles outside Vietnam. Johnson refused to allow the trained men of the Army reserves or the National Guard to serve in Vietnam, because that would involve Congressional oversight. Instead he relied increasingly on the draft, which became increasingly unpopular.  With college deferments from the draft widely available, out of the 2.5 million Americans who served in Vietnam (out of 27 million Americans eligible to serve in the military) 80% came from poor and working-class backgrounds. In August 1964 Johnson secured almost unanimous support in Congress for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave him very broad discretion to use military force as he saw fit. South Vietnam had a large Well-equipped army, but it left nearly all the fighting to the Americans. In February 1968 the Viet Cong launched an all-out attack on South Vietnamese forces across the country in the Tet Offensive. The ARVN (South Vietnam's army) successfully fought off the attacks and reduced the Viet Cong to a state of ineffectiveness;  thereafter, it was the army of North Vietnam that was the main opponent.  However the Tet Offensive proved a public relations disaster for Johnson, as the public increasingly realized the United States was deeply involved in a war that few people und
caption: President Kennedy meeting with Soviet foreign minister Gromyko in 1962. Kennedy knew about Soviet missiles in Cuba but had not revealed this information yet. The Cuban Missile crisis brought the world close to the brink of World War III but luckily cooler heads prevailed.
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