Another myth. There has never been any significant indication that JFK would have removed US troops from Vietnam had he lived. The idea of the United States' not living up to a commitment to an ally and letting that country intentionally fall to the communists was unthinkable to a cold warrior like JFK. Read his inaugural speech for instance, it is a call to arms. Had he let Vietnam down there would have been calls for his impeachment, remember, only TWO Senators voted against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to EXPAND the war in 1964.
JFK ending the Cold War during his second term would have been a magic trick of epic proportions. During the brief Kennedy Administration, relations between the US and the Soviet Union were NEVER worse. The Bay of Pigs Invasion, The Cuban Missle Crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall all took place during the thousand days of the Kennedy Administration. The conditions that existed almost 30 years later that enabled the Reagan Administration to end the Cold War were unique and a far cry from the confrontations that
marked the early 1960s.
Firstly - let's not get into the Tonkin Gulf resolution.
Ok, you consider the Inaguration speech a call to arms... then what of the American University speech of June 1963? (his greatest imho) I believe evidence showed that Kennedy's stance was shifting - he was a cold warrior, but I think the bay of pigs, CMC showed him the REALITY of the situation he faced.
- Bay of Pigs was an Eisenhower plan Kennedy followed through on, and it is well documented, regretted ever doing.
- Cuban Missile Crisis was in essence a creation of the first tactical error in regards to Cuba
- The building of the Berlin Wall took place in August of 1961 after Kennedy had been railroaded in Vienna. The building had NOTHING to do with Kennedy, it was the fear of East Germans and their Soviet masters about the almost complete evacuation of the professional classes into the West.
In Sept. 1963 he regarded the Vietnam conflict as a Vietnamese conflict. Yes he sent advisors, but he was going to pull many many out. I saw an interview with the late Hugh Sidey who believed that Kennedy was going to lower total numbers in Vietnam, but make no clear stance either way until after the '64 election.
I agree to a point- US/Soviet relations hit their worst strides under Kennedy. However lets not forget the positives especially after Oct. 1962 - the Moscow hotline and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
