Ineffective Jfk?

John F. Kennedy was not an effective President. He had several problems that were disastrous to his office. A problem that occurred in the early days of his presidency was that he sent Cuban exiles to Cuba where they where captured. Another problem was that he was unable to cope with the civil rights movement and attempted to stop it in order to look more in control to the USSR. By being unable to deal with both domestic and foreign affairs, JFK was not able to be the effective president that he had campaigned to be.

            In the end stages of his term, Eisenhower and the CIA were planning an attack on Cuba. However, despite the plans being finalized, Eisenhower left and Kennedy arrived before they could take place. Therefore, the decision to attack or to pull back was left to a young president, Kennedy. If Kennedy went with the attack, he faced “an international disaster,” however, if he pulled back then the public would attack him “for failing to implement Eisenhower’s plans to combat communism in the hemisphere.” Therefore, whether Kennedy decided to attack or not could both have unfortunate conclusions. In an effort to compromise, Kennedy did go with the attack, but sent fewer planes then the CIA wanted. The planes were needed to destroy Castro’s planes so that when Cuban exiles attacked Cuba, they would not have to guard themselves from air attacks. By sending only a few planes, the planes were unable to destroy all of the Cuban planes and when an attack came, the Cuban exiles were defenseless and either killed or captured. This meant that not only had the attack not gone well, Kennedy was also responsible for captives in Cuba that would cost him food and supplies to secure. (358-60) By only going in half way, Kennedy showed how ineffective he would be in presidential affairs. This lack of decision making would is a problem because the President needs to be strong and make good decisions. Kennedy was ineffective in the first major issue for his career.

            While running for President, Kennedy understood the reasons for having a black vote. By forcing southern states to allow African American’s to vote, Kennedy would be able to have a larger chance to be re-elected. Therefore, at the beginning of the campaign, Kennedy was more pro-voting rights. (215) However, as the Cold War became more and more important, the civil rights movement was becoming more and more costly for Kennedy politically. This domestic problem was portraying the American population as being divided. Democracy was supposed to be strong in the face of the Soviet Communism but the lack of voting rights for African Americans was hurting American image. (383) Two days before Kennedy was scheduled for an international trip to Canada, news came out of a beating in Alabama. Freedom Riders had been beaten in Birmingham. The Freedom riders were groups of people that were riding across the south. Made up of 13 blacks and whites, they would try to integrate southern bus stops by having whites use black facilities and vice versa. Unfortunately, in Birmingham, they were mobbed and beaten horribly. This attack showed Kennedy how divided American’s were on the problems with civil rights. In order to appear united in front of Canada, Kennedy asked the civil rights leaders to, as Bobby Kennedy said, enter a “cooling-off” period. Upon saying this, the civil rights leaders responded by saying that they had been cooling off for over two hundred years. (384-88) This attack on civil rights by Kennedy would leave the country more vulnerable then before. Due to the attempt to shut down the civil rights in order to appear more united, Kennedy instead looked weaker. His plan for a united Democratic state was not being Democratic as long as a large portion of people could not vote. This was perhaps Kennedy’s least effective plan and his most insensitive moment to the people wanting Democratic power.