A U.S. Tripartite Experiment in the Kennedy Administration

In Chapter 4 I assess Taylor’s influence in the Kennedy administration and his contribution to the lack of trust by civilian leaders in the JCS after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. I also discuss Taylor’s advice on crises ranging from Laos and Vietnam to Berlin and Cuba. Taylor emerged as counterinsurgency coordinator in Washington, drafted a doctrinal framework, and oversaw American efforts in Vietnam and half a dozen other countries. By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Taylor had just been installed as JCS chairman. He was a hawk on Cuba, but even though he advised air strikes against missile bases, he backed Kennedy’s naval quarantine against the opposition of the service chiefs. In Vietnam, too, Taylor was a hawk who pushed for the use of air power.

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Kennedy Administration, John F.

Encyclopedia of Drug Policy ◽

10.4135/9781412976961.n190 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Pate

Keyword(s):

Kennedy Administration

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TURKEY & ISRAEL BRINKMANSHIP & THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE ERDOGAN GOVERNMENT

The Levantine Review ◽

10.6017/lev.v1i1.2149 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Ben Lombardi

Keyword(s):

Kennedy Administration ◽

Grand Strategy ◽

Cuban Missile Crisis ◽

High Tension

Brinkmanship occurs when a state threatens to use force to pressure an adversary to offer concessions that it would otherwise be unwilling to make save under threat of war. As such, it is an intrinsically dangerous form of statecraft, for it depends upon very clear and easily comprehended signalling so that an opponent can both appreciate what is being demanded and the possible consequences of non-compliance. Brinkmanship also requires a very steady hand in its implementation for the potential for escalation is ever-present, and can be triggered by poor communications, unexpected mishaps, or misunderstandings by both the instigator and the object of its policy. Perhaps the best known example of this type of mailed fist diplomacy occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis when the Kennedy Administration declared a blockade on Cuba and threatened to use force to maintain it. The crisis came to a close when Moscow withdrew its missiles from Cuba in return for private assurances that US missiles in Turkey would be dismantled. Before that happened, there were many moments of high tension as Soviet-flagged ships approached US naval vessels tasked to enforce the quarantine zone. The possibility of war was real even if, as we now know, neither leader wanted it to occur.

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