John F. Kennedy- The 35th President of the United States (1961-1963). A U.S. representative (1947-1953) and senator (1953-1960) from Massachusetts, he became the youngest man elected to the presidency (1960). Kennedy approved the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs (1961) and forced Khrushchev to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba (1962). He also established the Peace Corps (1961) and advocated civil rights reform. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963
Flexible response- Nuclear strategy implemented by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to supersede previous policy of Massive Retaliation. Flexible Response was implemented to develop several options, other than the nuclear option, for quickly dealing with enemy aggression. The strategy sought to target an enemy's military force first, not its civilian population.
Fidel Castro- Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew the corrupt regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and soon after established a Communist state. He was prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and has been president of the government and First Secretary of the Communist Party since 1976.
Berlin Wall- 1961-89, a barrier first erected in Aug., 1961, by the East German government along the border between East and West Berlin, and later extended along the entire border between East Germany and West Germany. It was built to halt large numbers of defections and to prevent E. Berliners commuting to the West. Erected at a time of growing tension between East and West, the barbed wire was eventually replaced by concrete topped with wire. In 1989, after hundreds of thousands of East Germans had fled westward via Hungary and Czechoslovakia, on Nov. 9, the beleaguered East German regime lifted travel restrictions, and days later dismantling of the wall began. Built to keep people in, the wall was dismantled in a failed gamble by the...