John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan - Presidents Effects

                                        Presidents Effects         

Yes, presidents were a big part of the foreign policy during the Cold War which was the Intense rivalry between the Soviet Union and the U.S. The presidents did influence this some were successful and others were not.  Some presidents that contributed a great effectiveness were John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan but one of the worst presidents was Richard Nixon, these presidents all had important decisions that had to be made in order to try to make the foreign policy as simple as possible but not all succeeded,

        One of the Presidents that were a great contribution to the foreign policy was JFK, yes he did have a hard time in the beginning of his Presidency with the Bay of Pigs which was a plan to round up Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Castio at the Bay of Pigs clearly he didn’t manage this well but after he learned from his mistakes and made good decisions  He took care of the foreign policy very well. In Document E President Kennedy Letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union it shows how he is handling matters more professionally and trying to fix the situation.  In the letter, he is very mature and understanding of the other side and showing how he gets their point of view which is a great characteristic to have as a President. He says to Khrushchev “Each with the ability to inflict great destruction on the other side and to do great damage to the rest of the world in the process. We therefore have a great destruction ..but you and I are unable to shift to anyone else the burden of finding them,” This clearly shows Kennedys matureness and how he is able to handle hard situations and talk sense into other people when needed like he did. In the document you can see how he is talking about the foreign policy in a well-mannered way and is being very persuasive which helps us because it’s an important policy to discuss

        Another President who did effect the foreign policy in a positive way was Ronald Regan. He was an anti-communist and he did not like the Soviet Union at all and thought of them as an “evil empire”. He was a man of business and was good at talking to others like Kennedy. His goal was to make sure the Soviet Union had very little power and not threatening to the U.S but made sure they knew he didn’t want to start anything serious. He was very careful with his words like in his Farewell Address to the Nation. “We must…continue to work together to lesson and eliminate tension and mistrust. My view is that President Gorbachev is different from previous Soviet leaders. I think he knows some of the things wrong with his society and is trying to fix them…make sure that the Soviet Union eventually emerges from this process is a less threatening one.” Reagan was also understanding of the other side but he knew there had to be many changes made in order for the Soviet Union to not to be as threatening, and he did do that by the end of his Presidency which shows he is hard working and will work to achieve for our benefits also. Reagan was a great attribution to the Presidency during the foreign policy.