The Vienna Summit
On the heels of the Bay of Pigs disaster, Kennedy would be put to the test again. The Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev wanted to meet the young President face to face in Vienna, Austria. Khrushchev was no pushover. He had no respect for Kennedy prior to the meeting and was unlikely to be moved after. Joseph Stalin’s successor, Khrushchev had visited the United States in 1959. During this trip he called for a Soviet and American friendship, while simultaneously declaring “We will bury you.” (Faragher, Buhle , Czitrom, Armitage & et al, 2009) Kennedy came to the Vienna Summit ill prepared for the long drawn out sessions. The hopes were to strengthen Soviet American relations, but in the end the summit accomplished very little. Nikita Khrushchev vigorously lectured Kennedy about the hypocrisy of American foreign policy; all the while, Kennedy’s bad back plagued him for the long hours spent with Khrushchev. Sensing some sort of anguish in his counterpart, Khrushchev equated it to weakness. Following their meeting Khrushchev said that Kennedy was “very inexperienced, even immature,” and “too intelligent and too weak.” (Thrall & Wilkins, 2008) The feelings were mutual. Kennedy left the summit claiming it was the “roughest thing in my life,” adding “He just beat the hell out of me. I’ve got a terrible problem if he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts. Until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him.” Months later, The Soviets would make their move, and put the President to the test. (Thrall & Wilkins, 2008)