Superpowers: The Cuban Missile Crisis

c) Fidel Castro was a leader eho declared himself a communist, thus forcing the communist rule in Cuba. The enforcement led to the Cuban missile crisis and the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Cuban revolution took place in 26th July 1953 and ended in 1st January 1959. It was caused by overthrowing the president at that time, Fulgencio Batista. It started when Fidel Castro led a group of rebels against the president of Cuba Fulgencio Batista. At first it started with a small group of supporters, then the group of rebels started to expand and raise awareness when Fidel went on a Propaganda tour, which then turned into a civil revolution. The group of rebels were unsatisfied with their dictator, and demanded freedom which slowly caused Cuba to be a communist country.

During the Cold War there were many different and defining factors that affected the run of the course of this war. Something that affected the Cold War to a large extent was the American policy of containment which was designed to stop communism and their methods to do so. As America was a country that would normally stay within their own boundaries when responding to troubles. The Cold War, in particular, was a different war for America as they felt that they needed to get involved in this worldwide event. The Containment Policy was created by George Kennan in 1947 and was the United States’ main method of fighting against the Soviet Union during the Cold War (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/kennan). Because the Americans were very against the idea of communism, the containment policy was needed to help stop the spread of communism growing into other countries. The United States wanted more allies, and so provided resources to multiple countries to stop them from falling to communism gained their trust. The containment policy largely contributed to the Cold War because it formed the Marshall Plan, which helped to shape the NATO and the Truman Doctrine made the war more stressful.

The Cold War was a very significant period of time in the history of the world. The two Superpowers, USSR and the United States of America, were in the battlefield of ideology representing Socialism and Capitalism respectively. One of the most crucial conflicts in this Nuclear Arms Race was the Cuban Missile Crisis; in fact, it was the closest that the two sides ever got to the nuclear annihilation of the entire human species. As per the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, all the Americas would eventually be under the United States of America, and this supposedly justified the Bay of Pigs invasion by the U.S. to overthrow Castro, and return Capitalism to the nation. In consequence to this threatening attack of the U.S. Castro approached Khrushchev for economic and military support to stand up against Kennedy. Khrushchev and Castro thought that the Soviet missiles landing in Cuba would be the perfect recipe to get to an advantage in the war against Capitalism, and secure Socialist Cuba at the same time. In this manner, Castro and the Cubans were being defensive in their action of seeking help from the Soviet Union and merely placing nuclear missiles in Cuba; it cannot be termed to be aggression against the United States of America if it was a measure undertaken to secure a nation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in the month of October, 1962 when American-Soviet relations were tested by the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union. Many historians point to this moment in time as the closest the United States and the Soviets ever came to nuclear war. The tensions began to rise once the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, supported by the American government, failed to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba. As a result, Castro was open for the Soviet Premier Khrushchev to place troops and nuclear missiles to threaten the United States. Khrushchev considered this justifiable because of the American missiles positioned in Turkey. The support for Cuba provided the Soviets with several political and diplomatic advantages, and became an immediate threat in the eyes of the American government.

The Cuban-U.S relationship was a smooth and promising one until it got entangled in a web of an unforeseen catastrophe. Cuba is a sovereign state operating under a unitary government and a former colony of the Spanish empire up until after the Spanish-American war in1898 that saw the defeat of Spain by the United State and this was as a result of the fight against colonialism which the United States took upon itself to liberate its neighboring countries coupled with its expansionist desires. And, ever since then, the United State has been directing the Cuban affairs politically and economically. After the coup that led to the exit and overthrow of General Fulgencio Batista in 1959 by Fidel Castro, the American hope of establishing a stronger bond with Cuba in order to keep its business interest flourishing began staggering as a result of the building of economic ties with

There were three different options to contemplate during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This all started when the US planned a secret attack on Cuba. Then Cuba and USSR planted missiles ready to attack on the US. The US planted missiles in Turkey and then it all began. The three solutions to the Cuban Missile Crisis were a nuclear war, limited war, or negotiate a way to remove the missiles.

Firstly, Cuba and the Soviets already had a very bad relationship with the United States. Research shows that, “Another key factor in the Soviet missile scheme was the hostile relationship between the United States and Cuba.” (“Cuban Missile Crisis”) The quote makes the statement in the second sentence true. The United States did not agree on how the government in Cuba was run and tried to overthrow it before but did not win. Cuba and the Soviet Union wanted to team up on the United States to get revenge. Another reason was Cuba’s dictator Fidel Castro was not very stable as the dictator and wanted more than he actually needed. Since he was a dictator he could make anything happen. All of this research let me to conclude that the best reason for the Cuban Missile Crisis was the relationship between all of the countries and how they didn’t like each other that

This was due to an incident called the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis was a result of the USSR putting nuclear weapons in Cuba. The, Cuba would be in range to hit the US with weapons of mass destruction. The incident lasted only a few days until the Kennedy administration defused the ticking time bomb. Though a great charismatic leader, one operation puts a blemish on JFK’s report card. This operation was The Bay of Pigs Invasion in which JFK authorized a militia to enter Cuba and attempt a coup d 'état to overthrow Fidel Castro. The communist rule in Cuba knew well in advance of the CIA’s plan, making the attack a complete failure.

The accumulation of weapons and changes made to the defense system in Cuba was a source of concern and attracted the attention of the presidency and the top brass of the military in eliminating the threat presented by Cuba way before its eruption. In the course of the crisis, the President relied heavily on the intelligence system for the much-needed information to enable the making of informed decisions, all of which functioned to rescue the nation from the most serious crisis since the conclusion of the Second World

The Cuban Missile Crisis, written by John F. Kennedy, depicts a man’s determination towards uniting a nation during an unsettling period of human history. During a thirteen day period from October 14 to October 28, 1962, the Soviet Union installed nuclear-armed missiles on the island of Cuba capable of striking a number of major cities in the Western Hemisphere. Through his condemnatory tone, credible sources, and use of metaphors, the author proves that society must unite against a common enemy.

“By threatening withdrawal of economic support, the United States sought to persuade the Diem government to change its brutal policies, Diem resisted denying that Buddhists were being persecuted and charging that in fact they were aiding the communists by demanding a change in government United State advisers warned that Diem’s Popular Regime imperiled the battle against the Viet Cong.” (“Growing Involvement…” 1). Russians sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, when it was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962. Kennedy imposed a quarantine of all offensive weapons bound for Cuba while the world trembled on the brink of a nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban missile crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of futility of nuclear blackmail (Freidel 1). “Given believe in the global struggle between east and west in his acceptance of the domino theory, his conviction that Vietnam was the testing ground for combating “war of liberation.” his often zealous commitment to counter in surgery, and his determination never appears soft on communism” (Reeves 411).

Demands by Cuban patriots for independence from Spanish rule made U.S. intervention in Cuba a more important issue in the relations between the United States and Spain from the 1870s to 1898. One of the reasons why the Spanish American War happened was because of the 10 Years War fought between Cuba and Spain for Cuba’s independence (http://www.infoplease.com). The Ten Year War started in 1868 and ended in 1878 because of the lack of happiness in Cuba because of excessive taxation, trade restrictions, and virtual exclusion of native Cubans from governmental posts. Cuba tried to revolt but ended up losing the battle and was still under control of Spain. Another reason why we started the war was because the U.S support of Cuba’s

After numerous extensive and challenging meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, a ring of ships, around Cuba. His goal was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He wanted the missiles that were already there to be removed. President Kennedy began to take action and American intervention took place in Cuba. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. Following the address, many people feared the world was on the brink of a nuclear war. But believe it or not, a huge catastrophe was escaped when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer which was to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. American intervention has happened many times in the Latin American country Cuba. Sometimes the American intervention in Cuba it resulted in positive results, sometimes it resulted in not so positive results. It all seemed to depend on the day, the year, the leader, and the event that was occurring at the

In order to fully understand the way in which the revolution contributed to the cause of the crisis, it is important to note the factors that caused Castro to spark the revolution. The leader of Cuba whom the revolution sought to overthrow was Fulgencio Batista, a puppet controlled and assisted by the United States who allowed Cuba to become a "playground for America’s rich" (C N Trueman). One of the most common examples of how Batista allowed the U.S to play around with the Cuban economy was when the American-owned Cuban telephone company presented a gold telephone to Batista for allowing "excessive telephone rate increase" that the American government had requested (Kennedy speech). This all changed once Castro was in power. He started removing all the American influence which Batista had allowed in Cuba by nationalizing the industry, economy, re-distributing the land and confiscating American business and agricultural belongings (Britannica). However; Castro could not do this without directly affecting the American interests in Cuba (history.com). Thus, turning to a big anti-American power like the Soviet Union was an option that Castro chose to guarantee himself and the nations security. Professor Jutta Weldes mentions in Constructing National Interests that "elements of the Castro movement were engaged in anti-American activities even during the revolution against Batista.". These actions of nationalizing Cuba were what created tensions between the U.S and Cuba, which lead to a various number of problems throughout time and the missile crisis as result of it at some