The Causes Of The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important and scary event that happened in the 1960’s. There were many people from the Soviet, Cuba, and the U.S. that were involved in this event. Mostly people involved in government or military. The threat made many people panic.

During the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. It was when two superpowers were close to causing a nuclear war. Its main origin was when the United States invaded Cuba, on April 10, 1961; which is also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the invasion, previous Prime Minister; Fidel Castro of Cuba, was ‘paranoid’ because he felt like America was planning another attack. So in order to protect his nation, he sought military and economic help from the Soviet Union.

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.

1) a) John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States; he supported the civil rights of African American and promised to assault the Soviets if they tried forcing communism in America; however, he tried to maintain peace and prevent nuclear war in the United states. 2) b) Flexible response was a policy taken by Kennedy and his team to prevent the occurring of nuclear war and the usage of nuclear weapons because if the nuclear war started it will have a huge effect on the whole country and the citizens. 3) 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.

Simply put, In a Communist system, individual people do not own land, factories, or machinery. Instead, the government or the whole community owns these things. The ultimate goal of communism is to create a classless society and creating a dictatorship (A government in which one ruler has complete control over a country.) For nearly 35 years, the Cold War took place between the Soviet Union and the United States. The war was referred to as cold because there was never any physical fighting between the two countries. The Cold War essentially began due to political and military clashes between the two countries. After WW2, the United States sought for stronger united Germany and independent nations in Eastern Europe. The United States president

Cuban Missile Crisis 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.

The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and

Containment also provided supplies and defended democracy in an area of adverse communist influence peacefully. Finally, containment helped the world dodge a full-scale nuclear world war and gave Russia a taste of its own blockade-flavoured medicine in the Cuban Missile Crisis. If George Kennan’s Long Telegram (discussed in Document A) had not been published, the US and democracy itself may have been oblivious to the Soviet Agenda. Kennan stated in Document A : “1. Stalin and the Soviets believe that communism is better than capitalism.

1. Both the American President John Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev seemed to be realistic about the Cuban Missile Crisis. They both represented the states that were standing apart and had their self-interests in the events that occurred. Besides, from the realistic point of view, Kennedy understood that the only way to withstand the crisis and prevent the new war would be to show their power, which is essential within the Realist framework, and take active actions since the interest of the state required that. Besides, being realists, both leaders understood that there is no way to involve the non-governmental organizations in the solution. Kennedy kept his realistic approach during the whole period. However, the actions of the Soviet Union could not be seen as realistic to a full extent since their requirement to remove the American missiles from Turkey as well might not have been responded positively, and they would not have the power

The Cuban Missile Crisis largely was between the Soviet Union and the United States. Their leaders, Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, most likely felt forced to do what was best for their country. In Kennedy’s situation, the Americans wanted to get rid of the missiles, get rid of Fidel Castro and eliminate Communism from Cuba. Khrushchev and the Soviets wanted to test the USA and prove that the USSR was stronger, but he also wished other countries to feel attracted to

Did JFK use his presidential powers to make the correct decision during the Cuban missile crisis?

The arms race caused tensions between the U.S. and USSR, bringing them closer to the brink

This book talks about when the United States almost started a full nuclear war because of a few soviet missiles flew into the states allegedly. They flew B-47s and B-52s as air fleets for 40 years of this international problem between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the year 1945 America ended World War 2, as the head nuclear power in the world. Even though the U.S. was the nuclear power, they did not have any nuclear bombs. The whole point of this “cold war” was to maintain a peace among uneasy times, which did not work.

Also, one must be mindful of the lens through which military leadership of that time scaled threats and problem solved. The saying, old generals fight the last war, comes to mind with the Cuban problem.  Kennedy’s generals were Eisenhower holdovers and they had been very adept at proliferation on the conventional level.   For example, before the first atomic weapons were dropped over Japan, resulting in Japan’s surrender, General Curtis Lemay was the architect of the relentless carpet bombing strategy over Tokyo, resulting in over a hundred thousand deaths.

The Bay of Pigs ‘damaged US relations with foreign nations enormously” and “encouraged Khrushchev’s adventurism” resulting in increased Cold War tensions that demanded the President’s full