Near World destruction - The Cuban Missile Crisis

A detailed Summary of Near World destruction - The Cuban Missile Crisis

Nuclear destruction, when those two devastating and frightening words are brought up one thought comes to mind, The Cuban Missile Crisis. This was the closest the world has ever come to being blown apart by the people living on it. In April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) in Cuba. Placing IRBM in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union or Cuba (Smith). In mid-July of 1962 the Soviet Union began its buildup of offensive weapons in Cuba. The fate of millions literally hinged upon the ability of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev (Archer). The near destruction of the world was brought upon by, The Cold War, faulty communications amongst Soviet and U.S. leaders, and personality conflicts amongst the two leaders. The crisis only lasted 14 days but they were the longest 14 days in October.

The Cold war, which began in 1945, was a period of Eastern-Western world competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political all

Secondly, the methods of communications used by Kennedy and Khrushchev almost ended the world. Throughout the two weeks of the crisis both leaders had communicated indirectly to try to resolve this matter. When the Americans found out about the missiles in Cuba being placed by the Soviets, John Fitzgerald Kennedy appoints high level American advisors to help deal with the crisis, these advisors are known as ExComm. John F. Kennedy met with one of Khrushchev's top advisors, A.A. Gromyko, in the White House, where Premier Khrushchev had instructed Gromyko to tell President Kennedy that, "the only assistance being furnished to Cuba was for agricultural and land development, so the people could feed themselves, plus a small amount of defensive arms."(Lake) JFK had already known about the missile sites in Cuba, but he listened to Gromyko and does not reveal that he knows about the missile sites. Gromyko had lied about missiles being in Cuba, and Dobrynin's only answer was that, there were no missiles in Cuba, that this was what Khrushchev had said and so far as he knew, there were still no missiles in Cuba. He then proceeded and asked as to why President Kennedy had not told Gromyko the facts when he had seen him the previous Thursday. R. Kennedy replied by saying there was nothing the President could tell Gromyko that Gromyko did not already know (Lake). This shows the deception going on by both the United States and Soviet Union during the crisis, and also how the lack of direct communication between the leaders led to this lack of communication. If the two leaders were to discuss this issue together all facts may have been discussed, and it would not be a game of broken telephone. As well, when there was something that needed to be discussed immediately, what took place was that JFK's brother Governor Robert Kennedy would speak with the Soviet Ambassador in Washington, Anatoliy Dobrynin. They would communicate in that manner to help get the channels of communication open rapidly. In fact, the lines of communication between Kennedy and Khrushchev were so closed that one time, "Dobrynin said he had a message from Khrushchev for the President, to be communicated only through his brother. It boiled down to a promise that the Soviet Union would create no trouble for the United States in Berlin or Southeast Asia during the election campaign."(Hurt) This transfer of communication between JFK and Khrushchev also seemed to show that Khrushchev wanted JFK not to experience any problems, and even wanted him to get re-elected. This also shows that most of the communication done between the Americans and Soviets during the Cuban missile crisis was done usually on a second hand basis, with Dobrynin and Robert Kennedy being the two people that talked to

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Approximate Word count = 1864
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History