Cuban Missile Crisis Overview and How It Was Covered Historically

A detailed Summary of Cuban Missile Crisis Overview and How It Was Covered Historically

As Taliferro (2004) notes, "the Cuban missile crisis is the most 'over-studied' crisis in history" (p. 463). At first, the accounts were written favorably towards the President and the United States in general. However, with the passage of time and the aid of hindsight and further documentation, it has become clear that the Cuban missile crisis was a dangerous time that very nearly went very wrong.

Memoirs dated May of 1962 noted that Nikita Khrushchev first thought of the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, as a method of countering the United States' development and deployment of strategic missiles. In addition, placement of missiles in Cuba was seen as a means of protecting it against another American-sponsored invasion, similar to the Bay of Pigs, in 1961. With the approval of Fidel Castro, the Soviet Union began to quickly and secretly build their missile installations ("Cuban missile", n.d.).

On October 1st, 1962, Secretary McNamara directed Admiral Dennison, then Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command, "to be prepared to institute a (military) blockade against Cuba" (cited in "Cuban history", n.d.). Seven days later, Cuban President D

Impact of Historian Bias on the Early Coverage of the Crisis:

orticos, addressed the U.N. General Assembly, condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and threatening that should Cuba be attacked, they had the means and would defend themselves. On October 14th, a U-2 spy plane flew over western Cuba, revealing the medium range ballistic missile sites, confirming Dorticos' threat.

This arrogance, however, faded after time. Questions began to be asked of Kennedy's actions and whether the risk of possible nuclear war, over the construction of the installation was truly prudent. In 1997, thirty-five years later, some argued that the United States was right to hold "a loaded fun to the head of the Soviet Union" (cited in Alterman, 1997, p. 6) for such a small promise of not invading Cuba. Others began to question what really took place following the release of tapes of the special committee Kennedy had assembled to deal with crisis. And, still others began to insist that Kennedy had irresponsibly dismissed diplomatic initiatives to rectify the situation (Meagher, 1997, p. 467).

Two days later, on October 16th, President John F. Kennedy was shown reconnaissance photographs of the missile installations being built in Cuba. Approximately one week later, on October 22, 1962, after much debate, during which time the Soviet Union vehemently denied the existence of the installations, President Kennedy announced to American citizens, via a televised broadcast, the discovery of the installations and noted that any attack made by Cuba, would be seen as an attack from the Soviet Union. In an effort to prevent any more shipments of military weapons to Cuba, Kennedy imposed a naval quarantine on the island ("Cuban missile", n.d.).

The Cuban missile crisis dwarfed all other concerns, even the Berlin crisis only a year earlier that nearly brought the Soviet Union and the U.S. to nuclear war (Kaplan, 2001, p. 81). Initially, the Cuban missile crisis successful completion was covered as a win for American superiority. America had not only uncovered the Soviet Unio

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Approximate Word count = 1400
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Category: History