Cuban missile crisis
The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba’s fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy’s choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev’s decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the world that compromising and discussion can in-fact prevent war. The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. The Cuban Revolution was a background cause to the crisis. To the communist party in Cuba, Fidel Castro appeared tempestuous, irresponsible and stubbornly bourgeois. In 1943 President Batista appointed a communist to his Cabinet, as he used communists as leaders of the labor unions. Batista started to f
Kennedy demanded to Khrushchev that the missiles be removed, and then put America on alert for nuclear war. America was ready for war. On October 23, US ships took up positions along the quarantine line, they were given clearance so use any means necessary to halt ships that did not stop for inspection. Although the building of the missile sites never ceased during the time of the quarantine, they ships were in cooperance with the US. The next day the first of the Soviet ships approached just short of the quarantine line and stopped dead. If Khrushchev had not ordered the ships to obey the quarantine then the result would have been. The Soviet Union’s Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, agreed to supply Castro with some short range surface-to-air missiles and a number of offensive nuclear missiles. In April 18, 1961, the Soviet Premier wrote President Kennedy threatening to give Cuba “all necessary assistance in beating back armed attack”. A year after sending that letter Krushchhev raised the thought of placing missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union had been racing the US to create weapons of warfare. America had an atomic bomb at the end of WWII. The Soviet Union feared American technology on weapons was superior and that the Americans knew they knew it too. Since the Russian nuclear weapons were short-range whereas the American missiles were long range, and also accurate, America could potentially fire on Russia and hit. Russia couldn’t do such an attack because they only had technology for short-range missiles. Setting up a base in Cuba would give Russia the ability to attack America if needed. Russia also had a duty to support its fellow communist of Cuba. This would be the start of international communism. This did not go well with the US. In the fall of 1961 the American administration formulated a plan to destroy Castro called Operation MONGOOSE. Kennedy sent a memo to the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, okaying the project on November 30, 1961. A panel including Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Maxwell Taylor, discussed the ‘liquidation’ of certain Cuban leaders. On January 30 1962 Kennedy met with the Russian President Khrushchev’s son-in-law to remind the Russians the US was friendly and had not interfered with Hungary in 1956, this was an attempt to side with Russia. On February 3 1962 Kennedy ordered a complete ban on all trade with Cuba and State Department officials urged NATO to stop trade as well. In reply, Castro issued the ‘Second Declaration of Havana’ the next day, which was a call to all the people of Latin America to rise against American Imperialism. Aware of Oper
Some common words found in the essay are:
Bay Pigs, Cuba Kennedy’s, President Batista, Soviet Union, Richard Heyser, Kennedy Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Cuba Kennedy, Defense Revolution, Radio Moscow, bay pigs, bay pigs invasion, pigs invasion, soviet union, quarantine line, nuclear war, cuban exiles, conflict averted, 1962 kennedy, missile crisis, fidel castro,
Approximate Word count = 1821
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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