Cuban Missile Crisis

A detailed Summary of Cuban Missile Crisis

In the chapter of the 1900's called the Cold War, there is one clear and undeniable climax. October 16, 1962, and the twelve days that followed, the world came to a standstill over an event known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This conflict was an inevitable wake up call to all involved that provided a stark realization about how volatile the cold war had become. To say that the conflict began in 1962 is foolish. Its roots date much further back, in fact all the way to the creation of the first atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War. But it was at this time that all the tensions between the nuclear superpowers, being the United States and the Soviet Union came to a dangerous head. At no time before or after this has the threat of the destruction of the human civilization been more real. What was the conflict, why did it start, were the leaders involved really willing to take it to the point of nuclear war, and what were its impacts on the arms race and diplomacy between the feuding countries and uninvolved nations are important questions to ask when trying to get a grasp of this deadly game.

In mid October 1962, it was announced to the public by the U.S. that the Soviet Union had been placing both intermediate and m

"There is no need for the Soviet Union to shift its weapons for the repulsion of aggression, for a retaliatory blow, to any other country, for instance Cuba. Our nuclear weapons our so powerful in their explosive force and the Soviet Union has such powerful rockets to carry these nuclear warheads, that there is no need to search for sites for them beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union" (Allison/Zelikow 79)

Both nations have policies on their use on nuclear weapons. The U.S. follows a policy known as first use. This basically states that if Russia were to use overwhelming conventional weapons against America or an ally, then we will attack that military force with nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union on the other hand has a policy of first strike, which states that if nuclear weapons were used against Russia, they would use strategic bombing methods, which target areas that would kill the most people in America. So the question becomes does anyone really want to take that first step towards an all out thermonuclear war? Its impossible to say what would have happened had the conflict not have been resolved at the time it did, but both sides made efforts to avoid war.

America argued these decisions in a number of ways. If America was to attack Cuba it would be by invasion, not nuclear strike, therefore there is no need for such weapons in that region. Were it true that Russia's goal were defense, conventional weapons and troop deployment would've been the best strategic choice. The U.S. also feared that with such power on Cuban soil, that expansion of communism by force would become a threat in Latin America. By the 1960's the soviets had already shown an edge in rocket technology and had intercontinental ballistic missiles, which made American experts skeptical about the need of missiles so close the U.S..

So why place nuclear weapons on Cuba's soil? First from the Soviet side there were a number of possible reasons. They would argue that the U.S. based missiles in Turkey, which to the Russians was dangerously close. The next issue was that of the U.S. attempt to overthrow the communist leader Castro, as exemplified by the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Russia felt it had to play big brother to its sibling communist nation. By placing nuclear weapons on Cuban soil, Khrushchev felt that he could

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Approximate Word count = 1576
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History