In his book, The Week the World Stood Still, Sheldon M. Stern states, "Never before or since has the survival of human civilization been at stake in a few short weeks of dangerous deliberations." This statement accurately sums up the Cuban Missile Crisis, a period of 13 days at the height of the Cold War in which the Soviet Union and the United States where on the brink of a thermonuclear world war. With the United States threatening both the USSR’s borders and Cuba, their only ally in the west, Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, needed to take action. Based on the state of the world at the time, the Soviets’ placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba and negotiations were completely reasonable, and the United States’ response to these actions was irrational and dangerous.
The hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States existed long before the crisis began, dating back as early as World War I. When the West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whose members included countries such as the Italy, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., in May of 1955, the Soviet Union took it as a threat intended towards the USSR. In response to this threat, the Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact that set up a united military force for the Soviet Union and their allies, making the two alliances as rivals. After a brief hiatus of peace during World War II when the nations allied against Germany, the aggression only worsened with the beginning of the Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race for nuclear supremacy. The two nations were neck and neck in the quest to create the largest quantity and most powerful nuclear weapons. Though both countries were creating nuclear missiles, each pursued a very different ...
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“The distinct differences in the political systems of the two countries often prevented them from reaching a mutual understanding on key policy issues and even, as in the case of the Cuban missile crisis, brought them to the brink of war” (Library of Congress). The Soviet Union and The United States were complete opposites, The United States was a democracy whereas The Soviet Union was a dictatorship. This only began their differences though, their economies, beliefs, goals, and even their fears, everything about them made them different except for their enemy. The
These thirteen days were the time period in which the fate of the world was decided. The focus of the book was on the decision of both the United States and Russia. The United States had to come to an agreement on what measures would be taken in order to prevent further establishment of Russian missiles in Cuba. No one could really agree on what actions to take "And so we argued, and so we disagreed- all dedicated, intelligent men, disagreeing and fighting about the future of their country, and of mankind."¹ The missiles were being brought to Cuba by Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who guaranteed President Kennedy that the missiles would never be used as a weapon against the United States. This was a lie. Khrushchev fully intended to use the missiles as a mechanism of defense against the United States and as a way to further pursue a relationship with Fidel Castro who was the President of Cuba at the time. The United States needed to find a way to stop the development of missile sites without causing a break out of violent warfare.
New Article. 11th March 2014 -. SoRelle, Larry, Madaras and James. Unit 3: The Cold War and Beyond. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
The Soviet Union and the United States were very distant during three decades of a nuclear arms race. Even though the two nations never directly had a battle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, amongst other things, was a result of the tension. The missile crisis began in October of 1962, when an American spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. JFK did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles, so he made his decisions very secretly. Eventually, Kennedy decided to place a ring of ships around Cuba and place missiles in Turkey. Eventually, both leaders superpowers realized the possibility of a nuclear war and agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would remove the missiles from Cuba if the US didn't invade Cuba. Even though the Soviets removed took their missiles out of Cuba and the US eventually taking their missiles out of Turkey, they (the Soviets) continued to build a more advanced military; the missile crisis was over, but the arms race was not.
Robert F. Kennedy's chilling account of his experiences with his brother, President John F. Kennedy over thirteen days in October of 1962 give an idea to the reader of just how alarmingly close our country came to nuclear war. Kennedy sums up the Cuban Missile Crisis as "a confrontation between two atomic nations...which brought the world to the abyss of nuclear destruction and the end of mankind."1 The author's purpose for writing this memoir seems to be to give readers an idea of the danger confronted during the Cuban Missile Crisis and to reflect on the lessons we should learn from it as a country, and for future members of government.
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Stern, Sheldon M., The week the world stood still: inside the Cuban Missile Crisis, Stanford, 2005, p. 150
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"When a power vacuum separates great powers, as one did the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, they are unlikely to fill it without bumping up against and bruising each other" (Gaddis). This 'bumping' and 'bruising' caused the tensions and hostilities that surfaced in the years following WWII.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major event in U.S History that almost led to nuclear destruction. It was over a period of thirteen days in which diplomats from the U.S and the Soviet Union were trying to reach a peaceful resolution so that they wouldn’t have to engage in physical warfare. The crisis was the hallmark of the Cold War era which lasted from the 1950’s to the late 1980’s. The Cold War was a power struggle between the U.S and Soviet Union in which the two nations had a massive arms race to become the strongest military force. The U.S considered Communism to be an opposing political entity, and therefore branded them as enemies. Khrushchev’s antagonistic view of Americans also played a big role in the conflict. The Cold War tensions, coupled with a political shift in Cuba eventually lead to the military struggle known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the point of most tension and near collapse causing the Cold War to almost shift from a passive and underground struggle to a violent and catastrophic one.
"After several tense days, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the sites, and the United States pledged not to invade Cuba and to lift the blockade"(Executive Order No. 182). The United States successfully solved the Cuban missile Crisis without violence due to the fear of brinkmanship. Brinkmanship was Kennedy’s last resort if he could not use political superiority and negotiations to end the situation. Kennedy perfectly demonstrated this during the Cuban Missile Crisis after learning from his past mistakes mistakes (The Bay of Pigs). Both situations had a lot of tension but they were handled very differently. Under Eisenhower the United States did not know how to deal with the weight of the situation so their first response was violence. They did not want anyone to find out they were behind it so they train Cuban exiles to do their dirty work. Even though the Bay of Pigs mission was a failure the consequences were not all negative. Kennedy learned for the mistakes of rushed violence and feared the start of a nuclear war so he did everything he could to not start one. Although this lesson was learned Communism was still alive and rapidly spreading even though Cuba was cut off from the rest of the world. "This Administration has forever blackened our nation’s honor at the Bay of Pigs, bungling the invasion plan and leaving brave men on Cuban beaches to be shot down. Later the forsaken survivors were ransomed, and Communism was allowed to march deeper into Latin America"(United States Congress). Communism was still a massive problem in the eyes of a capitalist America. During the Missile Crisis was going on Communism quickly spread all over the globe. Since it would be too difficult to contain a country across the globe that could become communist the united States would protect everyone
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted two weeks in the midst of the Cold War, and brought the world closer to nuclear war than ever before. In October of 1962 multiple nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union’ s were discovered in Cuba, a mere 90 miles south of the United States. Given the communist ties between Cuba and the USSR, this poised a considerable threat to our national security. Throughout the 14 days the two leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled to clearly understand each others‘ genuine intentions. Actions taken by each state during this crisis demonstrates the realist point of view, in a variety of ways. The fundamentals of Realism will be explored and explained along with actions taken during this crisis from a realist point of view.
Roger Donaldson’s film, Thirteen Days dramatizes the Kennedy administration reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The film discusses a time when the United States had come close to a nuclear war with other nations. The film mainly focuses on showing the audience the United States perspective of the crisis. The Cuban Missile crisis was a thirteen-day long confrontation between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. This crisis started out when both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to be seen as the most superior nation in the world. Therefore, both nations decided to use the technology they had in order to produce nuclear missiles and other weapons to show the globe how powerful they were as nations. The United States and