The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted.(Fourteen days)
In 1962 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev launched plans to supply Cuba with medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles that would put the eastern United States within range of nuclear missile attack. Khrushchev mistakenly assumed that the United States would take no action and when questioned denied that any missiles were being supplied to Cuba. The Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to potential against the Soviet Union.
Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island from an attack by the U.S. Ever since the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable.(Hershberg) He approved of Khrushechev’s plan to place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.
For the United States, the crisis began on October 15,...
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.
Cuban President Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his nation from an attack by the U.S. Eve...
In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in what could be considered the most dangerous moment in the Cold War. The United Sates realized that the Soviet Union was holding medium-range missiles armed with nuclear weapons that could hit every major city in the U.S. At the time President John F. Kennedy was in office. Kennedy took much time and thought when putting a naval quarantine and negotiating a deal that led the Soviets to remove the missiles that were being held in Cuba, in exchange for this we made a promise to not invade Cuba and a secret promise to remove our nuclear-tipped missiles from Turkey. Although this tension only lasted 13 days, a lot was both gained and lost by the U.S. and the Soviets.
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.
The Cuban missile crisis can be argued to be one of the most dangerous events in the history of the United States. The United States was on the verge of nuclear warfare with Cuba and the Soviet Union. A United States’ spy plane discovered missile silos being constructed in Cuba. This raised suspicion for the president at the time, John F. Kennedy, and the rest
According to Premier Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. He also presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another United States-sponsored invasion, such as the failed attempt at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
The errors committed by the United States in terms of inaccurate planning and overconfidence within the Bay of Pigs Invasion rose the confidence of Cuban government in its own people and intelligence services and tactics for future attacks. The Bay of Pigs debacle not only strengthened Fidel Castro's hold on power, but also brought the Soviet Union firmly on to his side, thus increasing Castro’s initiative to implement Communism ideals in Cuba. This is evident in Castro’s strong relationship with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev between 1960 and 1962. The failure of the 1961 Invasion served as motivation for Fidel Castro to start planning a counter attack on the United States Government. Immediately as the Invasion had finished, Castro acted in order to further strengthen the nation in sight of possible future conflicts. To facilitate this, he consequently approved of Khrushchev's plan to place missiles on the island, something that immediately established a political alliance between the two Communist leaders which was convenient to both. Castro needed Soviet help to protect his regi...
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. As Khrushchev said in 1962, "They talk about who won and who lost. Human reason won. Mankind won." 1 The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. Humanity, indeed, was the prevention of the war.
Let’s look back at what happened in the 1960s. The world was on the brink of a nuclear war, the United States Armed Forces were readied for action and the Soviet Commanders, stationed on the island of Cuba, were prepared to defend the island with nuclear weapons, if necessary.
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.
Thesis: Unites States should take military action and remove the missiles from cuba because some of President Kennedy advisers thinks that it would start a war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has ever been to a nuclear war which would have doomed the human race. For thirteen days the world was scared to death of what could happen. In a nutshell, the Soviet Union under leadership of Nikita Khrushchev tried to counter the lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. The Soviet Union or USSR knew of the missiles the United States had set up in Turkey. (Garthoff) To gain first strike capabilities they reached an agreement with Cuba under the leadership of Fidel Castro set up missiles in Cuba. Cuba is just 90 miles from Florida. President Kennedy got word of this via photographs and stated that any attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack from the Soviet Union. (www.lafayette.com) Also he setup a naval blockade on the country of Cuba preventing further Soviet shipments of military weapons from arriving there. (www.lafayette.com) On October 24, 1962 Soviet ships turned around and headed back to the USSR. Then four days later on the twenty-eighth Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the missile sites. (www.lafayette.com) With this, the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended as suddenly as it had begun.
The "Thirteen Days" of the Cuban Missile Crisis were, at that point, the closest the superpowers came to war. How severe this would have been is impossible to know. That this is the case was due in a large part to serendipity and the patience and understanding of the leaders. The lessons of this stand-off were not lost on either side. There were several key after-effects of this confrontation:
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important events in United States history; it’s even easy to say world history because of what some possible outcomes could have been from it. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a major Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install ballistic missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy and the other leaders of our country were faced with a horrible dilemma where a decision had to be made. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlined three possible courses of action for the president:
In 1962 nuclear war seemed inevitable to the world, it was the first time nuclear war was hanging on a thread. The Cuban Missile Crisis presented a threat to the world, in which the USSR planted nuclear missiles on Cuba. America’s response was to threaten launching nuclear missiles at the Russians. This incident launched the world into a new time, which presented nuclear weapons as a source of power.