The Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK’s Second Shot at Cuba
Although some historians have blamed Soviet aggression as the root cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis, they have neglected to account for the disruption in U.S.-Cuba relations caused by the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion which President John F. Kennedy had directed. The failure of the Bay of Pigs can be attributed to Kennedy’s overconfidence in the military even though the CIA knew American forces would be devastatingly outnumbered. So when Kennedy had received news of the Soviet missiles build up in Cuba during the October of 1962, the crisis was just a continuation of unresolved conflict. Fearing a nuclear war, the Kennedy Administration cautiously deliberated about possible approaches. The U.S. considered an air strike, an invasion, or a naval quarantine as an appropriate response to this crisis. Although the members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) initially considered decisive military action, Kennedy, reflecting upon his executive decisions in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, decided against military aggression. Even if the invasion had sparked U.S.-Cuba hostility, it was critical in convincing Kennedy that relying on the military and top CIA officials were not always effective ways to deal with conflicts. The lessons learned from the Bay of Pigs Invasion saved the U.S. from crisis by influencing President Kennedy to consider military combat, aggression that would have escalated to nuclear war, as the last resort in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Even if the Bay of Pigs was a disaster because Kennedy didn’t account for the possibility of failure, the aftermaths heavily influenced his administration to utilize military combat as a last resort in...
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...e learned from the Bay of Pigs disaster. Unfortunately, Kennedy was pressured by top CIA officials into approving of a plan that was doomed to fail from the start. And to make matters worse, Kennedy’s lack of planning for the possibility of failure further doomed the exiles when he didn’t provide any backup aid. After losing foreign credibility among Latin America, the Kennedy Administration continued secret operations in hopes of justifying itself. So when Soviet missiles were discovered on October 16, Kennedy was by far more experienced then he had been a year ago. He realized the importance of preventing a nuclear war and made executive decision to negotiate rather than initiate military conflict. Ironically, the Cuban Missile Crisis would never have happened if Kennedy hadn’t executed the Bay of Pigs Invasion. But Kennedy did get a second shot at Cuba after all.
One day, in the early 60s the US Government discovered that the Soviet Union had a nuclear missile on the island of Cuba. So, the US government asked the Soviets to get rid of them. It was a bold thing to do because anything could have happened. Things between the US and the Soviets were already tense because of the cold war. For fourteen days, tension grew between the nations. Not knowing if this missile aimed and ready to fire at the US. Kennedy decided to give this speech the “Cuban Missile Crisis Address”. The address was used was to announce there will be a naval blockade on Cuba until the crisis is solved. This address was very effective because Kennedy did not say he was going to start
...ity of the blame went onto Kennedy's record as not being the one that had planned it out and not giving the go ahead for the second air raid. It was later proven that no matter what the outcome of the second air raid would have been, it would not have mattered. The CIA also released a document taking the full responsibility and blame for the incident at the Bay of Pigs. The Cuban Missile Crisis not only worried the U.S. but also worried the rest of the world as to how it would turn out. The Soviet's backed Cuba as an ally and fed them missiles and the supplies to build the missile silos in Cuba. The Soviet's said they did this as a counter measure incase we did in fact invade Cuba. Between these two major conflicts of the time, it can be said that the two countries were not battling over Cuba in itself, but more or less battling over the belief of Communism.
It seems that the United States has been one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant, countries in the world, since the Declaration of Independence. Yet, on Monday, April 17, 1961, our government experienced incredible criticism and extreme embarrassment when Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba, instantly stopped an invasion on the Cuban beach known as the Bay of Pigs. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his advisors, and many Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials, made the largest error of their political careers. Once the decision was made to invade Cuba, to end Castro and his Communist government, Kennedy and his administration were never looked at in the same light nor trusted again. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev was affiliated with Castro, and the two countries made many military decisions together. As Kennedy and the United States tried to stop Cuba and Russia from becoming a threat to the world, an invasion was planned out and executed. The results were a disaster. The Bay of Pigs invasion was the largest military mistake ever made by the United States government and the CIA in the 20th century and brought America to the brink of war with Cuba and Russia. The Bay of Pigs invasion was not a quick decision, many hours of meetings and conferences occurred before President Kennedy gave permission for the attack. President Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, and immediately wanted to take the initiative with the Soviet and Cuban governments (Pearson 12). Russia was already under Communist control, and Fidel Castro took over the Cuban government with heavily armed troops and policeman. Castro’s policemen filled the streets, and he ran the newspapers, as well as many assembly buildings (Frankel 60). At the beginning, Castro did not run a Communist government, but once he began to meet with Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, Castro started a Communist government (Crassweller 23). Max Frankel, writer for the New York Times, summarizes the situation in Cuba by saying, “Little by little, the vise tightened. Little by little the free people of Cuba came to realize it could happen there. The grim facts of life on an island that became a police state” (Frankel 59). Every day, Castro came closer to controlling every aspect in life in Cuba. Fidel Castro even took control of the schools in Cuba, throwing out any teacher who he thought...
Even though they were still in the middle of the Cold War, Russia and America were able to somewhat civilly make an equal agreement. The Soviets and Fidel Castro would remain allies, but would remove all missiles placed there prior, under the circumstances that America would lift the blockade and never invade Cuba. War was avoided, and America was proven to be the superior superpower since Russia backed down and retreated. It took nearly two weeks to solve this possible worldwide, life threatening crisis. During these thirteen days, President Kennedy proved that he wasn’t a weak, cowardly leader, and that he would take a stand in order to protect his people – showing the world that America wouldn’t just sit and let something happen, they would take action.
... war between the two-superpower countries, the entire world could eventually avoid the deadly threat. From the beginning of the crisis, John McCone had held an important role of giving the President crucial information that could guide him into making the best decision in resolving the crisis. One major impact of the crisis was the realization by both United States and Soviet Union leaders that their decisions could eventually drag humanity into catastrophe, hence prompting them to take safety measures in preventing the future nuclear war from taking place. In the end, the settlement of the Cuban missile crisis was indeed United States major triumph and Kennedy’s policy of the nuclear brinkmanship provides a guidance on how to carefully manage future conflicts and best mediate conflicting interests of the countries involved without necessarily resorting to war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began with a set of photographs taken over Cuba by an American pilot.2 These photographs showed that Russians were building missile bases in Cuba and placing missiles and atomic weapons there that were easily within range of the United States. President JFK and Robert Kennedy were both stunned. From this point a board of advisors was created and called the Ex Comm, who met every day during those thirteen days and debated the various courses of actions, and consequences of each, that the president could take. Kennedy emphasizes the making of this board as a lesson for future government officials because he believes that it "proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one...point of view."3
The Cuban missile crisis was a major turning point in American history. It sparked conflict between two of the most powerful countries and almost led to possibly the most horrific war ever. This point in American history also caused long lasting tension between the United States and Cuba and posed as the most terrifying 13 days in United States history.
The absence of strategic planning was one of the key factors in the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. When the United States began the attempt, they started with armed Cubans originally exiled by their own country, Cuba. (“THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS”) This was all led by a man of the name, Fidel Castro and took place in 1961. (“THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS”) Because of Fidel’s actions, the movement caused many anti Cuban-U.S. actions. (“THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION BEGINS”) While president Eisenhower was in office in the beginning of this event, it was in fact President Nixon who pushed blindly forward with the plan. (“THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION BEGINS”) As Nixon got more ...
The first point that made John F. Kennedy responsible for handling the Cuban Missile Crisis, well, was his way of managing the public. In every crisis, a leader must always keep in mind of the reactions of the people because if it is ill dealt with, disastrous and chaotic consequences could ensue. Thus, even though nuclear warfare was prevented; credit should also be given to how the public of the United States did not end up in turmoil. To access how the public did not end up in chaos, one has to look into the genesis of when the majority of the American citizens received the news of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the first place. This leaves with only one source, which was the public address from President John F. Kennedy on October 22, 1962.1
The story of the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs is one of overconfidence, and lack of thinking. The blame for the failure of the operation falls directly on the Central Intelligence Agency and a new president. The invasion caused a rise in tension between the two great superpowers and 34 years after the event, the person that the invasion meant to overthrow, Fidel Castro, is still in power. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was on April 17th in the year of 1961, was an attempt by the US government to take Fidel Castro, new communist leader of Cuba, out of power in order to install a non-communist government that favored the US’s practices. This attempt failed and the United States involvement was revealed shortly after. This lead to internal accusations, loss of credibility towards the United States, and public blame of the CIA.
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.
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.
The story of the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs , located on the southern coast of Cuba about 97 miles southeast of Havana, was one of mismanagement, poor judgment , and stupidity ( " Bay Pigs " 378). The blame for the failed invasion falls directly on the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and a young man by the name of President John F. Kennedy. The whole purpose of the invasion was a communist assault Cuba and Fidel Castro ended . Ironically , thirty nine years after the Bay of Pigs , Fidel Castro remains in power . First, we need to analyze why the invasion happened and then why it did not work .
The failed invasion of Bay of Pigs had extensive repercussions. It advanced Castro’s political stature in Cuba and also allowed him to establish a more prominent relationship with the Soviet Union. Even though U.S. - Cuban relations were strained since the Spanish-American there was a small possibility that Castro would have been opened to working with the United States considering that Castro did not declare his allegiance to Marxist-Leninism till 1961. The Bay of Pigs invasion served as a catalyst for more bold Cuban-Soviet relations. The more bold Cuban-Soviet relations were seen in the Cuban Missile crisis in 1963.
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: