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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 setting up of the Direct Communication Link (DCL)
• A dramatic decrease in tension between the two superpowers
• An almost as dramatic increase in tension in Sino-Soviet and Sino-US relations
• There were also domestic implications for both sides
Following the narrow avoidance of annihilation, the leaders of both countries agreed to establish a permanent teletype link between their two nations. During the crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev were forced to communicate with each other through clumsy diplomatic channels. The rapid, minute-to-minute changes in posture and intent could not be articulated quickly enough to guarantee that there would be no misunderstanding. The need for more efficient communication between the superpowers to avoid the prospect of accidental war was cited in the Soviet request of 1954 for a direct link. There are numerous references in transcripts to leaders discovering seemingly vital information, by chance, from newspapers. On October 16, Secretary of State Rusk asked Kennedy, “You saw the [New York] Times story yesterday morning that high Soviet officials were saying, ‘We’ll trade Cuba for Berlin?’” This reliance on second hand print news had serious implications in a situation where events were changing rapidly and the effects of these events were unprecedented.
As a result, the two powers agreed to se...
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... of the first Executive Committee Meeting, October 16th 1962, 11:50AM-12:57PM, in in Laurence Chang and Peter Kornbluh (eds), The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: A National Security Archive Documents Reader, 99.
Ronald E. Powaski, March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present, (Oxford: OUP, 1987), 106.
John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, (Oxford: OUP, 1982), 206.
Rosemary Foot, The Practice of Power: US Relations with China since 1949, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1995), 98.
Rosemary Foot, The Practice of Power: US Relations with China since 1949, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1995), 96.
Ronald E. Powaski, March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present, (Oxford: OUP, 1987), 107.
Symonds, Peter. "World Socialist Web Site ." US think tank report weighs up "grim future' of nuclear war (2013).
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Maddox, Robert. “The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb.” Taking Sides: Clashing View in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras & James SoRelle. 15th ed. New York, NY. 2012. 280-288.
Sherwin, M. (1973). The atomic bomb and the origins of the cold war. American Historical Review, 78: 1-7.
In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a deathly game of nuclear brinkmanship. Within two weeks, the two superpowers armed with nuclear weapons challenged each other in what could have easily developed into an utmost catastrophe—both of them went to their highest military alert levels, where it was very likely that both countries would go to nuclear war. Even though it was rather evident that President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev had no slightest intention of starting a nuclear war and tried to prevent it, miscalculations and unexpected events could have emerged that theirs advisers might not have foreseen, hence things could have gone out of control. This paper will analyze the role of John McCone in the thirteen-day crisis, how the crisis impacted United States, Soviet Union, Cuba, and the world, and lastly whether the resolution achieved reflected United States triumph and its success in handling the crisis.
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.
Soon after this incident, the famous "hotline" was installed between the United States and the Soviet Union to help resolve future conflicts. The hotline is used for direct communication between the United States and the United Nations. This was a very important installment because it made it made it easier for the United States and the Soviet Union to stay in contact and to make sure that everything stays under control so that there is no potential war that breaks out.
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
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.
Taubman, William. Stalin's American Policy: From Entente to Detente to Cold War. New York: Norton, 1982. Print.
Turner, Oliver, “Sino-US relations then and now: Discourse, images, policy”, Political Perspectives 2011, vol. 5 (3), 27-45, http://www.politicalperspectives.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Sino-US-relations1.pdf
Fedman, David. "Rethinking Asia: “Smart Power” and US-China Policy." The Olive & Arrow. The Word Press, 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. .
Scott D. Sagan, the author of chapter two of “More Will Be Worse”, looks back on the deep political hostilities, numerous crises, and a prolonged arms race in of the cold war, and questions “Why should we expect that the experience of future nuclear powers will be any different?” The author talks about counter arguments among scholars on the subject that the world is better off without nuclear weapons. In this chapter a scholar named Kenneth Waltz argues that “The further spread of nuclear weapons may well be a stabilizing factor in international relations.” He believes that the spread of nuclear weapons will have a positive implications in which the likely-hood of war decreases and deterrent and defensive capabilities increase. Although there
The Cuban missile crisis was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and the United States, and was the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear war. The Missile Crisis itself took place in October of 1962, and took place over only a short few weeks. The possible causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis include the policies and politics of the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Bay of Pigs and Berlin crises. There were also many effects, which created a period of détente, or ease of tension.