Cuban Missile Crisis Motif

Jumping straight into the two crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place on October 16th 1962 while the Invasion of South Korea took place on June 25th 1950. Both of these crisis occurred within the dates of the cold war and were directly related to the ideologies of the USSR and the U.S. The motif of “anything you can do I can do better,” really stands out within these two ciris as they were key factors of coming to the brink of war; however with that being said this motif was seen more heavily within the Cuban Missile Crisis as both sides kept taking rigorous steps to show who was the stronger power. Some of these steps included implementing Soviet missiles in Cuba following the U.S implementing missiles in Turkey. Furthermore in response

The U.S policy of containment and domino effect in some sense led them to take action in Korea by providing extensive aid to the South, and moreover the idea of U.S imperialism led Soviets to also take action as they too provided aid but to a lesser extent. Some historians including John D Clare believe that the Invasion Of South Korea wasn't an act of war but rather was a crisis where both “superpowers were just using it as a front to combat each other without actually going into a ‘hot war’ ”(John D Clare), proving the point that the idea of anything you can do I can do better was also seen in the Invasion Of South Korea. Although “anything you can do I can do better was seen in the Invasion Of South Korea, this was the only act of trying to show the bigger power whereas in the Cuban Missile Crisis there were many instances to show the bigger power. Furthermore, this motif within the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the two sides (USSR, U.S), into a stalemate and brinkmanship of another war, while the Invasion Of South Korea could be seen as a next step coming closer to

The Cuban Missile Crisis led to the two sides to be on a brink of war as we know, and President Kennedy went live on air and informed his people what is happening and what could eventually happen; this in turn allowed everyone to know what was happening, and because the missiles were pointed at every important and heavily populated cities in the U.S, people started to become very nervous and scared, as they should be. Looking at the invasion Of South Korea this crisis didnt have much of an effect on the people as they knew they were very far away from the motherland, whereas the Cuban Missile crisis was only 90 miles away and was being televised. Furthermore, the invasion of south Korea did not come as close to another war as the Cuban Missile Crisis showing that the Cuban Missile Crisis had more of an effect on the people. Going back to the U.S policy of containment and Soviet idea of U.S imperialism, both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Invasion Of South Korea were heavily backed by the U.S policy of containment with the addition of the Soviet idea of U.S imperialism. These were two of the main reasons the U.S and USSR intervened in both situations, and in general might have caused the Cold