Essay On The Cuban Missile Crisis

723 Words2 Pages

October 14th, 1962 marked the first day of a two week state of worldwide panic known as the Cuban Missile crisis. This was the most fragile and precarious situation during the cold war, almost resulting in worldwide thermonuclear warfare. It was a necessity to prevent the annihilation of America, but the manner of execution was the issue of debate among the U.S. government. Existing on the brink of extinction, how effective was the U.S. government in employing diplomacy to resolve this crisis?
History
To understand the Cuban missile Crisis, the prior encounters with the Cubans and the Soviet Union in regard to America must be exposed. A conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union known as The Cold War was the first taste of bad blood …show more content…

On April 17, 1961, some 1,400 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs and quickly were surrounded by 20,000 well-equipped soldiers loyal to the regime. On the third day, the 1,200 survivors were marched off to prison camps.” This unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the dictator reflected the equally poor training supplied by U.S. forces in South America. . Ill preparation and planning for the assault ultimately decided the outcome. Numerous miscalculations and sloppy execution on the part of the exiles led to their defeat yet, part of the responsibility for their actions falls upon the U.S. In addition to the defeat, U.S. involvement became apparent to the Cubans who were not supposed to even know that the U.S was supporting the rebellion. This led to extremely poor relations between the U.S. and Cuba plus the trade embargo that separates the two countries. After this embarrassing encounter, the Cubans started to align themselves more closely with the Soviet Union and began breaking all ties with America. This fortified his rise to power and confirmed his true communist beliefs.
The presence of offensive nuclear weapons on Cuba became undeniably clear October 15th, 1962 when Kennedy was presented with visual confirmation of they’re existence. Only two days prior, an American U-2 spy plane was able to photograph medium range ballistic missiles in assembly as well as the means to launch

Open Document