Fear is defined as an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger(“Fear” Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary). Imagine waking up everyday in fear. Not knowing whether today would be the last day walking the earth. This is the fear that Americans lived in for thirteen straight days. The Cuban missile crisis consisted of thirteen days of an intense military standoff between the United states and the Soviet Union. In the 20th century, the Cuban missile crisis erupted along side the Cold War Era. Throughout World War II, the Soviet Union and the U.S. fought as allies, battling the axis powers. Although they were allies, America was worried about Stalin and USSR communism. (“The Cold War.”) This contributed …show more content…
Florida is located close to the Cuban coastline, which is about 90 miles off the Florida shore. This posed a great threat with location alone. The Havana site located in Cuba was the main location which housed their nuclear weapons. This allowed for Cuba to fire long range nuclear weapons on to American soil. The capability be able to reach any mass populated American city in less than three thousand miles (“Cuban Missile Crisis.” 2). To put this in perspective, this is about the whole width of the United States. Even though, this might seem like a long ways, the amount of destruction/danger this causes when you have a missile traveling at over five thousand meters/second is tremendous (“Cuban Missile Crisis: Missing Details.”). In addition to the location of Cuba being a factor in heightening the war, there was a history of past conflicts with Cuba that contributed as well. In 1898, the U.S. stepped in to help Cuba when they were being taken over by the Spanish. This lead to the United States fighting in the Spanish American War. After the war ended, Spain signed Cuba over to the United States (Lapsansky-Werner). This angered the Cubans because they still wanted to be …show more content…
A blockade is defined as an act of war by which a belligerent prevents access to or departure from a defined part of the enemy’s coasts” (“Cuban Missile Crisis.” 2). President Kennedy declared that any ships carrying nuclear weapons trying to pass into Cuban territory will be taken in control by the US Navy. Soviet Union ships attempted to find new ways around the Blockade. JFK, then sent a letter stating to the Soviets that “the United States would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, and demanded that the Soviets dismantled the missile bases already under construction or completed, and return all offensive weapons to the U.S.S.R”(“The Cold War.”). All of these events, lead to the start of a period of time that would be known as the darkest part of the Cold War. These thirteen days from October 16th - 28th, 1962 (“The Cold War.” ) were known as the darkest time. Moreover, President JFK went on national television to tell Americans what they had found in Cuba and how they were going to resolve the issue with nuclear weapons in
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy reached out to America and the Cubans with his Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation. During this time, the Cold War had occupied several countries of world. This war resulted from tensions, military and political, between Russia and its allies and America, its allies, and the Western Hemisphere. When President Kennedy gave his speech, Russia had occupied Cuba and began building military bases that contained nuclear warheads and other deadly missiles. People of America saw this as a threat to the freedom of the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. In a time of great tension and fear, President Kennedy delivered his spectacular and reassuring speech that appealed to the citizens of American in several ways.
The time of the Cuban Naval Blockade the Unites States was at war with the Soviet Union, the war already preexisting for almost twenty years. The war already had United States and all its citizens at the edge of their seats. The rise of nuclear weapons was relevant and a high scare factor for everyone.
Soviet chairman, Nikita Khrushchev, guaranteed President Kennedy that there was nothing going on in Cuba. The U.S. was not fooled with Khrushchev's act and began to discuss the ideas of a quarantine or a military attack. RFK and Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, became the blockade's strongest advocates. They did not accept the idea of the U.S. raining bom...
...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.
United States spy planes found Soviet missile hangers being constructed throughout Cuba with the missiles being capable of reaching various targets in the United States. Panic raced throughout the Kennedy administration. Kennedy’s defense advisors urged for increased force, with options ranging from invading the island to destroying the hangers with bombs. Kennedy, who feared the possibility of nuclear war, wanted a solution without escalation. The solution was to put a quarantine on Cuba.
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.
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 left many impacts on not only the countries involved in it, the entire world. It sent waves of fear, anxiety, and paranoia across the world. Countries began to panic as they sat by watching the United States and Cuba on the verge of all out nuclear warfare, they began the search for a way to protect themselves in case they got brought into the battle or in case a rival country also decides to start war. After the Cuban missile crisis ended the arms race for nuclear weaponry was at its peak.
" We were eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked" (Shmoop). This
This buildup of weapons by the two countries started The Cuban Missile Crisis (The Cuban). Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader of the time, was nervous about the buildup of nuclear weapons in Western Europe and Turkey by the United States. He felt a build-up of missiles in Cuba would level the playing field.... ... middle of paper ...
According to Elaine Tyler May in her article Security against Democracy: The Legacy of the Cod War at Home, the cold war made an impact on Americans state of mind. During the nuclear arms race, many Americans became paranoid about their own country as well as foreigners . Instead of trying to get rid of this situation and mediating it , America decides to join this race, which only fuels the fire. At the same, American citizens were living their lives in fear everyday. Citizens were preparing themselves in case of an attack, as a result of the government doing nothing to try to protect America. Elaine Tyler May also states that the media back then was only fueling this phobia to grow. For example, the Los Angeles Times showing hypothetical bomb targets if the Soviets were to attack in Los Angeles. Some Americans, who were considering the possibility of a nuclear war, modified their homes into concrete to resist an atomic blast, created backyard bunkers, or even sheltered in their basements. In addition, whether you were for or against the buildup of nuclear weapons, fear would be present.
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.
... Cuban attack with all-out nuclear retaliation. In response to the increased Soviet ships coming with weapons, JFK ordered a blockade, which he called quarantine because a blockade is an act of war, around Cuba. For 13 days, the world held its breath as the threat of a nuclear war hung over the world, but the Soviets eventually turned back and Khrushchev agreed to remove weapons from Cuba in exchange for no US invasion of Cuba. Meanwhile in Berlin, the city was in turmoil between the East (Soviet) and the West (US controlled). In order to stop the mass exodus of East Berliners, the construction of the 90-mile Berlin Wall began. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev sought ways to ease the tension between the two groups, establishing a hotline between the White House and the Kremlin, and later this led to the Limited Ban Treaty, which banned nuclear testing in the atmosphere.
Cuban mistrust and nationalism, was resulting to secret agreements allowing the Soviet Union to build a missile base on the island. The U.S. found out those plans setting off a fourteen-day standoff. U.S. shi...
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.