The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cold War was a time in history when intense rivalry overcame two nations. Many historians agree that the Cold War began in 1945, the end of World War II, and lasted through the late 1980’s. The two opposing sides were the Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States. The Cold War was not a battle involving guns; in fact it was more about power and competition between two groups. Each side thought its political and economic systems were superior to the other. The competition between the Soviet Union and the United States increased which made settling disputes difficult.
In the 1960’s the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, faced some major challenges. One major event that took place during his Presidency was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was an extremely intense time for the U.S. They learned that the Soviets set up missile bases in Cuba only ninety miles from Florida1. The American people were surrounded by the threat of nuclear war.
The initial discovery that the Soviets were planning against the United States was in October of 19622. The U.S. learned that forty-two medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles were installed in Cuba. Each missile had the potential of targeting the U.S. with nuclear power twenty to thirty times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb3. President Kennedy was discouraged and upset by the fact that the Soviet Union would take a risk as big as this one. His own personal decisions were critical, and the United States was relying on his good judgement for their safety.
For the next few days President Kennedy conducted meetings with his advisors trying to come up with the best way possible way to handle this intense...
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...uclear war proved to the U.S. that he was a responsible man. Overall President Kennedy’s hard work and efforts benefited the United States in an incredible way and he will always be remembered.
Footnotes:
1. Schlesinger, Arthur M. A Thousand Days (New York: Fawcett, 1965), 740.
2. Sorensen, Theodore C. Kennedy ( New York: HarperCollins, 1965), 672.
3. Sorensen, 672.
4. Schlesinger, 748.
5. Sorensen, 676.
6. Sorensen, 694.
7. Sorensen, 694.
8. Sorensen, 708.
9. Sorensen, 717.
Bibliography:
1. Janice Gross, "Five Lessons From the Cold War," Cambridge, August 1995.
2. Timothy Naftali, "Foriegn Relations of the United States, 1961-1963," Bloomington,
December 1998.
3. Arthur M. Schlesinger, JR. A Thousand Days (New York: Fawcett, 1965)
4. Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy (New York: HarperCollins, 1965)
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.
A war does not necessarily require physical weapons to fight. From 1947 to 1991, military tension and ideological conflicts held place. Cold War is defined as a state of political hostility existing between countries, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular. The causes of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union were the mutual distrust that had taken place in World War II, intense rivalry between the two super powers, and conflicting ideologies. The two superpowers differed in views of political and economic principles and were eager to spread their ideologies to other countries.
1 The missiles were being brought to Cuba by Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who guaranteed President Kennedy that the missiles would never be used as a weapon against the United States. This is a lie. Khrushchev fully intended to use the missiles as a mechanism of defense against the United States and as a way to further pursue a relationship with Fidel Castro, who was the President of Cuba at the time. The United States needed to find a way to stop the development of missile sites without causing a break out of violent warfare.
The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.
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 Cold War was a post-World War II struggle between the United States. and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict did not occur between the two superpowers, but intense economic and diplomatic struggles erupted in the country. Different interests led to mutual suspicion and hostility in a rising philosophy. The United States played a major role in the ending of the Cold War.
Even though Kennedy endured many hardships during his childhood, he grew up into a successful and ambitious man. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917 to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Although, to the public he was known as “Jack Kennedy”. John F. Kennedy was also prone to being ill. He suffered from many illnesses such as chickenpox, measles, and whooping cough. However, this was not all that he had to endure. Before the age of three, Kennedy was diagnosed with scarlet fever, a life-threatening disease. Fortunately, he fully recovered from it and continued the routines of daily living (“John F. Kennedy”). Numerous individuals look back on someone’s life and evaluate of what importance their life was. Kennedy demonstrates that even though one may n...
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.
...e thirteen days JFK and Robert Kennedy always keep in mind the perspective of the Russians, taking great care not to back them into a corner, or give them no choice but to react violently.
( waves to the audience)Hello everyone I'm John f kennedy and I'm here to tell you about the Cuban missile crisis.Although it did not lead to war,the Cuban missile crisis was resolved by the Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev by destroying the missiles that the prime minister of Cuba was going to use to destroy America in hours.
In many ways John F. Kennedy’s decision to have this speech as well as the contents itself, reflected how he was instrumental to success in keeping the public calm. The president could hav...
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause: Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable of destroying entire countries.
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.
Fifty years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the not just the U.S but the world to the brink of nuclear warfare.In October 1962, a U.S. spy plane caught the Soviet Union trying to sneak nuclear missiles into Cuba, 90 miles off the U.S coast.Kennedy determined at that action could not stand.The crisis is generally considered as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. For fourteen days during October 1962, the world held its breath as John F Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev,the leader of the Soviet Union at the time, tried to reach an agreement and avoid nuclear war.
By another account, the Cold War began in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, and ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, having been a conflict between Bolshevism and Democracy. The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other in such a “hot war”, nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They played havoc with conflicts in different parts of the world. They used words as weapons.