COLD War and the Arms Race Essay

The Cuban Missile Crisis all started in October, 1962, when an American spy plane spotted and secretly photographed missile sites being built on the island of Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy did not tell the Soviet Union right away that we had found their nuclear missile site. But days later, President Kennedy meet secretly with his advisors to discuss the situation. President Kennedy and his advisors though long and hard about what to do and the finally came up with an idea. Kennedy decided to put a naval blockade around the island of Cuba. The purpose of this was so Cuba could not get anymore military supplies for the Soviet Union. President Kennedy demanded that the missiles that were already there be disabled and that the sit be destroyed. Later on, Kennedy told America what was happening on a televised address. Everyone was anxious about what the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, would say about the naval blockade. But both President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev recognized that the devastation that a nuclear war will bring is too much.

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. What was at stake in the crisis, and how do you assess President Kennedy’s response to Khrushchev’s provocation? Was Kennedy prudent or rash, suitably tough or needlessly belligerent?

Kennedy for the democratic United States. Negotiations were very tough, because the two countries often opposed each other on most views. Nikita Khrushchev, being an older political leader, thought he was going to be able to push around the young president Kennedy with no problem, which didn’t really happen. You can see it came to a point where President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev where at each others throats once the missiles were in Cuba. As the United States and other countries around the world are starting to get frantic, Max Frankel talks about how both leaders were perfectly giving and taking, knowing when to be aggressive and when to hold back because both knew they didn’t want to bring the rest of the world to its first nuclear war. They also wanted to avoid a ground war at all possible means, but if there disagreement were to be handled in any way both nations would prefer the war to be fought by men and not nuclear weapons. Tensions got to their highest, after Kennedy went on air and told the world that they were establishing a blockade for the sole purpose to keep the soviets from supplying Cuba. After this charade, Nikita Khrushchev avoided the Q line and kept away from the U.S. When this incident was finally disputed the United States then dropped there nuclear weapons in turkey as did the Russians in Cuba leaving it as both sides were victorious and avoided a whole entire war with each other. Moreover the nations realized that no good would come from any type of war that was

Kennedy seemed prepared for war, dedicating billions of dollars to defence spending. This was something that the Soviet Union had not been investing in, thus further widening the gap in the Arms Race. If Kennedy anticipated a nuclear attack and was, in some way, prepared for Soviet aggression, then Khrushchev and the Soviet Union would have even less to gain by firing nuclear missiles at the USA (who would have, of course, retaliated). As already established, the Soviet Union would never have been able to win a nuclear war and Kennedy’s preparation and defence spending shows that a nuclear war would not even do as much damage to the USA as the Soviet Union had hoped. In summary, Kennedy had called Khrushchev’s bluff and stood up to him, and consequently Khrushchev needed a new idea because he could never afford to make a nuclear attack on the

This was a problem for Kennedy because Cuba was within a 90 mile radius from the United States, easy sticking distance. The United States had missiles in Turkey, which were in striking distance from the Soviet Union, which Khrushchev used as a weighing option when deciding to place missiles in Cuba. Kennedy saw the missiles that were being held in Cuba as almost an act of war from the Soviet Union. Khrushchev assured President Kennedy that the missiles were not an act of war, but yet only a defense for Cuba, who was feeling Having Soviet Union missiles this close to the mainland was a problem for the United States. Kennedy decided that the only way to stop the Soviet Union from fully equipping Cuba with enough missiles to destroy the United States, was to stop the missiles from getting to Cuba. To stop them Kennedy dispatched U.S. warships into the Atlantic, which was able to prevent the Soviet missile fleet from reaching Cuba. Unfortunately there were already missiles in Cuba from earlier fleets and they were

The Kennedy Doctrine, which was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58), was executed in this history-making event to the letter. Kennedy could have, and had the power to cease the unfolding events with an all out air strike on the Soviet Union. Some say it is due to bureaucratic politics and the accessibility of information that was provided to the National Security Council by the CIA and air force that this did not occur. In responding flexibly to what The Soviet Union and Cuba were planning, America assessed the volatile situation, forethought possible outcomes and negated all their options albeit under a tight time constraint. America’s forces were mobilized and ready to strike, had word been given nuclear war was on the cards. Kennedy wanted to give The Soviet Union an out and put a halt to a possible war, rethink the situation and allow an alternative to occur. Due to this diplomacy, The Soviet Union entered into negotiations “the Kremlin offered a deal: no Soviet missiles in Cuba if Washington promised not to invade” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 87). By using the flexible response tactic, Kennedy was

Starting in the 1949 with the explosion of an atomic bomb(RDS-1) in Russia and ending with the dissolvement of the Soviet Union, the nuclear arms race was an extremely tense few decades that forever changed the United States in many ways. The Arms Race is exactly what it sounds like; a race to amass more advance weapons. During these four decades, the Nuclear Arms Race affected Americans socially through instilling a variety of emotions ranging from fear, to awe of the power of the nuclear weapons, economically through enlarging governmental role within the economy and mostly importantly, the political impacts were more involvement required by the U.S government in world affairs and as a force against Russia.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the US and the USSR engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. Disaster was avoided when the US. agreed to Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the US promising not to invade Cuba; Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. There has been considerable debate amongst historians about Kennedy's handling the Cuban Missile Crisis. The orthodox view maintains that Kennedy conducted himself skilfully from the beginning of the crisis, and all the way through it until its resolution; Kennedy was very calm and controlled during the thirteen days of crisis. However, revisionist historians claim that Kennedy and his advisors almost turned a negotiable Cold War into a nuclear WW3. The result of the crisis is of a high complexity as Cuba was still on the way to become a communist country but the end to the crisis was a success because the risk of direct confrontation between two superpowers was

First, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. During World War II, the United States originally used the atomic bomb as a means to end the war with Japan. Many historians, however, believe President Truman had an ulterior motive behind the use of the weapon. The Soviet Union planned to create a series of communist buffer states after the war, but this did not bode well with American interests. Thus, America used the atomic bomb in Japan to deter the Soviet Union and have more influence in post-war decisions (Davis 398). This action would start a period of rivalry and uncertainty for both countries. From this point on, political decisions made were greatly influenced by the opposite

had ever received. Instead of tactics such as “massive retaliation,” Kennedy had a different idea. This was called “flexible response.” Flexible response is the idea that instead of instant aggression, we try and use forms of diplomacy (talking it out) to fix our issues. (Ayers). This strategy worked a multitude of times and is still used today. Kennedy was constantly fighting to send economic aid to small countries that he feared were being slowly consumed by communism. He was also intent on sending supplies to war-torn and third world countries, showing his use of military aid. Though he tried his hardest to stay away from war, there was a very notable time in our history where he was forced to. This was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. America had discovered Soviet missiles in communist Cuba pointed at the U.S. Kennedy ordered that the Soviets must remove their nuclear warheads. The Soviets refused, saying that Kennedy must remove the American nukes in Turkey. Kennedy refused and ordered a military blockade of ships to prevent Soviet ships from reaching Cuba. Kennedy stated that if a single ship crossed the blockade, they would open fire. In order to test us, the Soviets sent one ship slightly across. Kennedy was able to see through their tricks and ordered the U.S. fleet to stand down. Soon, the entire Soviet fleet left, showing that we had won. Kennedy kept us from the brink of nuclear war where it could have very well happened. This was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

The Missile Crisis developed in 1962 because Fidel Castro believed that America would soon try again to invade his country. He asked the Soviet Union for help in defending his island nation. The Soviet Union replied by sending small arms, tanks, and infantry units to Cuba, as well as secretly transferring nuclear missiles to missile silos that were under construction in Cuba. The Americans were shocked when one of their U-2 spy planes discovered the nuclear silos under construction in Cuba because it meant that for the first time the Soviet missiles were within range of most major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. This created a very difficult problem for American President John F. Kennedy for which he needed to find a solution. He could not allow the missile silos to finish being constructed because that would place the United States in danger. That meant that either he would have to try diplomatic means to attempt to negotiate the removal of the weapons, or he would have to use the might of the American military to remove the weapons by force. Neither option looked particularly favourable. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (the President's military advisors) urged a swift and strong military invasion to destroy the silos before the Soviets could react. Kennedy was concerned, however, of the possibility of Soviet nuclear retaliation for the invasion because invasion was clearly an act of war. Up until that point, neither side had been willing to risk direct

The event of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Fifteen years into the cold war, the two superpowers continued the fierce competition to increase their military strength. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, whereas the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba which would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union. The fate of millions

The US and Moscow were taking place in nuclear discussions but ended up making a deal where if Russia took the missiles out of Cuba in exchange for the US taking missiles out of Turkey on October of 1962. The Soviet missiles were taken out of Cuba and the American missiles were taken out of Turkey lower the scare of a global thermonuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis affected John F. Kennedy and the United States’s long-term legacy by making them seem like a heroic and strong while preventing global thermonuclear war and stopping the total destruction of the

The Cold war dated from 1947-1991. It was characterized by both political and military superiority between United States, which was backed by its NATO allies, and Soviet Union that led the communist side. The cold war was mainly started after the success of the alliance that was formed against Nazi Germany. This competition supremacy on nuclear warfare attracted other countries that also started making nuclear weapons due to the tension that existed in the world. Both sides directed huge sums of money to their military budgets with each side trying to outdo the other.

Detailed histories of each of the established nuclear powers are always welcome. They add to the sparse scholarly record that has depended on a relatively small number of books drawing on declassified documentary records. Edward Kaplan is an associate professor at the US Air Force Academy, and his expertise on US nuclear (atomic) strategy reflects the views of the US Air Force’s (USAF) strategists and their predisposition to air power. Kaplan is reasonably explicit regarding this predisposition. The roles of the USAF, the Strategic Air Command (SAC), and nuclear bombardment in US strategy in the early to mid-Cold War years are discussed early in the book. The USAF and SAC had an actionable strategy for “winning” a war (so long as the other side did not have nuclear capability of its own and a means to deliver it), which is a reflection of the time. Still, I would have liked to see this book set aerial nuclear bombardment debates within the context of what would become ideas of battlefield nuclear weapons as an adjunct to air power—as they developed under President Dwight Eisenhower’s “New Look” strategy of the early 1950s. Interservice rivalry certainly played a part in overall national strategy, both declaratory and operational, as it did in other states, such as Britain and France, but strategic culture also played a part both at the interservice level, within government and treasury debates, and at the foreign policy level. While this complex interplay is present in