Cold War Totalitarianism

Thirteen days. For some, it seemed like a lifetime. Thirteen days. For others, it was the scariest moments of their lives. Just thirteen short days to prevent a nuclear war. After Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government, he turned Cuba into a communist regime. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decided to provide Cuba with Soviet aid. Soon after, The United States found evidence of nuclear missiles. The Cuban Missile Crisis was an important time in both Cuban and American history. Castro’s Cuba was just the beginning, things then started to intensify with Soviet aid, and culminated with the United States responding to end it all.

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.

According to historians, in October of 1962, “The most dangerous 13 days in the history of mankind,” took place. This was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, a time of tensions during the Cold War between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union. This period of time was so dangerous that there was enough nuclear power to destroy humanity (Cullough). John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, was elected in 1960. Considering the fact that he was elected at 43 years old, he was the youngest President in the United States. The Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, came to rule in 1958. Another leader that was greatly involved, was Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba who came to power in

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 Cuban missile crisis, also known as the October crisis, was a confrontation between the U.S and Soviet Union and was the closest the Cold War came to being an actual war. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Castro reached out to the Soviet Union and asked for nuclear missiles to scare away any more countries thinking about attacking Cuba. After a long period of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between President John F.

Many believe that the United States of America came with the resolution for the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 rather than the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and that they were to blame. However the soviets placed the nuclear missiles on Cuba because President Kennedy authorised the Bay of Pigs operation earlier that year to oust Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, leading to the crisis that arguably represents the closes time where humanity nearly wiped itself out with the power of the atom. The two countries both saw the crisis very differently as well.

Nikita Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the closest the world ever came to full-scale nuclear war. When the Soviet Union placed offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, President Kennedy interpreted the act as one of hostility that would not be tolerated. However, the situation was blown way out or proportion by the president, American media, and ultimately the citizens of the United States. The Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, was reacting to the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, US Missile installations along the Turkey/Soviet border, and the clear anti-Communist policy of the United States. Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka in southwestern Russia. He was raised in a poor

The thirteen days of October 1962 is considered to have no parallel in the history of mankind. It is regarded as the moment when the world came too close to the fringes of nuclear Armageddon (Allison and Zelikow, 1). The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation involving the two ideologically-opposed nuclear superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union- over Cuba set in the Cold War era. The crisis escalated when the US took photographs of Soviet missile bases secretly being built in Cuba. These bases stock piled a number of medium-and-intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles pointed to the US.

On October 15, American pilots photographed evidence that Soviet ballistic missiles were being installed in Cuba. Although the Soviet Union did not have any intentions of attacking the United States, they wanted the weapons on hand in case there is a nuclear war. Kennedy immediately tapped their missiles and presented them to the UN to show the world the Soviet Union’s bad intentions. For thirteen days in October 1962, the whole world stood by waiting for peaceful actions to be taken regarding the crisis. On October 22 of the same year, John F. Kennedy gave a compelling speech by responding to the Soviet Union, Cuba, America, and its allies. The purpose of president Kennedy’s methods of crisis communication with the public during Cuban missile crisis and also to Cuban and Soviet Union leader. President Kennedy’s purpose was to inform the American people about the crisis and the situation by delivering this speech and he wanted to gain American people trust by explaining the whole crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening moment for the entire world. It started October 14th, 1962 after the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles inn Cuba. The U.S. found out that these missiles were being planted without their knowledge, but the Soviet Union continued the construction of these nuclear missile sites, even after President Kennedy, the president of the U.S., sent out a warning against these weapons in Cuba. Even after this warning, Kennedy once again found out that the construction was still happening. Following the discovery of the ongoing construction, Kennedy wanted to meet with people at the White House to solve the problem that they were encountering. There were multiple sides during their talk about the missiles. Some of the people at the meeting wanted to take a more aggressive approach and destroy these missiles and then follow up with an attack. Kennedy eventually decided to quarantine Cuba. After Kennedy quarantined Cuba, there were many messages sent between the White House and the Kremlin to try and solve the problem. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for thirteen extremely tense days. At the end of these thirteen days, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis greatly impacted history. It strengthened the bond between the United States and Soviet Union, showed people how to come to a

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the Missile Scare, was a 2 week period in October of 1962 that was a result of increasing tensions amongst the United States and the Soviet Union. Tension between the US and the USSR is not new and is known as the Cold War, often stated to be a period between 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Intelligence gathered over the span of couple months all seemed to lead to the common conclusion that the Soviet’s are installing offensive nuclear weapons that will be able to reach continental US in mainland Cuba. The “initial” spark seemed to be the awfully failed attempt to invade Cuba, also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion under the Kennedy administration, and the presence of American Jupiter Ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy. What is interesting about the Cuban Missile crisis is how the Kennedy administration confronted the issue. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military officials of the United States pushed for a full on invasion, which could trigger a world wide nuclear war. Kennedy wanted to avoid a full on confrontation, making him seem “intelligent but weak”.

This crisis was especially critical because Cuba was so close to Florida, and the missiles could easily attack the United States. The United States was desperate to get the missiles out of Cuba, so they negotiated with Khrushchev to get the missiles out. Khrushchev decided to remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba on October 28 on the condition that the United States would publicly announce that they would not attack Cuba. Also, The United States had to privately withdraw its nuclear weapons from Turkey, which were threatening the Soviet Union. Although it only lasted 13 days, the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world had ever come to nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a key point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, but it was only one example of the conflict that nuclear weapons caused.

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in major shift in United States foreign policy. For years, the United States supported tyrannical dictators in return for stable anti-communist government receptive to United States interests. The Cold War resulted in a new world order with the United States as the lone global hegemonic power. In Eastern Europe in particular, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies. Although the world saw a large increase in liberal democracies, a new regime type referred to as competitive authoritarianism began to emerge. According to Levitsky and Way, “In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal

In 1962, the United States had a conflict with the Soviet Union that almost caused a nuclear war, called the Cuban Missile Crisis. The conflict started because the Soviet Union created a nuclear missile base in Cuba in October of 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended after thirteen days when both the United States and the Soviet Union made several compromises and the missile base was removed from Cuba.