Cuban Missile Crisis Research Paper

Thirteen days in October of 1962 changed the course of the World in the nuclear age forever. The Cuban Missile Crisis represents the closest brink of mutual nuclear destruction the World has ever been close to reaching. The leadership in place throughout the crisis is critical to the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three men dominated the nations involved in the crisis and captivated citizens of all corners of the world. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy of the United States, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro dominated the airwaves and news circuits leading up to the infamous crisis, which put the three leaders and nations in a cold silence of misperceptions, miscommunications, and unprecedented

The 13 days conflict began when during a routine flight of a U-2 spy aircraft passed over Cuba during a routine flight on the early morning of October 14, 1962. This flight revealed that Cuba had non-operational missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons representing a tremendous threat against US. At the time, Cuba was befriended with Russia politically and military. Since Cuba is only 90 nautical miles away from United States it represented as a direct hit from Russia. Later, U.S. spy agencies were able to count 20 nuclear warheads in Cuba. On October 20th, Kennedy orders quarantine over Cuba preventing anyone or anything from going in or out of Cuba. Kennedy was not only facing the Cuban Missile Crises as well as physical back pains from a previous injure when he served the U.S. forces. Then, Kennedy was feeling a physical and political stress; nonetheless, he had a job to do, the job of protecting the United States of America against this communist threat.

The crisis over the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba is, in all likelihood, the turning point of the Kennedy presidency, and the counterpart to the humiliation at the Bay of Pigs. Its development and outcome would provide the US president a historic victory and an unprecedented international prestige. His personal and political stature would reach peaks that never come to pass.

In this paper, I will do a case study on the Bay of Pigs and why the United States tried to conduct this attack. I will find out what intelligence led to this invasion attempt as well as what intelligence failures were made which resulted in the failure of the invasion. I will discuss what impact the Bay of Pigs had on the United States Intelligence community and what changes was made. I will end this paper with any findings I have concluded to if the failure has any affect on how the U.S. conducts intelligence in today’s world.

Good afternoon today I will be talking about how the proper role of the Federal government is to give liberty to the people. Liberty is best expressed through the events of the Cuban missile crisis, traditionalism vs. modernism, and block party and countercultural events.

The main thing that Cuba wanted was peace between Russia, United States and themselves. It was a good thing that both the Soviet Union and United States also wanted peace, but for them to have peace some demands had to be taken into consideration.

Later in the year in June, Castro bought Russian oil, the US oil refineries refused flat out not to process the “red” oil, as a result Fidel forcibly took possession of the oil refineries. The United States countered this action with ending their purchases of Cuban sugar, which was actually responsible for three quarters of Cuba’s export profits. Cuba in return taking more US owned land, many taken from sugar mills, mines, and even telephone and electric companies. During the 1960s, the United States had enough and declared embargo on all trade with

“We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked”(Britannica 2). This quote stated by Dean Rusk shows the overall tension throughout the cold war. Throughout the cold war and Cuban Missile crisis many Americans were in their homes horrified as Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev held a metaphorical gun to the back of the United States head. In Cuba, which is 90 miles off the coast of Florida where Soviet missiles could strike the United States in nearly 6 minutes, there were nuclear warheads the would critically hit the United States. The United States and soviets were in a stale mate, and thanks to cool headed president John F Kennedy the citizens of both USA and Russia lived.

He limitedly nationalized all US owned businesses which makes the state in charge of them. This included businesses like oil refineries, factories and casinos (Dunne). The caused the US to end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo on Cuba. The trade embargo still stands today. Under Castro legal discrimination was abolished, education and health care was improved, provided full employment, and he also brought electricity to the country side.

Wars have been going on since the beginning of time, whether it is fighting for your religions, fighting for land, and fighting for your rights and freedoms. Some wars cause dramatic amounts of deaths, but the Cold War resulted in none. The reason there were no deaths is due to the fact that the Cold War was just that, cold. The conflicts never heated up enough per say to cause a real war. Though the Cold war itself wasn’t a war fought in battle, there were parts caused by it such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, all of which resulted in deaths. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major factor in the Cold War and possibly the most memorable in relation to the Cold War.

Thousands of minuscule ripples protrude from the vast Atlantic Ocean. The sun, old in its day and weary of shining down upon the blue green sea begins to set. Almost as if to save the best for last, a brilliant mirage of orange and red color is cast upon the busy waves. Nowhere on this planet is this image captured so brilliantly as in the Caribbean, and nowhere on the earth is such a surreal scene captured daily. This heaven on Earth is a painter¡¦s paradise, a travel agent¡¦s dream, and a honeymooner utopia. For as far back as man can remember, numerous competitive countries have sought after this Shangri-La. Whether for their views, climate, people, or numerous crops, the scattered islands that inhabit the

America was much interested in Cuba since 1898. During the period of freedom struggle Theodore Roosevelt helped Cuba to liberate them from Spain. Thus Cuba became pro-American territory until 1959. General Fulgencio Batista was a supporter of American policies and during his reign Cuba became a friendly nation to U.S. companies. As a result a number of American Companies and people owned large area of sugar plantation, cattle ranches and mines. Further, Batista was anti-communist. Therefore USA was in favor of Batista and against to Castro. In 1959, a young Cuban nationalist Fidel Castro led his guerilla army to Havana and subverted Batista’s regime. Fidel Castro was a man of many secrets.(34) Eleven days after subverting Batista’s regime in 1959, seventy-five political prisoners were shot dead and buried in the trench in dark night. Thus, it marked Fidel Castro’s reign of terror. He became the ruler of Cuba and started to nationalize every American

After the end of World War II, the world entered a state of political, military, and ideological tension never experienced before. This period, which roughly ranges from 1945 to 1991, is contemporarily known as the Cold War. It is the last example of a bipolar distribution of power in modern world history, with the principal actors being those of the Western bloc (under the leadership of the United States supported by its NATO allies) and the Eastern bloc (under the leadership of the now extinguished Soviet Union backed up by its allies under the Warsaw Pact). In the midst of the pressure and unrest that characterized this period, there is a particular event that took place in October 1962 that caught my attention: the Cuban missile crisis.

The Cuban Missile crisis in October of 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Over thirteen October days, the U.S. and the Soviet Union faced off over Nuclear missile sites found on Cuba 90 miles from the Florida shore. These two world superpowers locked horns in what became known as the Cold War. The Cuban Missile crisis was the climactic showdown in which John F. Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev Made decisions that would affect the fate of all mankind and the wrong one could end the world as we know it.

I believe that the missile crisis was extremely significant since it may have been the trigger of a third world war that would have been worse than the second one. I say this because it could have turned into the first nuclear war which would have caused much damage to everything and everyone. It was also what could have led the cold war into a real war. Moreover, numerous political events resulted from the crisis such as Cuba becoming an independent and communist country. In contrast to the down side of the crisis, the countries learned from their mistakes and they saw that they can resolve problems through talking and negotiation. As a final point, I think that it was highly significant to our history because the crisis could have been resolved