Cuban Missile Crisis Research Paper

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.

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy “informed the world” that the Soviets were building secretive missile bases in Cuba, very close to Florida. President Kennedy decided to take the peaceful route in handling is major crisis. As

Imagine that you are John F. Kennedy in 1962, and you find out that your ally, Cuba, has your enemy, Soviet Union, has ICBMS (intermediate- range ballistic missiles) & Ilyushin Il-28 light bombers, that could reach the United States and aimed toward the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen-day confrontation between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Cuba had the missiles there for like three months before one of the U.S had a spy plane that figured out that Cuba had the Soviets Missiles. For a while, the U.S had Intel that Cuba had the missiles but JFK did not believe that Cuba was betraying them. These missiles were only ninety miles away from Florida the U.S. issued a military blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba. When all the offensive missiles and light bombers were taken from Cuba the blockade was initially ended on November 21, 1962. Although the Cuban Missile Crisis ruined relations with the United States of America and Cuba, it impacted the blockade between the United States of America and Cuba, the respect for the United States of America, and the Bay of the Pigs.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began when the United States had a spy plane fly over Cuba and noticed that on the island were Nuclear tipped missiles owned by the Soviet Union. The Cuban dictator known as Fidel Castro, became close to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union leader, Nikita Khrushchev and the President of the United States John F. Kennedy both agreed that if the United States does not invade Cuba, the missiles would be removed from both Cuba and from the country of Turkey. “There is one point on which I want to give you new information right away, I have refrained from doing this until now; but today an attempt is being made to frighten all mankind by propagating the idea that Cuba, and in particular I, might provoke a nuclear war, so I feel the world should know the true story of the missile emplacement” (Castro). During this crisis, Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union almost started a nuclear war at one of the most important parts in history. But way before the crisis happened, Castro said that there were warnings coming of an invasion. “Six months before these missiles were installed in Cuba, we had received an accumulation of information warning us that a new invasion of the island has being prepared under sponsorship of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose administrators were humiliated by the Bay of Pigs disaster and by the spectacle of being ridiculed in the eyes of

On October 15, 1962, the United States viewed reconnaissance photographs of Cuba and discovered Soviet missiles which were under construction. The next day President John F. Kennedy was informed of the discovery and the President formed a group of twelve advisors to plan and handle the crisis. The advisors met for seven days to plan a strategy on how to handle the crisis and on October 22, 1962, President Kennedy revealed the crisis to the American public and of his decision to surround and blockade Cuba. President Kennedy also made the announcement that the Soviets would need to remove their missiles from Cuba and any missiles fired from Cuba would be considered a direct threat to and attack on the United States.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was October 16th through the 28th in the year of 1962, and it was one of the scariest situations that could have ended in a nuclear war. Earlier that month John F. Kennedy send a plane to spy on them and see if they were doing anything they were not supposed to and he saw that Cuba had nuclear missiles set out and they could fire them at any given moment if they wanted to. John F. Kennedy saw this and the next day he immediately went to talk to the leader of the Soviet Union. The leader of the Soviet Union was named Nikita Khrushchev and it was very hard for John F. Kennedy to make a deal with him so that he would put his nuclear missiles away. The deal was that if John F. Kennedy would remove his nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy then The Soviet Union would have to remove their nuclear missiles from Cuba. John F. Kennedy also had to make an agreement that he would never invade Cuba again without direct provocation. This agreement also set a

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13 day political and military deadlock in 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union. It appeared that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, and it was the closest the United States has ever came to a nuclear war. Using the movie, 13 Days, the Cuban Missile Crisis is explained and compared to the actual event.

President Kennedy asked General Walter C. Sweeney, Commander in Chief of the Tactical Air Command if they could destroy all other missile sites and nuclear weapons in Cuba with an invasion. General Sweeney said they could take out all of the missiles they knew about but there may be one - five they would miss. President Kennedy knew that even one missile could kill millions of Americans and he could not accept the risk of that happening. Because of that he endorsed the naval quarantine. Following the blatant lie by Gromyko and newly acquired information from recent surveillance film confirming the shipment of missiles and the building of bases in Cuba, President Kennedy felt it was necessary to make this information available to the people of the United States and world on Monday, October 22, 1961 (14 days in October, Day 6 & 7).

In the fall of 1962, a US military U-2 spy plane conducted photo reconnaissance over the interior of Cuba, detecting multiple missile bases. Interpreting this as a severe threat to American security, a naval blockade was formed. Tensions promptly escalated between Kennedy and the Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, with neither side conceding to a compromise. The Soviets armed their missiles for the impending attack. On the morning of November 26th, the United States raised its alert level to DEFCON-1.

Throughout the 13 day long crisis Americans and Russians were fearful that one of the two superpowers would strike. On October 14, 1962 the United States sent a highly trained pilot in a U-2 spy plane to take photos of suspected Soviet missile sites. The pilot took pictures from a high altitude which revealed to be missile sites. The United States looked over the photos and wanted confirmation that the pictures were truly missile sites. They wanted the pilot to do

JFK spent several days discussing the Cuban Missle crisis with his advisors. After long and difficult meetings, JFK placed a naval blockade around Cuba. He called this a quarantine to prevent Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. JFK demanded that the missiles be removed and destroyed. No one was sure how the Soviets would react to this blockade and demands made by him. So a deal was made with the Soviets to dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the US not to invade

39 United States, Congress, Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee. “Supplement 8 to Joint Evaluation of Soviet Missile Threat in Cuba” (CIA, 28 Oct. 1962). 40 Carter 34. 41 John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, “Day 13: Oct. 28.” (Cuban Missile Crisis - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum). 42 Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Democracy in the Dark: the Seduction of Government Secrecy. (The New Press, 2015). 43 Carter 35.

On one of the following days, Kennedy asked if the Air Force could take out all of the missiles in Cuba. The Air Force then told the President that with that process there would be 10-20,000 civilian casualties. Kennedy then decided to set up a blockade around Cuba. US ships prepared for a quarantine. The press then learned about the nuclear missles and questioned them about it, the President asked the reporters not to reveal the news so he could announce it to the American people on TV. The Soviets had instrustion to launch the missiles within minutes of Kennedy’s speech. After Castro listened to the President’s speech he moblized all of Cuba’s military forces.

This event occurred following the botched covert operation of the United States, titled the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and the United States’ placement of nuclear missiles in countries of close proximity to the Soviet Union. The Bay of Pigs operation, which was a covert attempt to invade Cuba authorized by President John F. Kennedy, came as a result of growing U.S. anxiety over Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro and the unpredictable communist revolutionary government he had installed in Cuba . Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union continued to mount, and after a multitude of events, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, felt it was time to convince the United States that they were vulnerable to attack. In the summer of 1962 the Soviets began to send arms into Cuba. It was not until October of 1962 that the U.S. detected the presence of missiles on Cuba. Having a nuclear threat in a peripheral region so close to their homeland raised anxiety among U.S. policy makers, and they felt they had to send the strongest message without escalating the conflict into a nuclear war. On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy, issued a statement to the American people, in the address Kennedy laid out the U.S.’s plan of action assuring that America would halt the nuclear arms build-up, while increasing military

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