Fidel Castro's Role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

The United States has now gotten rid of it’s relations with Cuba, but the small island wouldn’t be hurt then. The United States had also tried to tear apart Cuba with these plans the Bay of Pigs. As dictator of Cuba, Castro had fought back when America had led some Cuban exiles into Cuba. While the stuff between Cuba, a new Communist nation, and the Capitalist America was happening the Russian president Khrushchev had also been giving missles to Castro since they were both of the same government. “The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in a number of ways, featuring calculations and miscalculations as well as direct and secret communications and miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level with relatively little input from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process.” (The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 - 1961–1968 - Milestones - Office of the Historian.

“The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day political and military standoff between the United States and Soviet Union officials. The confrontation was over the Soviet army putting nuclear weapons on Cuban soil, only ninety miles from the United States coast. On October 15, 1962 a United States U-2 Spy Plane discovered the missiles and this started the crisis itself. On October 22, 1962 President John F. Kennedy addressed the United States and told the country about the missiles and also stated that the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary. The world was on the verge of nuclear warfare, but the U.S. and Soviets came to an agreement when the Soviets said they would take the missiles off of Cuba if the United States agreed

John F. Kennedy said at the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 that, “It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.” (Kennedy, 1963). The Cuban missile crisis was a detrimental event in the course of history. On October 22nd, 1962, John F. Kennedy gave his Cuban missile crisis oval office address. Kennedy gave this speech to inform Americans about the nuclear missile sites that the Soviet Union established in the island of Cuba. (Kennedy, President Kennedy 's Cuban Missile Crisis Oval Office Address, 1962) I chose this speech because did I not only find it very interesting, but it described very well the events that were happening at the time. In addition, the way that Kennedy informed the public and presented the speech was great in getting their attention and presenting the facts. Kennedy’s speech was televised and radio transmitted in order to better reach the general public. My father, having lived in Cuba during the Cold war and the Cuban missile crisis, has told me many stories about how life was like in the country and things that were going on. However, there was only so much that he could remember and was able to tell me. Due to this I decided to choose this speech in order to learn more about the situation in which my father grew up in and how this affected not only the later years in his life but also the ones of the other people in both Cuba and the United States. I also

Despite of Castro’s main diplomatic goal to break off ties with the U.S., he did not hesitate to be supported by the Soviet Union. More specifically, the online article, “Fidel Castro Biography,” says that Cuba depended on the U.S.S.R. to help it's national defense, as well as to trade and buy oil. In addition, Cuba depended on the Soviet Union to help improve its citizens standard of living, as well as trade of firearms (“Fidel Castro”). However, relations did not remain simple forever. In 1962, Castro secretly welcomed Soviet Union tomahawk missiles on Cuban grounds, just off the coast of Florida in order to prevent another U.S. attack, and in response to U.S. nuclear missiles stationed in Turkey and Italy.

Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union leader, is often considered the initiator of the Missile Crisis. He developed the idea of taking medium-range nuclear weapons to Cuba as a means of counteracting the United States’ lead in deploying as well as developing strategic weapons. Khrushchev presented the idea to the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, as a scheme to protect Cuba from U.S. supported invasion like the failed attempt in 1961 at the Bay of Pigs (Garthoff, 2011). He was not sure if Castro would accept the missiles. Nonetheless, Khrushchev received Castro’s approval and the Soviet Union embarked on building Cuban missile installations secretly. However, President John Kennedy had seen the reconnaissance photographs of the missile construction in Cuba. It prompted President Kennedy to announce that any attack from Cuba using the nuclear weapons would be considered an attack by Russia and would be reacted to accordingly (George, 2013). He further forced quarantine on Cuba by the U.S. naval forces to prevent the Soviet shipments from gaining entry.

In October 1962, the USSR and the United States of America were on the brink of a nuclear war that had devastating implications on a global scale. In the aftermath of the Second World War, both the USSR and the U.S. found themselves in a power struggle to become the prominent world super power. Subsequently, both states became involved in an ever evolving ‘arms race’ which saw an antagonistic approach towards defence and security measures. The reason for choosing this topic to research is that I am profoundly interested in global politics and interactions between states. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to a standstill as they waited for potentially catastrophic repercussions as the consequence of two very dissimilar states clashing. At the centre of all this was President John F. Kennedy who is a leader that I deeply admire and one who fronted up to the challenges put before him and came out better as a result, engraining his legacy in the history books. In this research essay I intend to analyse and discuss the relationship between the USSR and the U.S. throughout the Cold War period, the build up to the Cuban Missile Crisis and ensuing tensions surrounding it. Whilst doing so, I will also look at President John F. Kennedy’s decision making throughout this period and the consequences of these decisions, in particular, his decision to blockade Cuba.

From October 16 to October 28 of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union had a 13-day political and military dispute over the installation of Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba. This dispute was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the failed and humiliating Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban people and their dictator, Fidel Castro, asked for support of the Soviet Union and defensive weapons. President John F. Kennedy took careful consideration into his options, choosing to put a naval “quarantine” around Cuba. Finally, this crisis resulted in a treaty for a ban on nuclear testing and the removing of missiles by both the US and USSR. The Cuban Missile Crisis is a critical point in the history of the Cold War and the closest we have

After World War II, according to Margaret MacMillan’s article published by The Guardian, both counties prospered greatly: “the United States was both a military power and an economic one; the Soviet Union had only brute force and the intangible attraction of Marxist ideology to keep its own people down and manage its newly acquired empire in the heart of Europe” (“MacMillan”, pgh. 6). Furthermore, Cuba itself also underwent drastic domestic changes (that is, the Cuban Revolution [1953–1959]), which served to deteriorate its relations with America while, contemporaneously, strengthening its ties with the U.S.S.R. Consequently, Cuba’s revolutionary regime, latterly induced by its leaders Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, grew progressively reliant on its freshly created amity with the U.S.S.R., which both shared corresponding ideological perspectives (namely, Marxism–Leninism) (“Cuba”, pgh. 1; “Marxism”, pgh. 1; Zelinski, p. 34). The Cuban Missile Crisis was patently an inordinately tense moment in history; accordingly, there must be an entity that is to be accounted most guilty for nearly bringing the world to a pitiful and devastating end. The United States of America is to be held most liable and culpable, out of the three primal nations enmeshed in the predicament, for instigating the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. An examination of the aspects that America had nefariously

The first source which will be evaluated in depth is an extract from Premier Khrushchev’s autobiography, Khrushchev Remembers published in 1970. The purpose of this source is for the justification of Khrushchev’s personal account for why missiles were placed in Cuba, expressing his specific reasons and role in placing missiles, as the Soviet Union’s Premier. The context of the source is that it was published in 1970, exactly eight years after the Cuban missile crisis and that Soviet Union’s Premier Khrushchev was involved in this. The value of this source is that it gives an account of Khrushchev’s reasons for placing the missiles. As Khrushchev was discharged from his Premiership following the crisis, he could candidly account for his interpretation

The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in 1963 in a setting that was the high point of tension in the Cold War. The most significant background cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the underlying cold war ideology of capitalism vs communism. This was dramatically increased by the second key cause, a series of events that quickly built tensions between the super powers from 1959 such as the U2 incident, JFK’s response to the Berlin Wall, and the Bay of Pigs incident. The third cause was the relationship between the leaders Khrushchev and Kennedy. It can be argued that the short-term consequences of the Crisis were concentrated geographically on the people of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during and immediately after the event. Historians have suggested that the long-term consequences of the Crisis were more global in nature and the impact was felt up until the end of the Cold War in 1990 including the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban treaty and the new relaxed relationship between the superpowers US and USSR.

In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis in American history one must first understand the Cold War drama, Castro’s rise to power, and the American operations that set up the crisis. “The term Cold War refers

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

On October 14, 1962, a U-2 plane discovered evidence of Soviet Missile bases in Cuba on film. In response, John F. Kennedy called for an emergency meeting on October 16th with the Ex-Comm to determine the next best course of action for the United States. On October 18th, Robert F. Kennedy met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko who told him that the missiles in Cuba were solely for defensive purposes, not for battle. The US was not convinced and on October 19, after debate between air strikes or a quarantine, the Ex-Comm came to a consensus to put a naval blockade around Cuba. Kennedy publicly addressed American citizens regarding the quarantine around Cuba on October 22nd. When the quarantine took effect, most Soviet ships headed towards Cuba either slowed, stopped or reversed (Alice L. George 16). The blockade lasted for thirteen days and prevented further shipments of military weapons to and from Cuba. On October 27th, a U-2 plane flied off course into Soviet territory in Cuba but was rescued by US jet before the Soviets were able to shoot it down. In fear of a US invasion in Cuba, Fidel Castro appealed to the Soviets to reach a settlement with the US. Nikita Khrushchev demanded Kennedy to take down the missiles in Turkey and not invade Cuba and in exchange, he would remove the missiles in Cuba. Kennedy agreed to this arrangement and to secretly remove the missiles in Turkey (Alice L. George 16). A negotiation between the two nations was reached and on October 28, 1962, the crisis had ended as the world had survived a nuclear

This investigation surveys the criticalness of Fidel Castro's role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. While assessing Castro's centrality, the investigation also assesses his part in every phase of the Crisis in reference to different members of the occasion; Castro's part is examined in the introductory days of the Crisis, amid the shooting down of the American U-2 plane, and in the determination of the Crisis. Journals and oral history are generally used to assess Castro's hugeness. Two of the sources utilized as a part of the article, Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis and the Soviet Collapse aggregated by James Blight, Allyn Bruce and David Welsh and Cuban archives, "The Mikoyan-Castro Talks, 4-5 November 1962: the Cuban Version,"

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is undeniably a major confrontation of the Cold War. Lasting for 13 days it is arguably the pinnacle of the Cold War. This crisis was a decisive factor in the United States’ (US) decision process of whether to engage in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (USSR). However the essential fault of both state leaders (J. Kennedy and N. Khrushchev) which created the inevitable crisis was miscommunication. Today we recognise actions taken by both states during the crisis as consistent with a realist point of view. Realism holds great emphasise on the obstacles enforced by human nature and the non-attendance of an international government. Creating international politics an area focused on power and state-interest.