Nineteen Days : A Memoir Of The Cuban Missile Crisis

“I know there is a God--and I see a storm coming; If he has a place for me, I believe I am ready,” is the Abraham Lincoln quote, written on a slip of paper, that President John F. Kennedy kept in his pocket (Dobbs 14). And if ever there was a storm coming, it was evident to Kennedy the morning of October 16, 1962: the date Kennedy was made aware of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This was the testing ground, the closest the world has ever been to nuclear war, the Cuban Missile Crisis, 16-28 October, 1962. The future for millions of lives depended upon the ability of United States President John F. Kennedy and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev to reach an agreement in which both did not lose face, and more importantly, the world survived.

This Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the biggest events in American history. After World War II, much of Europe was left in ruins. Europe had been divided into two sections: eastern and western by the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union and many new governments in Eastern Europe were communists, controlling everything from businesses to schools and people. As a result, the Cold War began with the Soviet Union and the United States became rivals competing to recruit other countries to their side.

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

U.S. Attorney General and President John F. Kennedy confidant Robert F. Kennedy wrote “Thirteen Days” as an account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a 13 day power struggle from October 15 to October 28 1962 between the US and the Soviet Union over ballistic missile deployment in Cuba by the Soviets. The peaceful removal of those missiles was both a challenge and a goal for the Kennedy administration. The Cuban Missile Crisis was arguably one of the most dangerous Cold War affairs whose escalation would have led to a global nuclear war demise.

In October of 1962, Bill Doman was living the American dream in Salt Lake City Utah. He had a wife, three small children and a steady job. He had recently graduated from the University of Utah and was awaiting his formal release from the military reserves, having served briefly in the Korean War some nine years earlier. Bill is a proud American, a history buff, which cultivated his love of this county. Then, in just thirteen days, his way of thinking concerning the security of the United States and his very own family was changed forever with the advent of the Cuban missile crisis (Doman).

Let the record show that our restraint is not inexhaustible. Should it ever appear that

In Thirteen Days, Robert Kennedy recollects his time with President John F. Kennedy in handling the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis, as described in Thirteen Days, started on October 16, 1962. President John F. Kennedy was provided with a photograph that gave little evidence of a missile base. The whole area was about the size of a football field and, to many of the cabinet, seemed like nothing. Kruschev, the chairman of the USSR said that there was nothing to worry about. When real proof was provided, the lies of Kruschev were exposed, and Robert Kennedy said, “I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor” (Kennedy, 25).

The Cuban Missile Crisis remains as a solitary occasion amid the Cold War and reinforced Kennedy's picture locally and universally. It additionally may have relieved negative world feeling with respect to the fizzled Bay of Pigs intrusion. Two other imperative aftereffects of the emergency came in novel structures. To begin with, notwithstanding the whirlwind of immediate and backhanded correspondences between the White House and the Kremlin—maybe as a result of it—Kennedy and Khrushchev, and their counselors, battled all through the emergency to obviously see every others' actual expectations, while the world held tight the verge of conceivable atomic war. With an end goal to keep this from happening once more, an immediate phone interface

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban missile crisis was the most dangerous of the Cold War, but

Thirteen days is a historical account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is told from the perspective of Robert F. Kennedy, senator and brother to President John F. Kennedy. It is an account of the thirteen days in October of 1962. It lasted from the 16th to the 28th. During this time many crucial events in United States.

I’m trying to remember how things were from 1962 to 1963. A time when I was 16 years old. It was a different time, a time of experiences I didn’t expect, to be sure. As I write this fifty-two years later, it all seems a bit surreal.

Throughout these thirteen days, the U.S. was attempting to find a resolution that would not lead to a nuclear war. However the U.S. was not going to allow the Soviet Union to continue having their nuclear missiles established in Cuba. If it had to come down to war the U.S. would greatly defend their country but no one wanted it to come down to war. In the beginning of the thirteen days a Soviet foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko came to have a conversation with President Kennedy, to tell him that the defensive system in Cuba was nothing the U.S should worry about. (www.jklibrary.org) The Soviet Union still did not know the U.S. knew what kind of weapons they had set in Cuba. Knowing that Kennedy warned the foreign Minister that the “gravest of consequences” would happen if there was any dangerous weapons in Cuba that could hurt the U.S. in a great way. (www.jklibrary.org) Our country would not by any means except the nuclear missiles being stationed in Cuba. The president and his advisors thought of ways they could attack and destroy the missiles, but the chances of destroying all of the missiles were not 100% . Taking that chance would put the U.S. in risk of getting aimed at and the death of many

Information found from source 1: Two superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union were the very close to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis was very special in many ways. The U.S. failed to overthrow Castro in Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion, President Kennedy was planning Operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose was a secret operation to fight against Cuba and remove communist from the power. Fidel Castro and Soviet Nikita Khrushchev reached an agreement to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The sites where the missiles were supposed to be put was a secret, but the U.S. found out. President Kennedy gathered his closest advisors to help come up with a plan to resolve the issue. He decided on a naval “quarantine” of

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