The Cold War: 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.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began October 16, 1962. It was at the height of the Cold War that this potentially lethal confrontation arose between the United States and the Soviet Union. A United States reconnaissance plane discovered a military stockpile of Soviet nuclear missiles and bombers in Cuba. Some historians point out that Khrushchev's real intention in deploying the missiles into Cuba was to control West Berlin. They would be used in this context as a sufficient reason for the Western powers (The USA, UK, and France) to allow him to achieve his plan. However, The government of Washington, along with President John F. Kennedy at its head, believed this to be a threat and was not willing to tolerate such a threat so close to home.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the USSR, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. The Cuban and Soviet governments placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. When her military intelligence discovered the weapons, America sought to do all it could to ensure the removal of the missiles. This incident became closest to a nuclear war.1 The incident has caused a lot of commotion and raised tensions between the three countries.

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 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

The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba's fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy's choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev's decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the

The US and Moscow were taking place in nuclear discussions but ended up making a deal where if Russia took the missiles out of Cuba in exchange for the US taking missiles out of Turkey on October of 1962. The Soviet missiles were taken out of Cuba and the American missiles were taken out of Turkey lower the scare of a global thermonuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis affected John F. Kennedy and the United States’s long-term legacy by making them seem like a heroic and strong while preventing global thermonuclear war and stopping the total destruction of the

President Kennedy moved forward, After it was deemed Unacceptable that Cuba having any possession of the nuclear weapon, considering it was less than 100 miles off the coast of Florida. America, under a new threat, had possibly threatened the Soviet union. In turn both sides were referred an ultimatum.

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

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.

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.

The Cuban missile Crisis was an intense Time for the U.S, Cuba and Russia at this time of the period. The cold War was fought into two groups the Western Bloc (The united states and NATO the allies and other countries.) The Nato also known as North Atlantic Alliance. NATO was intergovernmental military alliance compacted based by the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4, 1949. The NATO a system of defense and if a country that was being attack by another country or external party and who ever was part of the NATO would have to send soldiers to the April country and help them fight of the invade. The NATO was also used during the Korean War when North Korea invaded South Korea on Saturday, 24 June 1950. NATO is going till this day and has increased over the past year. The NATO did not really voted for a leader because it would look like a dictatorship but it was made up of the representative of the allies, including ambassador, minister and head of state and government and there was no voting and decision by majority.

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 reflects possibly the most precarious moment in nuclear history. For the first time, the world’s two nuclear super powers, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were poised to destroy each other in a war of unprecedented proportion. On the brink of what may have escalated into a nuclear war, the leaders of two nations showed courageous restraint and diplomacy to avoid an exchange of brute force and unimaginable desolation. The situation was preempted by the Bay of Pigs, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba. Castro had gained authority through a rebellion against Fulgencio Batista, the previous Cuban dictator (Bay of Pigs). America was displeased with Castro, mainly because he was a Communist leader so close to American shores, so a plan to depose him was made, without official United States military support.