The Cuban Missile Crisis : A Detrimental Event

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.

“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 has long been a subject of controversy. While at the same time just the mention of the name John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, has sparked much debate, especially regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the first year of Kennedy’s presidency, November 1961, a covert program, code named Operation Mongoose, was initiated by the United States to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. A retaliatory response by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was the installation of nuclear armed missiles in Cuba, just ninety miles from the U.S. shore.!

One of the scarcest events in American history happened during the month of October 1962. The world was about to enter a new phase of world warfare, using nuclear weapons to destroy the oppositions. This event affected everyone in the world, it was the possibility of nuclear death. It affected American citizens like my uncle, Walter Neal Woodruff. He was a solider working in the Administrate branch of the Army, stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona on call during this moment in American history. This event was called the Cuban Missile Crisis and it was the closest the world had ever been to WW3. Looking back on history now, knowing the crisis was resolved, it would have never been possible without President Kennedy’s nationally televised speech on October 22, 1962. The presidential speech was a key moment in ending the Cuban Missile Crisis and leading to actions taken by both, Soviet and American government to de-escalate tensions of the Cold War.

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 in October of 1962. During a dismaying 13 day standoff, people were on the tip of their toes not knowing if they would see their children again as they dropped them off for school. They wandered when they laid down at night to go to sleep, if they would wake up to see another day. They did not know if they would wake to see a country obliterated by an atomic bomb. As the United States was on the brink of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union and Cuba, nobody was certain what laid around the corner, in five minutes the world could be devastated and millions of people could be dead.

35 Nikita Khrushchev, “Department of State Telegram Transmitting Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962” (Moscow: 26 Oct. 1962). 36 “Black Saturday: Cuban Missile Crisis.” (The Historical Association, 27 Apr. 2010). 37 Nikita Khrushchev, “Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 27, 1962” (Moscow: 27 Oct. 1962). 38 Carter 33.

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

During the Cuba missile crisis near every newspaper and radio station would talk about how the end of the world on the brink of destruction. Because of this many people around this time lived in fear and felt the world was going to end. The effects of the Cuba missile crisis didn’t just affect the two nations its effects also had major effects on the people of these nations, the world, and the countries themselves. These effects only truly made the world change when it was too late. The effects that the Cuba missile crisis left on the people of these nations consisted of fear, panic, and enough paranoia to scary the entire world. It also affected the world as other counties would do anything

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.

When speaking about the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy said, "It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization” (“Nuclear Test Ban Treaty” 1). the Cuban Missile Crisis was a time where these two men, Kennedy and Khrushchev, had the power in their hands to end civilization. In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis one must understand, the Cold war drama; the dangerous crisis; and its importance today.

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

Arguably, tensions reached its high point during the Cold War, when Soviet missiles were discovered stationed in Cuba. This event will later be known as the “Cuban Missile Crisis”. The crisis was when the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, came very close to nuclear conflict. In any case, this confrontation could've led to the possibility of the end of Western civilization. The crisis included many miscalculations, secret communications, and misconceptions between the two powers.

There were many outcomes and effects that developed from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba stayed a Communist state, which allowed for it to be a valuable ally to the Soviet Union in the Americas (Result of the Cuban Missile Crisis). Also, it opened the way for Khrushchev to push for disarmament (Result of the Cuban Missile Crisis). This benefited the Soviet Union more than the United States, because they were behind the United States in nuclear arm power and capabilities (Result of the Cuban Missile Crisis). The way the crisis was resolved made many within the Soviet government and public see Khrushchev as weak, because he gave in too much to the United States’s demands which in their eyes made the Soviet Union look desperate and fragile (Result

In 1962 nuclear war seemed inevitable to the world, it was the first time nuclear war was hanging on a thread. The Cuban Missile Crisis presented a threat to the world, in which the USSR planted nuclear missiles on Cuba. America’s response was to threaten launching nuclear missiles at the Russians. This incident launched the world into a new time, which presented nuclear weapons as a source of power.