The Cuban Missile Crisis Essay

Thirteen days. For some, it seemed like a lifetime. Thirteen days. For others, it was the scariest moments of their lives. Just thirteen short days to prevent a nuclear war. After Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government, he turned Cuba into a communist regime. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decided to provide Cuba with Soviet aid. Soon after, The United States found evidence of nuclear missiles. The Cuban Missile Crisis was an important time in both Cuban and American history. Castro’s Cuba was just the beginning, things then started to intensify with Soviet aid, and culminated with the United States responding to end it all.

The closest the world has come to nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. This was the tense cold war opposition between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States

In his article, “The Influence of Nuclear Weapons in the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Marc Trachtenberg considers three historical approaches to the role that nuclear arms played during the 1962 conflict: first, the view that nuclear arms played no role at all, with U.S. and Soviet weapons cancelling each other out, second, the interpretation that the risk involved with nuclear warfare heavily influenced policy making, and finally the view that the strategic imbalance of nuclear force, characterized by a substantial American advantage, significantly impacted the outcome of the crisis. In weighing the three interpretations, Trachtenberg dismisses the first in supporting the existence of the second, using a variety of primary sources to identify instances when decision-makers were influenced by the risk of nuclear warfare. The focus of the article, however, is on advancing and complicating the third approach, which Trachtenberg claims is congruous with the second. In this third section, Trachtenberg advances the approach that the imbalance of nuclear capabilities impacted Soviet strategy but not American decision making. Accordingly, Trachtenberg’s article is characterized by two central claims: that risk of nuclear war influenced policy during the Cuban Missile Crisis and that American nuclear superiority disproportionately affected Soviet decision-making.

Thirteen days in October of 1962 changed the course of the World in the nuclear age forever. The Cuban Missile Crisis represents the closest brink of mutual nuclear destruction the World has ever been close to reaching. The leadership in place throughout the crisis is critical to the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three men dominated the nations involved in the crisis and captivated citizens of all corners of the world. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy of the United States, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro dominated the airwaves and news circuits leading up to the infamous crisis, which put the three leaders and nations in a cold silence of misperceptions, miscommunications, and unprecedented

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the most terrifying thirteen days in the history of American. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the closest that the world has ever came to the nuclear war (Boyd). On October 15, 1962, a U-2 found the missiles in Cuba (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). On October 16, 1962, more photos were shown that proves Cuba has long ranging missiles from the Soviet Union. Robert Kennedy meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Gromyko explains to Robert Kennedy that the Soviet Union is helping Cuba in advancing their agriculture. Gromyko also explains to Robert Kennedy that the nuclear weapons are for protection (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). Since Cuba is closer than the Soviet Union to America, it makes more sense for the Soviet Union to keep their nuclear weapons in Cuba. If the Soviet Union had missiles that could launch from the Soviet Union to America, why else would they have them in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Soviet Union put their nuclear weapon into Cuba. America’s weapons were strong enough to launch from America into the Soviet Union from America. Therefore, America was farther ahead in the arms race than the Soviet Union (Boyd). In the Excomm meeting on October 19, 1962, they member suggest to send ships from the United States to Cuba to stop the Soviet Union (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). They called this act a quarantine instead of a blockade. Since a blockade in used as a war tactic, the Excomm members did not want to call the quarantine a blockade to give people the wrong idea. A simple mistake, like that, could have been enough to start another war (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). In this Excomm meeting President John F. Kennedy was not able to attend. When President John F. Kennedy finds out what the Excomm suggest, he heads back to Washington to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis (“Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the only devastating event in U.S. to ever bring the country into DEFCON-2. Ever since World War 2, the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been rivals(Jeffery, Riley, 4). The Soviets later aligned themselves with the small country of Cuba. It is a small piece of land in enemy territory, but it is very important to them because they have to protect their allies at all times. For this reason, The USSR placed missiles in Cuba to keep them prepared for an invasion. In 1962, The two huge superpowers brought the Cold War to a nuclear crisis in Cuba which led to DEFCON-2, the closest point to a nuclear war(The Choices Program)

On the dawn of October 16th, 1962, began a 13-day standoff that would be formally known to the western world as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Growing tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) resulted in the closest the world has ever been to all-out nuclear war. This essay will talk about the initial weaponization of nuclear power, the events that led up to the missile crisis, the thirteen days the missile crisis took place and the measures taken to stop nuclear war.

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

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. The crisis was a major confrontation between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The confrontation was caused by the Soviets putting missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States of America. The world was in the hands of President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khruchchev. These two men would have to reach a compromise or else the results would be fatal.

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis had a huge impact on society even years after it was resolved because the incident had brought our nation and the world so close to the brink of nuclear war. Before the Cuban Missile Crisis had occurred, many other factors had been piling up and building undesirable tensions between many countries. Along the way new allies and enemies were made causing more stress to the Cold War. The new bonds that formed after Cuba was taken over by Fidel Castro pushed nuclear war to the very edge.