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The Cuban Missile Crisis Essay

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The Cuban Missile Crisis bought the world closer to extinction than ever before. It was through the decisive actions of newly elected president John F Kennedy and then premier of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev that the confrontation did not escalate into all out nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for 13 days, it was predicated on the fact that the Soviet Union was placing intercontinental ballistic missiles on the island country of Cuba which is just off the coast of the United States near the state of Florida. It can be assumed that the USSR was placing these missiles in Cuba as a response to the United States placing missile system in Europe encircling the Warsaw pact countries.
To understand to total extent of the conflict we can look at the recently declassified CIA documents which explain in detail how all the fatal sequence of events that occurred. To better understand the ideologies and perspectives of both the sides we can look at the letters exchanged between President Kennedy and Chairmen Khrushchev. Sources from both sides of the Iron curtain are very contrasting as they are from two different ideological perspectives. The letters also help us understand the perspective of two of the most powerful people on earth, as their tone and rhetoric changes during the confrontation. Lastly we can also observe that good and bad is all relative to perspective.
The Cuban Missile Crisis officially lasted 13 days. Starting on October 14,1962 and ending on October 28,

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