The Nuclear Of Nuclear Weapons

By 1962, the Soviet Union was considerably behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union had limited range missiles that were only capable of being launched against Europe, but the United States possessed missiles that were capable of striking anywhere within the entire Soviet Union. As it is often said, when it comes to national security, leaders sometimes make irrational decisions. In an effort to restore the balance of power Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev devised the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba (14 days in October). This deployment of weapons in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a credible deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the

President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.

Since the invention of nuclear weapons, they have presented the world with a significant danger, one that was shown in reality during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, nuclear weapons have not only served in combat, but they have also played a role in keeping the world peaceful by the concept of deterrence. The usage of nuclear weapons would lead to mutual destruction and during the Cold War, nuclear weapons were necessary to maintain international security, as a means of deterrence. However, by the end of the Cold War, reliance on nuclear weapons for maintaining peace became increasingly difficult and less effective (Shultz, et. al, 2007). The development of technology has also provided increasing opportunities for states

“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.

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.

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 world could be gone and the human race would end sooner if nuclear weapons were abused. Everyone was living under the fear that the they could be bombed with nuclear bomb at any second. While in the Caribbean, the problem with the use of nuclear energy was evident. Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba during the Cold War period, had befriended Nikita Khrushchev and the US, as a democratic, was scared of the spread of communism. The US invaded the Bay of Pigs in Cuba on April 17. 1961 to try to make a change in the Communist system of Fidel Castro, but it failed (The Cold War Bay of Pigs). At the beginning of 1962, the Soviet Union started to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, but the US was not satisfied with that decision. On October 22,

The atomic bomb was developed in an effort to counter proposed technologies by the Nazis in Germany, who were trying to develop superweapons in their effort to conquer Europe. Top physicists like Albert Einstein warned that nuclear reaction would release enough energy to level an entire city. By mid-1945, U.S. military leaders were presented with a few options regarding how they should approach the end of the war with Japan. Solutions included mounting a joint invasion with the Soviets, creating a naval blockade, allowing the Japanese to retain their emperor if they surrendered unconditionally and created a cease-fire, and dropping the atomic bomb. However, they needed to take into account many variables that would affect their decision. The U.S. should have dropped the bomb to impress the Soviets, to prevent the need for a possible land invasion, and to end the war sooner; therefore, the U.S.’s use of the atomic bomb only served to heighten the Cold War between the Soviets and U.S.

On October of 1962 there was a big misunderstanding between the dictator of the Union Soviet and the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. People all around the world was terrified as it could’ve turn into a nuclear war, this event was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. It all began after the outcome during the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 which resulted in a total failure of the United States trying to take over the Cuban dictator (history.state.gov). At this point the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, was concerned about another attack from the United States and decided to make a pact with the Union Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. They held a secret meeting where Fidel Castro offered Nikita Khrushchev locations inside his territory, allowing the Russian leader to build launching facilities and place nuclear missiles inside Cuban soil. Nikita Khrushchev accepted this proposition, he believed that President Kennedy wasn’t capable of making the right decision judging him by the outcomes of the already mention event, the Bay of Pigs, as well as the Mongoose Covert

In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba.

It is clear the majority of these sources indeed provide convincing evidence that Khrushchev’s principal intention (concerning the implementation of nuclear missiles into Cuba) was to protect the country from the imminent threat of the U.S. However, this is not an unanimous statement as Source B & G will show.

President Kennedy wrote a letter to Nikita Khrushchev basically explaining the reasons why the U.S. refused to let the Soviet Union have missiles in Cuba. (www.jklibrary.org ) He had made it clear from the beginning that if this dispute resulted in a nuclear war it would not only bring disaster to their countries but the entire world and he did not want it to come to that. However he also made it very clear that if it had to come to that the U.S. would hit them with full force. Both countries did not want to start a war between each other because they knew what it lead to but both were willing to protect their country with everything they

This incident began in the fall of 1962; a U.S. spy plane had photographed nuclear missile sites being created by the Soviet Union on Cuba (jfklibrary.org). Kennedy was well aware that strategically, it was best if neither the Soviet Union nor Cuba found out that America had intelligence on these missiles; rather Kennedy and his advisors conjoined secretly, discussing what the most effective plan would be. "According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles" (Loc.gov, 2010). The missiles also had the added benefit of being pitched to Cuba as a means of protecting the country from another American invasion, such as the ineffective Bay of Pigs invasion in 2010 (loc.gov, 2010). It's

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.

Soviet leader Krushchev quickly agreed to protect Cuba. Cuba was in a strategic location to place missile launch sites that could strike nearly all of the continental United States. During the Cold War the United States had many missile launch sites placed all over the world and pointed at the Soviet Union. The United States was allied with Turkey, so the American military had a base there to work their U-2 from and many missile sites pointed at the Soviet Union. These missiles in Turkey made Krushchev want to build surface to air missile sites on Cuba to balance the power and show his force. Krushchev would soon start sending ships and submarines loaded with equipment to start building medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles. In May 1962, Krushchev wrote in his memoirs: “This will be a means of protecting Cuba from another U.S. Invasion of Cuba like the Bay of Pigs in 1961, also to counter the U.S. emerging lead of deploying strategic missiles.”