Thirteen Most Dangerous Days Research Paper

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy “informed the world” that the Soviets were building secretive missile bases in Cuba, very close to Florida. President Kennedy decided to take the peaceful route in handling is major crisis. As

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 in 1962 lasted thirteen days and was one of the major events during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union were brink of a nuclear world war. Fidel Castro had become leader of Cuba and had turned the country into a communist state, similar to the Soviet Union. The USSR was given permission to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to target major cities in the United States, the reason was because the Soviet Union was threatened by the missiles placed in Italy and Turkey by the Americans. However, neither of the nation's fired their weapons; and an agreement between Nikita Khrushchev (leader of the USSR) and President John F.

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

During discussion of the findings, there was proposals to invade Cuba to remove such missiles. However, after about a week of President Kennedy and

On October 15, 1962, a photograph proved the existence of the missile being constructed on Cuba, and for the U.S., the nightmare began. After a week of intense debating with his closest advisors, President Kennedy made a decision. He decided to impose quarantine, of sorts, around Cuba to ensure there were no more missiles arriving. The Soviet Union demanded the

There was a suspicious report that there was a nuclear threat from Soviet that might've been based on Cuba with missiles aiming to bomb America. On 29 August President John F. Kennedy ordered periodic flights over to Cuba by high-speed, high-altitude U-2 spy planes. A quote that relates and explains more about this is "Although U-2 flights through 7 October showed Soviet antiaircraft missile (SAM) sites under construction and the introduction of Soviet-built patrol boats, they turned up no hard evidence of offensive missile sites or introduction of such missiles" (The Cold War Continued: The Cuban Missile Crisis). The evidence shows that the prior statement confirms Kennedy's swift action to protect the safety of the American people. This led Kennedy to send forces to examine if Cuba actually had missiles; which they didn't. He always made sure that this country was protected. His priorities was straight and he knew exactly what had to be

The first seven days the information is kept between Kennedy and his advisors. Those thirteen days that encompassed the Cuban Missile Crisis stand out as a particularly terrifying moment in American history. However, Kennedy did everything he could to stop this crisis from turning into something worse. On day one, (October 16) Kennedy and his advisors began to discuss how they would respond to this challenge. Two possible strategies were an air strike or naval quarantine. He wanted to avoid arousing public concern so he kept this information between him and his advisors. On day two, the American military began moving to bases in the Southeastern and U-2 flight shows images of more missiles being installed. On day three, President Kennedy was visited by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who asserted the Soviet aid to Cuba was purely defensive and does not represent a threat to the United States. However, JFK did not reveal his information on the existing missiles in Cuba. On day four in Washington, JFK's advisers continued the debate over the necessary and appropriate course of the action. Day five, Kennedy decided on a quarantine. He also planned a speech to notify the American people of the crisis. On day six Kennedy met with General Walter Sweeney of the tactical Air Command who tells him that an air strike could not guarantee complete destruction of the missiles. Kennedy continues to determine the

With the news and uncertainty of this war possibly bringing upon more than a 100 million American and Russian deaths, our president at the time John F. Kennedy went public with the impending news. Kennedy begun by issuing a public warning against the Soviet Union of entering and prohibited weapons into Cuba. After the initial warning the White House received pictures showing clear cites of nuclear missiles under construction in Cuba from a U-2 aircraft, and the precipitating of the Cuban Missile Crisis begun.

John Kennedy, creator of the Peace Corps and a hardy leftist leader, was elected into office in 1961 at 35 years old and was the youngest president to date. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of trained Cuban expatriates to invade their homeland and usurp Castro’s regime. The attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro was a miserable crash, and he continued his reign over the country. This was a threat made more dangerous because of the Soviet alliance with Cuba; their communist ways were too close for comfort to America. Russians now sought to store nuclear weapons in Cuba. When an American flight over the country revealed the operation in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a sanction on all weapons to Cuba. Threatened by word of a nuclear confrontation, Russia backed down and removed missiles from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After obtaining Fidel Castro 's approval, the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build missile installations in Cuba. On October 16, President John Kennedy was shown reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations under construction in Cuba. After seven days of guarded and intense debate in the United States administration, during which Soviet diplomats denied that installations for offensive missiles were being built in Cuba, President Kennedy, in a televised address on October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded to accordingly. He also imposed a naval quarantine on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of offensive military weapons from arriving there.During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and other communications, both formal and back channel. Khrushchev sent letters to

In Early October of 1962, United States spy planes identified Soviet missile sites under construction on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy met with his advisors over the next few days to solidify numerous offensive, and contingency plans. In the end he chose to place an embargo around Cuba to prevent further missile supplies being delivered by Soviet ships. Shortly after enacting the embargo, President Kennedy publicly demanded the Soviet government remove all nuclear missiles from Cuba, while this brought international and domestic attention to the situation, it left the Soviets with few political options. While the president was enforcing the Monroe doctrine of containment that was America’s policy toward the Soviet Union, advisors were still unsure how the Russian leader Khrushchev would respond, this coupled with American’s

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