During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. 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 Ban Test Treaty). This quote directly describes the overall idea of Cuban Missile Crisis. The “Thirteen Days” of the Cuban Missile Crisis refer to the closest point where the Soviet Union and the United States came to nuclear war. For thirteen days both nations waited in fear, for news if there was about to be an attack. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a dilemma that could have been solved easier if more communication would have been involved.
There had been a great amount of conflict leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The conflict began
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The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev risked the missile bases for the goal of being in range for a nuclear strike. Khrushchev was apprehensive about the number of nuclear weapons that were targeted at The Soviet Union from countries in Europe and Turkey, so he needed to find away to even out the playing field (Cuban Missile Crisis. History.com). The finding of the missile bases imposed a sense of urgency on the situation. The base unit in Cuba was only ninety miles away from the southern coast of Florida. This information was alarming because the communist were finally capable of reaching the eastern United States. From that moment, President Kennedy knew something that had to be done about the medium-ranged missile sites in Cuba. Both superpowers were aware of the others aggressiveness and assertiveness. This means that once one missile goes off, there will be massive havoc; both sides will strike until they are defeated. If a nuclear missile went off, there could have easily been an end to a civilization. President Kennedy immediately formed a group of advisors and officials. Eventually this group was called the executive committee, or the Excom. From the beginning, the executive committee and Kennedy agreed the missiles in Cuba had to go. The Excom had many different choices of ways they could approach the situation. From bombing the missile bases or a full invasion of Cuba, but their ultimatum was to remove the missile bases from Cuba without stirring up
The Cuban Missile Crisis all started in October, 1962, when an American spy plane spotted and secretly photographed missile sites being built on the island of Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy did not tell the Soviet Union right away that we had found their nuclear missile site. But days later, President Kennedy meet secretly with his advisors to discuss the situation. President Kennedy and his advisors though long and hard about what to do and the finally came up with an idea. Kennedy decided to put a naval blockade around the island of Cuba. The purpose of this was so Cuba could not get anymore military supplies for the Soviet Union. President Kennedy demanded that the missiles that were already there be disabled and that the sit be destroyed. Later on, Kennedy told America what was happening on a televised address. Everyone was anxious about what the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, would say about the naval blockade. But both President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev recognized that the devastation that a nuclear war will bring is too much.
In the early days of the crisis, JFK made a formal declaration to both the nation and to the U.S.S.R that any nuclear weapons launched from Cuba onto any target in the Western Hemisphere would be considered an attack on the US and would warrant a full retaliatory response (“The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962”). He followed up that statement by blocking the transfer of all offensive weapons in route to Cuba (Freidel and Sidey). Kennedy showed the people that he wasn’t going to sit idly by while there was such a large threat to the nation’s safety, he was going to act boldly. After many more stressful days passed, JFK, in an attempt to ensure that the situation didn’t escalate any further, agreed to not attack Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew all weapons from the island nation (Swift). After 13 grueling days of diplomatic actions, the Soviet Union’s ships left Cuba with their hatches open in order to show the Americans that they were carrying the missiles with them (Swift). Kennedy’s choice to pursue a peaceful end to the Cuban Missile Crisis, despite intense Soviet aggression, may have saved countless American lives. John F. Kennedy’s actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis boosted his reputation considerably and steered America away from a war with the
The Cuban Missile Crisis was similar to a game of chess, one miscalculated move could have ended up costing entire game. There were two main players within this conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the Soviets were the ones to have placed the missiles in Cuba, both the United States and the Soviet Union both sought a common goal, which was to avert war and make diplomatically resolve the crisis at hand. Each player took different and contentious moves so that in the end, they were able to gain as much as they were able to while avoiding war. Throughout the conflict, deception and decision making were extremely important to the outcome of the crisis. If there happened to be any sorts of leaked plans, or faulty decisions, there would have been an imminent war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most impactful events in the Cold War due to the effect that it had after it happened. The effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis created many changes on the direct and indirect relations between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis spanned 13 days in October 1962 that almost brought the world into a nuclear war. This all began when a United States U-2 spy plane Cuba took photos of Soviet SS-4 medium range ballistic missiles getting setup for the ability to launch.This caused the U.S leaders to be thrown into a panic because the Cuban Government had very strong ties with the Soviet Union who are the United States biggest enemies at the time. Another reason the United States was very fearful is because the coast of Cuba is only 90 miles of the coast of Florida. When President John F Kennedy was told of the missile threat in Cuba he immediately called a meeting with his closest advisors on how to react. There were many ideas on how to react to the missiles, some of Kennedy’s advisors wanted to invade Cuba, others wanted to send a warning to the Soviet Union. JFK finally decided to send a naval blockade to cuba for the purpose of stopping more supplies reaching the Cuban military from Russia. The blockade even though the blockade did not include attacking anyone, it was still seen as an act of aggression by the Soviet Union. The U.S was
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis? Many people have heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and may have learned about it during school, but they do not know the nitty gritty details of the whole fiasco. The CMC was the first threat of a nuclear world war. The real “crisis” was between the United States and the Soviet Union and not Cuba. Cuba played a relatively small role in the grand scheme of it all and was basically the field on which the two powerhouses played on. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most tense 13 days that the world has ever known and had the possibility of completely disintegrating the world we know today. In this paper we will learn exactly what happened.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began October 16, 1962. It was at the height of the Cold War that this potentially lethal confrontation arose between the United States and the Soviet Union. A United States reconnaissance plane discovered a military stockpile of Soviet nuclear missiles and bombers in Cuba. Some historians point out that Khrushchev's real intention in deploying the missiles into Cuba was to control West Berlin. They would be used in this context as a sufficient reason for the Western powers (The USA, UK, and France) to allow him to achieve his plan. However, The government of Washington, along with President John F. Kennedy at its head, believed this to be a threat and was not willing to tolerate such a threat so close to home.
On October 22 JFK announced that the Soviets had long range missiles in Cuba, which posed a dangerous threat to the United States. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade to stop Soviets from delivering more missiles. The Soviets on the other hand were heading right for the blockade and Americans prepared for war. Kennedy and the Soviets had secret negotiations were at the end the Soviets offered a deal. The deal was the Soviets would remove missiles from Cuba if the US promised to not invade Cuba and they had to remove their missiles from Turkey. On October 28 both Kennedy and Khrushchev came to an agreement because neither one wanted nuclear war. Kennedy’s quick thinking and his willingness to negotiate with the Soviets was the only reason the US was able to avoid going to nuclear war. Kennedy after the Cuban missile crisis had many ideas that he wished to implicate but sadly he was assassinated before he could do
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a dangerous and direct confrontation in the year 1962 between the Soviet Union and the United States over the existence of missile sites in Cuba. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier positioned Soviet military missile in Cuba that had come under the Soviet power since the victory of the Cuban Revolution (Lockwood, Lockwood and Lockwood 15). This crisis occurred during the cold war and was the instant when the two superior powers came nearer to the nuclear conflict. The crisis was distinct in a number of ways featuring miscalculations and calculations as well as secret and direct miscommunications and communications among the two sides. The dramatic catastrophe was also featured by the fact that it was mainly played out at the Kremlin level and the white house with relatively diminutive input from the respective bureaucracies normally included in the foreign policy process (Blight., et al 64). This essay will discuss the Cuban Missile Crisis and the impact of the United States and Russia.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to a nuclear war. Luckily, due to the bravery of President John F. Kennedy, it was avoided. During October of 1962, President Kennedy was alerted of some intelligence that Cuba had Soviet Nuclear missiles in its possession. Immediately President Kennedy sprung into action. President Kennedy and The Executive Committee of the National Security Council (Ex-Comm.) did an efficient job deciding how to react to the nuclear missiles in Cuba by carefully weighing their options of an air strike, an invasion or a naval blockade. They were able to make a fast and very accurate decision on how they should handle the Soviet missiles in Cuba.
In 1962 the cuban missile crisis was a confrontation between america and the soviet union. In 1962 the cuban missile crisis was a confrontation between america and the soviet union. This was the closest we have came to nuclear war which scared people all around the world.This resulted in a agreement to end nuclear testing in the sea and above ground.This resulted in a agreement to end nuclear testing in the sea and above ground.This made people feel safe and also protected the environment from the testing of nuclear bombs.
There were a lot of misunderstandings between the two sides. This all began with The Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Bay of Pigs Invasion started when trained Cuban refugees land in Cuba to attack the government of Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro had been a threat to the U.S. The U.S. president at the time which was Dwight D. Eisenhower was planning an armed attack on Cuba. Then, JFK became president so he had to take over the attack. However, the attack had failed when the U.S. didn't have any air support and were very unprepared. The Cuban Missile Crisis came into play when there were nuclear Cuban missiles being placed close to the U.S. John F. Kennedy had a plan to prevent the Soviets to keep placing missiles as well as having previous missiles be removed. This all ended when Kennedy agrees to remove Turkey missiles if the Soviets remove Cuban missiles. John F. Kennedy and the U.S. win the crisis because the Soviets backed out.
November 8, 1960 was a big day for America. It was the day John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. However, October 16, 1962 was the day JFK and his advisers got hold of information that completely stunned them. As president, there are many issues he would need to handle, but the fact America was on the brink of nuclear war was probably something that never crossed his mind. Nuclear war was a frightening thought and JFK had to tackle it to best of his ability. This scary time in America was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. But through JFK’s smart and fast decision making he practically saved America from nuclear war and eased the tensions between the United States, Soviet Union and Cuba.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was October 16th through the 28th in the year of 1962, and it was one of the scariest situations that could have ended in a nuclear war. Earlier that month John F. Kennedy send a plane to spy on them and see if they were doing anything they were not supposed to and he saw that Cuba had nuclear missiles set out and they could fire them at any given moment if they wanted to. John F. Kennedy saw this and the next day he immediately went to talk to the leader of the Soviet Union. The leader of the Soviet Union was named Nikita Khrushchev and it was very hard for John F. Kennedy to make a deal with him so that he would put his nuclear missiles away. The deal was that if John F. Kennedy would remove his nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy then The Soviet Union would have to remove their nuclear missiles from Cuba. John F. Kennedy also had to make an agreement that he would never invade Cuba again without direct provocation. This agreement also set a
There was obviously many reasons why this crisis escalated. Also, the Cuban Missile Crisis lead us into the cold war. We were sure that “The new government took over American businesses,” (Cuban Missile Crisis), and we were going to be destroyed. This was one of the few reasons why we made the decision of letting this fall into war. Not trusting that this will end there, we find out that “Castro and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to place secret strategic nuclear missiles in Cuba in case the US
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