The Cuban Missile Crisis has long been a subject of controversy. While at the same time just the mention of the name John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, has sparked much debate, especially regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the first year of Kennedy’s presidency, November 1961, a covert program, code named Operation Mongoose, was initiated by the United States to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. A retaliatory response by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was the installation of nuclear armed missiles in Cuba, just ninety miles from the U.S. shore.!
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. During discussion of the findings, there was proposals to invade Cuba to remove such missiles. However, after about a week of President Kennedy and
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.
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
The US and Moscow were taking place in nuclear discussions but ended up making a deal where if Russia took the missiles out of Cuba in exchange for the US taking missiles out of Turkey on October of 1962. The Soviet missiles were taken out of Cuba and the American missiles were taken out of Turkey lower the scare of a global thermonuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis affected John F. Kennedy and the United States’s long-term legacy by making them seem like a heroic and strong while preventing global thermonuclear war and stopping the total destruction of the
The events that unfolded in the thirteen days following the revelation to Kennedy, is known in history as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States demanded the unconditional removal of nuclear weapons in Cuba, whilst the Soviets believed the establishment of nuclear warhead was justified, as long as the Americans had similar such weapons in Turkey. Both nations had various options to choose, yet with the persistence of the USSR, it seemed the decision making fell on Kennedy. The United States had two feasible options, one involving military action and the other a blockade of Cubafollowed by political negotiations.
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.
In 1962, Cuba was convinced that the USA was planning to attack them and asked the Soviet Union for military assistance. The USSR sent Cuba materials to build missile bases and launch sites. When President Kennedy realized that Cuba could launch missiles into America, he demanded that the USSR remove its weapons and troops. The Americans formed a naval blockade as the world stood nervously on the edge of a nuclear war. The USSR removed its weapons despite protests from Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, the Caribbean Crisis or the Missile Scare was a battle between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning the deployment in Italy and Turkey. The Soviet Union had secretly positioned nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba. As soon as the U.S government found out what the Soviets we doing, they immediately demanded their withdrawal there would be major consequences . As a results the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a strained 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installment of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba only 90 miles away from the U.S shores. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the United States and the Soviet
(CMC) During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S was trying to prevent a nuclear war, and attempting to contain the hostility between the U.S and the Soviet Union. In 1962, an American U2 plane spotted a Russian missile site being built with short, medium, and long range missiles (cite). After Kennedy got the notice of there being a threat, he didn’t want the public to know, so he met with his close advisors in private (cite). He also needed to hurry as those missiles were ninety miles away from the U.S. Kennedy and his advisors had to come up with a way to get rid of the missiles without causing a worldwide conflict or causing a nuclear war. After many meetings Kennedy came down to five options. The first option
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
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the United States and U.S.S.R. came to nuclear warfare. Nikita Khruchchev made an agreement with Fidel Castro that allowed for nuclear missiles to be placed in Cuba. The U.S. discovered signs of construction of a few missile silos. On September 4, 1962, President Kennedy informed the public about the nuclear weapons in Cuba. On October 22, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. Over the following days, tensions grew between the two superpowers. An agreement was made between Kennedy and Khruchchev. He U.S.S.R. agreed to remove missiles from Cuba and the U.S. agreed to remove missiles from Turkey and to not invade Cuba. On October 28, the Russians stated that they would
In response to the Soviet Union’s buildup of military and nuclear weapons in Cuba during the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy peacefully declared a quarantine on Cuba’s navy borders and gained the support of the Organization of American States on the issue. No lives were lost or directly maimed by the United State’s actions and the effects of this action were primarily positive. He then sent an unofficial letter to the president of the
President John F. Kennedy did not reveal any previous knowledge of the missiles presence at this time. Initially, the National Security Council thought it would be best to invade and perform a full-scale attack on Cuba, but in doing so the Soviets would retaliate with nuclear war (Hershberg). After deliberation with the president and his advisors, their plan of action was to “quarantine” Cuba and surrounding the island with military ships to turn away any incoming shipments from the Soviets (“Cuban Missile Crisis”). On October 22nd, 1962 in an address to the American people, President John F. Kennedy publicly confirmed that the Soviet Union had initiated nuclear build up on Cuba and identified that the “purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere” (Kennedy). For 13 days, President Kennedy and Chairman Khrushchev of the Soviet Union went back and forth through letters addressing the issue at hand and how each country would be forced to handle any threats compromising their well being. The near nuclear disaster ended with a collective understanding between Kennedy and Khrushchev that the Soviets would remove the nuclear missiles, while the United States would not invade Cuba and also silently remove their missiles in Turkey (“The World on the Brink”).
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 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 Missile Crisis developed in 1962 because Fidel Castro believed that America would soon try again to invade his country. He asked the Soviet Union for help in defending his island nation. The Soviet Union replied by sending small arms, tanks, and infantry units to Cuba, as well as secretly transferring nuclear missiles to missile silos that were under construction in Cuba. The Americans were shocked when one of their U-2 spy planes discovered the nuclear silos under construction in Cuba because it meant that for the first time the Soviet missiles were within range of most major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. This created a very difficult problem for American President John F. Kennedy for which he needed to find a solution. He could not allow the missile silos to finish being constructed because that would place the United States in danger. That meant that either he would have to try diplomatic means to attempt to negotiate the removal of the weapons, or he would have to use the might of the American military to remove the weapons by force. Neither option looked particularly favourable. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (the President's military advisors) urged a swift and strong military invasion to destroy the silos before the Soviets could react. Kennedy was concerned, however, of the possibility of Soviet nuclear retaliation for the invasion because invasion was clearly an act of war. Up until that point, neither side had been willing to risk direct