...The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day confrontation between The United States and The Soviet Union that was arguably the closest the two countries ever came to a nuclear war during The Cold War. On October 14, 1962, photographs taken by United States reconnaissance planes showed that nuclear missile sites were being built in Cuba. Bypassing private, diplomatic procedures, Kennedy went on national television on October 22 and revealed to the public that nuclear missiles had been found in Cuba and were within range of the continental United States. Kennedy also announced in his speech that the United States would enact a naval blockade on Cuba by putting a ring of ships around Cuba. Kennedy placed this "quarantine," as he called it, to...
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...United States and Cuba. The turmoil between the United States and Cuba continued after John F. Kennedy took office. Each one these men, Fidel Castro, President Eisenhower, President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled for power and almost led our nations to a nuclear war. What led to the Cuban Missile Crisis? Fidel Castro was a lawyer in Cuba, he was unhappy with Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship and tried to use the law to remove Batista from power.1 After his failed attempts he became a rebel with the intent of overthrowing Cuba’s dictator Fulgencio Batista. His vision was to spread the wealth of the rich and give to the poor; and provide everyone with the same resources.2 Batista’s cruel behavior and murder of the Cuban people made him a target, he eventually fled.3 After winning public support and overthrowing their dictator, Fidel Castro began to spread the wealth among the Cuban people.4 This was a positive movement for the poor, but not popular among the more educated people who knew how to make money, so they began to flee Cuba.5 On April 15th 1959, Fidel Castro made an attempt to meet with President Eisenhower, instead, President Eisenhower went to play golf to avoid interaction with Castro.6 His intentions may have been to address the turmoil between the United States and Cuba. Instead, Vice President Nixon met with Fidel Castro, the vice presidents impression of Castro was that he was a communist.7 The United States was not happy when “Cuba distributed property...
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...Alexandra Roach Dr. Fiddner PLSC World Politics 101 006 October 8, 2015 Cuban Missile Crisis Analysis Due to the Cold War, in October 1962, tensions were high between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 14, 1962. This was by far the most significant event to happen in the Cold War. The Soviets had been using Cuba as a place to set their missiles from which they would be able to launch a nuclear attack at any time on almost anywhere in the Southeastern parts of the United States, this including places like Washington D.C., New York City, New Orleans, and other major cities in the United States. Photographers were able to capture pictures of these missiles with high-altitude U-2 spy planes giving evidence that the missiles were 90 miles off the American costal line. Although it seems as if the Cuban Missile Crisis happened at a blinding pace, this crisis actually was a culmination of a much longer process. In this essay I will be focusing on the events that led up to the terrifying 14 day event of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as looking at the crisis from an individual level of analysis and from a realist point of view. In order to fully understand the Cuban Missile Crisis, we must first take a look at all of the events that had lead up to the crisis. Among many of the factors leading up to the nuclear standoff between the countries, one of the factors, of course, was the genuine concern of defense of each leader, John...
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...The Film: The film Thirteen days is about the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13 day occasion in which there were conflicts between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. on the issue of nuclear warfare. The film is shown in the perspective of Kenneth O’Donnell, a political consultant for President Kennedy. The film starts off with John F. Kennedy Receiving information that the Soviet Union was depositing nuclear weapons in Cuba to which John F. Kennedy tries to set up a plan to prevent this. John F. Kennedy was reluctant to invade Cuba in fears that the Soviet Union would invade Berlin to counter U.S. acts of aggression. This could potentially lead to another world war which the John F. Kennedy does not want. The U.S. instead announces that they...
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...Introduction I decided to write about the Cuban missile crisis, because it was a very important event in mankind history. There was a higher risk or probability of nuclear war than ever before. It could cost millions of lives and change the progress of the people. Everything depended on the solutions of the two countries, or simplified, on the solutions of two men – president of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy and president of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. I will try to focus on the particular question, which is – why did the Soviet Union decide to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. I have chosen this question because it is the principle of the crisis. Looking on it from different points of view will secure the objectivity of the conclusions. First, I will analyze it with using the theory of Constructivism, then I will use the Game theory. Realism In realism, states are the principal actors in the international system, which is anarchic. States look on their own interests and they are rational unitary actors. Placing of the missiles in Cuba was in conflict of the Soviets behavior and their statements: The Soviets gave every indication of sensitivity both to American strategic interests and to the president's political needs. In their September 4 meeting, Ambassador Dobrynin called on Robert Kennedy to relay a confidential promise from Chairman Khrushchev that the Soviet Union would not create any trouble for the United States during the election...
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...believe how close we came.” Director Roger Donaldson puts this phrase front and center in Thirteen Days, a dramatized, yet fairly accurate view of a period where the U.S. was on the brink of disaster. Thirteen Days is a political thriller that revolves around the Cuban Missile Crisis and how President Kennedy and his administration narrowly prevented World War III. The entire ordeal wasn’t as smooth as history textbooks make it seem, however, with many twists, turns, blunders, and narrow victories. The film doesn’t focus on any one particular person, but chooses to focus on the tension experienced by the entire Kennedy administration behind closed doors. However, the film presents Kenny O’Donnell, one of JFK’s close advisors,...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 Throughout 1952- 1959 a right wing dictator called Batista was in power. The Americans supplied him with many resources and had large trading deals. In 1959 Fidel Castro led a revolt again Batista and came into power and began ruling in a communist way. Americans immediately stopped trading with Cuba so Castro looked for help from Kruschev. The Bay of Pigs 1961: The new young president Kennedy decided to launch a CIA plan to contain communism. He sent 1,500 cuban exiles into Cuba hoping to spark a revolt against the new communist regime. This was a fiasco as Kennedy had underestimated the popularity of Castro as well as the strength of the Cuban armed forces, he wanted to contain communism. Castro then asked Kruschev to help him with defend Cuba from any other attacks. The US had missiles in Turkey facing towards the USSR so Kruschev wanted threatening missiles as well. Kennedy sent U2 spy planes in which it was confirmed that the USSR were sending missiles to Cuba and the bases were being made towards the US. Kennedy called upon the committee of the National Security to help him decide how to deal with the situation. A naval blockade was then sent around Cuba to prevent the USSR ships containing the missiles to reach Cuba. The ships turned away when they met the American navy, however the missiles already on Cuba carried on being made. Kruschev sent a letter to Kennedy admitting there were missiles on Cuba but only for defence. Before...
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...1st Period CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS John .F. Kennedy was the youngest man to become the president of the United States. He held office for almost 3 years before being assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He faced many important events while being in office, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and The Bay of Pigs. During his second year of presidency he was warned by his advisors that the United States might be under threat by the Soviet Union. They suspected that the Soviet Union had started to build powerful missiles which would be transported to the island of Cuba. These missiles would have the capability to travel great distances and could hit major US cities such as Washington D.C, Houston and San Francisco. John F. Kennedy knew about the strained relationship between the United States While John F. Kennedy was suspicious at first later it was clear to him that this was an act to shift the power from U.S to the Soviet Union. After he was completely sure about the situation JFK addressed the public on this issue on October 22, 1962. He explained his decision to perform a naval blockade near the coast of Cuba, he also said that the US was ready to use military force if there is a threat to national security. The Cold War was one of the most important wars and would have been one of the most deadly wars of the 20th century. The Cold War is the closest that the world has come to a nuclear war. One of the main events of this war was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The 2 most powerful countries...
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...The movie Thirteen Days directed by Roger Donaldson is about the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It is often referred to as a docudrama as it is very entertainment oriented but still remains close to the roots of what actually happened. Since it was produced at a later date than many other films portraying the events, Thirteen Days was able to access recently declassified information which helped in attaining a more historically accurate film. Although there were some discrepancies with what happened in real life compared to the film. The year is 1962 and American surveillance planes discover that the USSR is in the process of placing nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The missiles have a said capability to reach 80 million Americans striking every major city but Seattle. As well they are capable of reaching the majority of the United States Air Force bomber bases effectively crippling their ability to retaliate. It is a race to find a means of removing the missiles before they become operational. Thus the problem for the President is to decide whether to use force or diplomatic means to keep the missiles un-operational. Initial diplomatic attempts to come to a peaceful conclusion fail and the Secretary of Defence proposes a naval blockade which they call a “quarantine” and if the Soviets ignore the blockade, the Navy will forcibly remove the ships from going to Cuba. This would quickly escalate the situation which is clearly what the Secretary of Defence wanted but the President...
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...European companies look at Cuba as a fresh market that would become a great venture for short and long term investments. However, the United States and Cuban affairs never condensed the high tension that was started in 1959. The economical siege started with the trade restriction dilemma between the U.S. and Cuba in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the government in Cuba. Fidel Castro first action, as a young leader for the newest communist nation, was taking over all private sector businesses and properties including those were owned by American inverters. Castro disregarded all negotiation attempts and refused to reimburse the original owners; simply he seized all private sector properties and businesses using military forces costing many U.S. inverters to lose millions of dollars in 1959. Those properties were estimated to be around 1.8 billion dollars or about 6 billion dollars in present’s day (Keegan & Green, 2011). In response to the United States political and economic pressure on the Cuban regime, during the cold war, Cuba joined the other side of the battle by becoming an ally of the Soviet Union to take advantage of the Soviet Union economic and military aids. As a fee for such aids, Fidel Castro had to allow the Soviet Union to place nuclear armed short and mid-range missiles in Cuba which grabbed the U.S attention. The Soviet Union nuclear missiles system did not have the long range missiles capability; those short and mid-range missiles were the answer if they...
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...was about the missile crisis. The film that I analyzed tells me a lot about the social and cultural values of the audience for whom the film was made for. For instance, it reminded everyone about how important this particularly part of the cold war was not only to the United States, bur for the whole world. This film puts you in that situation if you did not live through, and makes you understand now everyone around the world was feeling in that moment. Most of the audience that wanted this film probably had families and, thought to themselves what could I do to prevent this from ever happening again? Finally, it gives credit to those that had to handle the decision making at that time, and the men that were ready to go to action given the command. This film takes a place in the of Cold War, while tension was very high between the United States and the Soviet Union. The characters in the movie John F. Kennedy and the people that were around them in his every move. At the beginning of the movie is when a United States plane captures picture of the activity going on in Cuba accidentally. This then gets back the white house and that when they come to the conclusion that the Soviet Union was arming Cuba with offensive missiles that could reach half the country. That kept the situation private from citizens so things would not get out of control. The U.S Manzo 2 knew they had short time to think before the missile became fully functional...
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...Introduction The Cuban Missile Crisis originated because of a number of different issues, stemming from the ongoing struggle between The United States of America and The Soviet Union and between Capitalism and Communism. There were various events and circumstances which caused this standoff. Firstly, the decision to place missiles on Cuban soil was taken by the Soviets as a means to offset their strategic inferiority. The second main cause was the fact that America felt threatened by a Castro lead Communist Cuba. Their continued efforts to oust Castro, was a significant factor in creating a very real fear in Castro of a US invasion of Cuba. This led him to form strong bonds with the Soviets and subsequently allowing them to place missiles in Cuba. We also look at Americas failed attempt to remove Castro with their ‘Bay of Pigs’, invasion of Cuba, in 1961. A final factor in the cause of the crisis is the possibility of the Soviets using the missiles as a means of strengthening their power, with regards to negotiating with America in matters outside of Cuba. The first aspect to look at when dealing with this question is Soviet insecurity and strategic inferiority with the US. The Soviets had many reasons to feel insecure or threatened in the period directly preceding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev had long known that the Soviets had a disproportionally lower amount of missiles than the Americans, however it was not until after events surrounding the building of the Berlin...
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...beginning of Cuban missile crisis-a conflict between two huge atomic nations, the U.S and the U.S.S.R. was a formal presentation made by the CIA to President Kennedy. Experts pointed to the missile base being constructed near San Cristobel, Cuba. No one expected that the Russians would build a base in Cuba for Ballistic Missiles after confirming that the Russians would sign an atmospheric test-ban treaty. This may have been justified by the fact that U.S had a similar base in Turkey near the border with the Soviet Union. However, the biggest puzzle was that Khrushchev assured that there were no military installations in Cuba and that the relationship between the two superpowers would not conflict. The best decision about Kennedy was when he warned that U.S would not tolerate any kind of interference in Latin America by the Soviet Union. More importantly, the president called the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM), a group which met continuously for next twelve days and almost daily for some six weeks thereafter and wanted an air strike on the missile sites. “The President…knew he would have to act.” Kennedy instructed the members to come forward with recommendations for one course or possibly several alternative course of action and various alternatives like quarantine, blockade, and air strike against the missile bases alone were suggested. While the argument went on about the possible sanction the missiles were already in Cuba and they realized...
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...iTHE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Module prepared for CIAO By Richard Ned Lebow August 2000 The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 is generally regarded as the most serious military confrontation of the Cold War. American destroyers deployed along a picket line to intercept Soviet ships transporting missiles and nuclear warheads to Cuba while American air, ground and naval forces prepared for air strikes against Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba and a follow-up invasion. The Strategic Air Command was put on an unprecedented state of alert – “DEFCON II,” only one step away from “war is imminent.” On Saturday morning,October 27, President Kennedy and his advisors were pessimistic about their ability to preserve the peace. Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother and Attorney General of the U.S., had “the feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.”1 In Moscow, the tension was “phenomenal.” On Sunday morning, General Secretary Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev and his advisors worried “that Kennedy intended to declare war, to launch an attack” against the Soviet Union.2 That same day, the two leaders reached an accommodation that, in retrospect, turned out to be one of the key turning points of the Cold War. 1 OVERVIEW The “Caribbean crisis,” as it was known in the former Soviet Union, was attributed to the Kennedy administration’s unwillingness to accept the status quo in Cuba. Unalterably...
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...Hesbon ogeka LA history &politics 4/12/2013 The Cuban Missile The Cuban Missile Crisis remains an example of one of the most terrifying events in history for the people of the world. A very real threat existed for the crisis to escalate and create World War III, which would include the annihilation of countries and cause unimaginable damage from the use of nuclear weapons by the United States and the former Soviet Union. The conflict had historical roots in the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union, as well as in the history of relations between the United States and Cuba. The strife between the United States and Cuba culminated when Fidel Castro overthrew a government publicly supported by the United States, although political and military officials in the United States secretly welcomed the events. However, it soon became clear that the takeover of Cuba by Castro would result in escalating conflict between it and the United States, something that quickly became more evident in the Bay of Pigs invasion and Operation Mongoose; both designed to eliminate Castro from the political field in Cuba. The Soviet Union supported Castro’s regime and Cuba’s stand, and forced its hand with the placement of nuclear missiles on the island. The United States countered, and the two countries played out their hands to determine the fate of the world. In the end, the United States and the Soviet Union came to an agreement, both sides attempting to avoid a nuclear...
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