...p81 The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Limits of Crisis Management. RICHARD M. PIOUS. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2001 Academy of Political Science Nowhere do the constitutional prerogatives of the president seem greater than in the midst of national security crises; nowhere do we invest in the president greater resources of command. Although in the past half century presidents have surrounded themselves with a vast national security apparatus, consisting of intelligence agencies and the National Security Council, it is not at all clear that presidents have been effective as crisis managers. They often lack crucial information, use incomplete or misleading analogies to understand crisis situations, find it difficult to micromanage events, and are unable to project force effectively. Even when they are successful, it is often in spite of, rather than because of, the resources of the institutionalized presidency at their disposal. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 provides a case study of how John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev almost blundered into a nuclear war through the crisis management approaches of their advisory systems, but then managed to extricate themselves using personal diplomacy and old-fashioned political horsetrading. They did so without revealing to the world how they had defused the crisis, a decision to maintain confidentiality with far reaching consequences for subsequent presidential crisis decision making. The illusion that presidential crisis management can...
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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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...The Cuban Missile Crisis The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba's fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy's choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev's decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the world that compromising and discussion can in-fact prevent war. As Khrushchev said in 1962, "They talk about who won and who lost. Human reason won. Mankind won." 1 The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. Humanity, indeed, was the prevention of the war. The Cuban Revolution was a background cause to the crisis. On January 1st, 1959 a Marxist regime in Cuba would have seemed unlikely. To the communist party in Cuba, Fidel Castro appeared tempestuous, irresponsible and stubbornly bourgeois. In 1943 President Batista appointed a communist to his Cabinet, as he used communists as leaders of the labor unions. Batista started to fail the Cuban communists and their...
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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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...During Kennedy’s time in office, two situations that required U.S diplomatic efforts were the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was when the berlin wall was built in August 1961, dividing many families in the capital of Germany. It caused the international crisis and risk of military conflict. There was going to be a nuclear confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. According to Taylor (2007), “in 1945 the victors of the Second World War, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and French, had divided Germany into four zones”. On June 24, 1948, Soviet call off all land and water route of Berlin and the western zone in Germany. This was to force western allies out of Berlin and starve...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that occurred in October 1962, almost turned the Cold War “hot”, presumably destructive for humanity as we know it. However, the conflict proved manageable, to all participating sides, as no nuclear war actually occurred. To avoid escalation of the conflict, involved nations were obliged to come to an agreement, and overcome their differences. To reach the phase of a resolution however, states underwent a series of events, which escalated the conflict. In order to understand how and why the USSR agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba and why the United States, though in secret, agreed to remove its armaments from Turkey and Italy, one must take a look at and analyze the events from that period. An idea of why the crisis occurred should be taken into account. Then, an overlook of the events during the crisis would fully reveal how and why the exact resolution was agreed. For a start, looking at the structural level, three important events which brought the crisis, could easily be distinguished. First of all, it was the policy of the United States towards Cuba. US’ elite was greatly disturbed by the Revolution that took place in Cuba. Americans were very discontent with a country leaning towards leftist politics in the region. They thought that socialist ideas would more easily be spread throughout the western hemisphere, if such a state existed. So it happened as Cuban revolutionaries proclaimed the socialist ideas in countries in...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred from 13th October – 26th October 1962, was a diplomatic conflict between America and Russia, which moved the world to the edge of a nuclear precipice and World War Three. The United States (US), led by then President J. F. Kennedy, had to suppress the nuclear threat posed by the Soviet Union (SU), who had secretly stationed nuclear missiles in Cuba – within 90 miles of the US – in order to deter any future US attempts to attack Cuba and to equalize the nuclear strategic balance of power. (Cimbala, 1999). The Movie, Thirteen Days (2000), directed by Roger Donaldson, depicts the tension that the crisis provoked and illustrates how foreign policy was made, which ultimately ended with SU’s withdrawal and removal of the nuclear missiles in Cuba. Thirteen Days began with the discovery that Russia had deployed nuclear missiles on Cuba, with evidence from the U2 photographs captured. This was an impermissible security threat; and the outcome of responses to that threat could lead to a nuclear holocaust. The main thesis of the movie is that, strategic decisions are not made individually or based exclusively on a rational deliberation of evidence, but is embedded in a web of complex organizational undertaking. US Response to the SU emplacement of missiles in Cuba The sequence of action unfolds over a course of 12 days and is illustrated through the three major models of decision-making in the field of Organizational Theory – the Rational Actor...
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...brink of nuclear warfare and the world at risk of annihilation, such as the pressure of domestic politics, hot wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the Cuban missile crisis. Regardless of these factors the war remained a Cold war. This is because the arms race created the most important stabilising factor which was mutually assured destruction. Both superpowers realised the devastating capability of Nuclear weapons and as a result they did not use Nuclear weapons. Therefore the arms race (and fear of the consequences of an arms race) outweighed the other de-stabilising factors to a large extent from 1949 to 1963. An important reason why the arms race was a stabilising factor in the Cold war is because it led to Mutually Assured Destruction. This is based on the idea that the existence of massive nuclear arsenals prevented the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States from devolving into outright war between the superpowers. The arms race helped to keep the war cold because both Kennedy and Khrushchev's administrations knew that due to the massive nuclear stockpiles on each side, outright war between the two sides would result in both sides being wiped out and the possible destruction of the world. It was clear that the nuclear arms that both powers possessed compelled the Soviets and the Americans to avoid outright military conflict. Therefore the arms race was a major stabilising factor in the Cold war. On the other hand, the arms race could be argued to be less stable...
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...blockade was ordered to prevent the Soviet Union from sending more nuclear missiles to Cuba, which the Russians denied. If one of the Soviet boats crossed the line, the military response could lead to a nuclear war. Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, has been aggressive in denouncing the quarantine. President Kennedy sat in the room with Robert, waiting for the news...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis: Reading the Lessons Correctly Author(s): Richard Ned Lebow Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 98, No. 3 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 431-458 Published by: The Academy of Political Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2150497 Accessed: 10/11/2008 23:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aps. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The Academy of Political Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis: Reading the Lessons Correctly Author(s): Richard Ned Lebow Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 98, No. 3 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 431-458 Published by: The Academy of Political Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2150497 Accessed: 10/11/2008 23:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aps. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The Academy of Political Science is collaborating with JSTOR to...
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...health. |emitted in a nuclear explosion and what effect do they have on human | |Not a thesis statement but a statement of fact. |beings? | |Try: Why is it best for nuclear attack victims to be right at Ground |http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/ocr_gateway_pre_2011| |Zero? |/living_future/4_nuclear_radiation1.shtml | |Working Thesis Statement: Countries may use the nuclear weapons in |Oral Presentation Thesis Statement (must be based on PART of the | |future because of the possibility of religious war and the other |research project): The time between 1946 and 2012, no atomic bomb had| |reasons. |been used even as an overt thread threat in any warpolitical crisis, | |I will argue that there is a strong possibility that nuclear weapons |the reasons … (I will find by researching.) | |will be used in the near future. | | |Will the Bomb Be Used in the Future? | | |Keep it...
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...The Cold War Overview * Arms Race * Communism * Glossary and Terms * Space RaceMajor Events * Berlin Airlift * Suez Crisis * Red Scare * Berlin Wall * Bay of Pigs * Cuban Missile Crisis * Collapse of the Soviet UnionWars * Korean War * Vietnam War * Chinese Civil War * Yom Kippur War * Soviet Afghanistan War | People of the Cold War Western Leaders * Harry Truman (US) * Dwight Eisenhower (US) * John F. Kennedy (US) * Lyndon B. Johnson (US) * Richard Nixon (US) * Ronald Reagan (US) * Margaret Thatcher (UK)Communist Leaders * Joseph Stalin (USSR) * Leonid Brezhnev (USSR) * Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR) * Mao Zedong (China) * Fidel Castro (Cuba) | http://www.ducksters.com/history/cold_war/summary.php The Cold War Communism Communism is a type of government and philosophy. Its goal is to form a society where everything is shared equally. All people are treated equally and there is little private ownership. In a communist government, the government owns and controls most everything including property, means of production, education, transportation, and agriculture. History of Communism Karl Marx is considered the Father of Communism. Marx was a German philosopher and economist who wrote about his ideas in a book called the Communist Manifesto in 1848. His communist theories have also become known as Marxism. Marx described ten important aspects of a communist government: * No private property * A single central bank...
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...the US and the Union of Soviets Socialists Republic, from 1969 until D fell in 1980. D was an alternative to the previous US policies of containment and rollback, and the USSR’s policies of Stalinisation and peaceful coexistence, set out to open a window of opportunity in the attempt to reduce International tensions. The supporters of D believed it was a policy beneficial to both sides of the CW ensuring world peace, whereas detractors believe D only showed weakness of the US, allowing the USSR to continue with the CW and increase its influence over different parts of the world. In order to evaluate whether D was effective it must be closely observed.The period of 1956-62 saw a series of events which continued to raise greater anxiety between the USA and the USSR. The Hungarian Revolution 1956 and the Berlin Crisis 1961 were two events which triggered the rising anxiety and tension which was felt between many countries. However, it was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, reaching only seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, which highlighted the danger of superpower confrontation and the possible result of nuclear war. US President Kennedy’s threat to use nuclear missiles against the Soviet Union if their bases in Cuba were not withdrawn caused fear across the world. The development of the nuclear arms race saw in 69 the USSR had matched the nuclear capability of the US for Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). The SU overcame the gap that forced their retreat in the Cuban Missile...
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...Cold War Disarmament Talks Impact of Disarmament Talks on Cold War Tensions from 1963 to 1991 Disarmament talks between the two powers during the period of 1963 to 1991 improved the relationship between Soviet Union and United States by providing the necessary spirit of cooperation. The two most significant examples of arms control talks positively impacting the superpower relationship are the SALT I and INF treaties. Negotiations for SALT I played a part in bringing the two countries from the nuclear 'brinkmanship' of the Cuban missile crisis to détente. Gorbachev realising the importance of arms control in mutual political accommodation, initiated INF. INF and NST alleviated secrecy and suspicion and began a spirit of cooperation that could not have been achieved without successful talks. The interactions also helped the two sides to understand each other better. Through the frequent summit-meetings between Gorbachev and Reagan and Gorbachev and Bush the American public got to know the face of their enemy. This encouraged greater tolerance between the two nations which was necessary if the cold war was to end. The Cuban missile crisis led to the end of a period of nuclear 'brinkmanship' as both sides became very aware of how close they came to nuclear war. In 1963 the US and the USSR made important agreements that contributed to arms control. In June a direct 'hot line' was established between Washington and Moscow. This communication link between the head of states...
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