history cuban crisis project.docx
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Cuban Missile Crisis
Done By: Vimal Sivansan
Class: 10 B
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Perhaps one of the highlights of the Cold War era (aside from the
Berlin Blockade) is the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis not only
climaxed the warring tensions between the democratic west and
the communist east, but also gave a startling realization that the
human race as we knew it, that existed thousands of years ago,
with all its capabilities and the innovations and the manipulation of
the technology to suit its ambition also holds the key to its very
extinction- that is, the invention and the proliferation of nuclear
weapons.
The Cuban Missile Crisis took the attention of the world as
the two of the superpowers face off in a very dangerous
confrontation that could have
easily broke into a nuclear
cataclysm. In order to dissect the
events of the Cuban Missile Crisis
and give a good assessment to it,
we have to first, give a summary of the events.
Fidel Castro Prime Minister of Cuba
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Events do not just happen. They come into being from a
series of circumstances connected by time, context and
sometimes- coincidence. The Cuban government headed by the
nationalist Fidel Castro has always feared of an eminent U.S.
invasion following the foiled Bay of Pigs mission in 1961, which
was an attempt to depose Castro from power and stop the Cuban
revolution. This period was at the height of the arms race between
the United States of America (U.S.A.) and the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) wherein the two major poles have
been actively pursuing scientific and military research to develop
weapons. It is clear that the U.S.S.R was lagging in the
capabilities of its missiles that only have airstrike distance that
would only reach Europe. While the U.S has the technology and
the machinery to launch a missile direct to hit the Soviet Union
from U.S. The pressure is on the Soviets to equal the striking
capacity of the U.S Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).
Adding to the Soviet dilemma was the buildup of U.S. missile
stations in Italy, Turkey among others. The then Soviet leader,
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Nikita Khrushev saw an opportunity
when the relations between Cuba and
United states broke, and U.S. president
Kennedy launched proclamation 3447,
imposing an economic embargo against
Cuba. This led to the opening of ties between Cuba and the
Soviet Union which came to serve as the market to Cuban
products. Nikita Khrushev saw the potential advantage and the
turning point in the arms race if He could utilize the new found
ally- Cuba. Khrushev disclosed His plans over putting Missiles in
Cuba in response to U.S. actions in the race,
an act at maintaining the balance of power
between the two poles in the hegemony
seeking environment of the Cold War. Castro
accepted the offer and the covert transfer of
the missiles and warheads began. It was on
October 15, 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance photographs
revealed the mass buildup of missile facilities in Cuba.
Nikita Khrusev
John F Kennedy president of USA
during the Cuban Crisis
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The world watched as the days in this month of October in
1962 passed, day after day. A small spark could instantaneously
spark a global catastrophic event never before witnessed- a
nuclear war.
It is
interesting to
note that both
the leaders of
the warring
sides have
experienced a
tumultuous end
to their political careers. Two years later after the crisis, Nikita
Khrushev lost powers in the Soviet Union, and in the United
States, one year after the crisis, President Kennedy was
assassinated. Although many conspiracy theories are still being
debated, it still remains a mystery if the U.S actions regarding the
Russian Missle in Cuba
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end of the crisis have spurred disgust among some of the U.S.
political elites that resulted in Kennedys assassination. The same
assumption could be taken from the Khrushev experience.
The withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba appeared to be a
lambasting defeat for the U.S.S.R in the eye of the international
opinion. However, many did not knew that before the missiles in
Cuba were dismantled and brought back to the Soviet Union, U.S
and U.S.S.R had made a pact that would bind both powers to
dismantle both their missile facilities. U.S. had dismantled their
missile facilities in Italy and Turkey under the cover of secrecy.
The pull out of the missiles in Cuba also brought the U.S to keep
a promise not to invade Cuba. It was the
U.S.S.R who was displayed to be at the
losing end. Meanwhile, on the Cuban
perspective, the installation of the missile
facilities in Cuba somehow helped Castro
to stay in power. The deterrent element
Castro and Nikita - Friendship
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that the missiles brought allowed invasion to be a very crucial
decision to make for the U.S. government.
The crisis bound the people of Cuba together
and allowed for the nation-building
mechanisms of the Cuban society to exploit
the crisis and legitimized Castros stay in
power as they continued to portray the U.S to
be on the lookout for an apparent invasion. On one hand, I can
say that there is the resoluteness of the leaders never to arrive at
the point of actually waging the nuclear mayhem. There are
instances during the confrontation wherein the patience of the two
leaders was put to the balance. On October 27 1962, a U-2F was
gunned down by a Cuban missile. The pilot was dead, and
resulted to raising the tensions. However, no nuclear war ever
erupted.
The firm resolve of the leaders to as much as possible,
contain the confrontation to outward deterrence in order to avoid
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the nuclear
war and an
inevitable
world war
III, as the
allies of the
two major
poles would not be spared, lest any single bomb was detonated.
Their allegiance to peace and the preservation of it, despite the
hostile situation during those times proved that they did not just
gave in to the demands of other actors involved in the decision-
making process to address the crisis. The presidents did not
hastily give in to the military solution; one of such was to stage an
outright attack on the missile facilities in Cuba. One can only
imagine the consequences that it could have resulted. Thus far,
the crisis did not resulted in the worst case scenario. The U.S.S.R
may have been dissolute, and the Cold War was over. But the
Area of the Cuban Crisis
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lessons that the post- cold war generation can get from this crisis
experience are insurmountable.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Cuban Missile Crisis: Fourteen Days in October Home
Page. An Overview of the Crisis. October 5, 2010.
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/index.html
Document Archive. Proclamation 3447- Embargo on all trade
with Cuba. October 5, 2010.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=58824
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/index.htmlhttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=58824http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=58824http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=58824http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/index.html
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