history cuban crisis project.docx

7/28/2019 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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