Submitted to :Ma’am Sana

Submitted by : Shujaat Ali

Faculty of contemporary and studies

IR
 CUBA MISSILE CRISIS:

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the
United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two
superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in a number of ways, featuring
calculations and miscalculations as well as direct and secret communications and
miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact
that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level with relatively little input
from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process.

BACKGROUND:

For many people the twelve days of the Cuban missile crisis were the most frightening of their lives. The
Berlin Wall had been built by the Russians the previous year. Kennedy had been elected as United States
president by promising to get tough with the communists. In April 1962, America had placed nuclear
missiles in Turkey.

In 1959, Fidel Castro had taken power in Cuba, he soon took actions to nationalise American companies.
In response to this the U.S stopped buying Cuban sugar and refused to supply Cuba with oil. The U.S
government became increasingly concerned about the new Cuban government, this led to a fear that the
U.S might intervene against the Cuban government. This fear materialised when in 1961, Cuban exiles
trained by the U.S staged an invasion of Cuban territory at the Bay of Pigs, although the invasion was
quickly repulsed.

Castro soon became convinced that the U.S was serious about invading Cuba. Shortly after the failed Bay
of Pigs invasion, Castro declared Cuba as a socialist republic, entering into close ties with the Soviet
Union. This led to a major upgrade of Cuban military defence. In February 1962, the U.S began an
economic embargo against Cuba.

Leading up to the Crisis:

Prior to the crisis the United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro and the current government
of Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion. The invasion failed, but it served as a warning to Fidel Castro.
Also, the United States had installed several nuclear missile sites in Turkey and Italy with the range to
strike Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. As a result, the Soviet Union felt they needed missile sites
that could strike at the United States. At the same time the Cuban government wanted protection from the
United States. They decided to work together and have the Soviet Union put nuclear missiles in Cuba that
could strike most any portion of the USA.

How the Crisis Began :

On October 14, 1962 an American U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba captured pictures of long range Soviet
missiles in Cuba. This was a crisis like never before. These missiles could reach any point of the United
States with nuclear warheads causing mass destruction. President Kennedy called a meeting with his main
security advisors. They considered a number of options from diplomacy to a full scale attack and invasion
on Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff voted to invade. They felt this was the only viable option. However,
Kennedy was concerned that this would start World War III between the US and the Soviet Union. He
opted to set up a naval blockade

Interesting Facts:

 About the Cuban Missile Crisis The Soviet Union leader at the time, Chairman Nikita
Khrushchev, thought that Kennedy was weak because of his decisions at the Bay of Pigs as well
as the Berlin Wall. He thought Kennedy would back down and eventually allow the missiles.
 After the crisis a Washington DC to Moscow hotline was established between the president and
the leader of Soviet Union.
 The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, was not happy as he was left out of the negotiations between
Kennedy and Khrushchev.
 Not everyone in the US was happy about the outcome. General Curtis LeMay called it the worst
defeat in US history.
 Khrushchev wrote a personal letter to President Kennedy during the crisis asking that they come
to an agreement in order to avoid war.
Results of Crisis:

The Crisis ended with the Americans managing to remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba while the USSR
gained the promise of a non-American invasion ever to happen in Cuba and the removal of the Jupiter
missile threat in Turkey. Both nations also benefited with a “Hotline” telephone, as communication
during the Crisis had been slow which made negotiations difficult and put both nations in constant
alert. This would help avert similar crisis in the future, such as an accidental nuclear outbreak caused by
malfunctioning of electronic equipment.

Conclusion:

The question lies entirely on the reason why the Soviets placed the missiles in Cuba in the first place. Was
it to protect Cuba from the United States? Or was it to reduce the gap between the arms race and balance
of power thus threatening the USA with Soviet First Strike missile positions? Or was it both? Depending
on the aim the Soviets had, which is at least not for certain as there are many views, including the clear
contradiction of Khrushchev himself about the aims, then we can discover if the crisis had been a victory
for the USA and a failure for the USSR. However, one thing is for certain, both nations and the whole
world won, as both were able to avoid a nuclear war which could have brought an end to mankind.

In the short term, we could most certainly say that the USA won over this Caribbean Crisis, because they
had accomplished what they had set out to do and had also obtained an image of strength. Kennedy had
achieved total victory in the psychological, propaganda and media factors while the USSR total defeat;
They were seen as the aggressors, had given in to America (bad image for promoting communism) and
had redraw their missile sites back to their nation, which not only caused national problems, but also
affected their International Relations with other countries (especially China). The Russians were seen as
retreating from circumstances that they had started. In a way, they had received the punishment they
wanted the USA to have.

In any case, the USA was able to eliminate this new national security threat, no matter what the intentions
of the missiles really were, and most importantly, they managed to take them off Cuba before they
became operational. If they had come operational, no one knows what could have happened. Large
tensions and bad communications could have caused one side to “hit” first (for example, the invasion of
Cuba) and the retaliation by the other, ending with a complete war.