Cuban Missile Crisis Lessons

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a critical situation during the Cold War. This situation was critical because this was the closest that the United States and the USSR came to be interacting in nuclear warfare; however, they never reached a point of “true” war which is why this period of time is referred to as the “cold” war. With this being a detrimental point in this time period, several different lessons can be learned from this instance and used to help solve future predicaments. Three lessons that can be learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis are to make sure to explore every possible option before choosing war, to decide what is best for the whole population of people, and to look from the opposing position’s perspective.
In order to make

President Kennedy did not rely on just his thought in order to make the best decision for the country, but he relied on the opinions of many. According to Peter Kornbluh, “…Kennedy gathered a select group of advisors- an executive committee officially known as the ‘ExComm’- to discuss a strategic response” (Kornbluh, page 1). These advisors were convened to find a solution to the problem that was ninety miles off the southern coast of the United States that would potentially put the lives of millions of American citizens at risk. Similar to the United States leaders, Russian leaders were also not in total favor of war. According to Kornbluh, “Khrushchev’s first reaction was to issue threats of his own… ‘I’m not interested in the

President Kennedy was a great leader to learn this lesson from unlike Khrushchev. This is because President Kennedy tried his best to keep all the American people up to speed with the situation that was and concerns that were taking place during this Crisis. He not wanted people to be aware of the actions that were taking place, but he also wanted them to have an understanding of the why behind the American government had decided to do what they were doing. He also tries to persuade the population by stating, “[T]his sudden, clandestine, decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of the Soviet soil is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country” (Kornbluh, page 1). The way that President Kennedy displayed is concerns for the American people, persuaded the people to side with him once he gave his plan and gave reason for the plan and support for the plan as well. Mr. President’s ability to have empathy for others is what led to him to make the best decision to help end this