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Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis Essay

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The thirty-fifth president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy has been widely acclaimed for addressing many different conflicts and controversies. Fifty years later, John F. Kennedy is recognized for his achievements regarding civil rights and for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy is viewed as the savior of the world, having successfully prevented nuclear war between the aggressive Soviet Union, as history reports the story. This anti-communist, anti-Soviet president led the United States through a period of superiority against the Soviet Union after the president influenced Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove Soviet nuclear missiles situated on the island of Cuba located merely 90 miles off the coast of Florida …show more content…

Following the country’s adoption of communism, Cuba became the subject of tremendous military aggression. For America, the communist transformation induced fear in the United States of the growing spread of communism worldwide. Following the Revolution, Cuban-American relationships dissolved. Relationships turned bitter as Cuba developed strong relationships with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and as the United States repeatedly attempted to assassinate Castro (“The Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). As President Kennedy was inaugurated, he approved a perilous plan to invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. Although Cuba defended Castro and prevented a successful invasion, Castro sought protection from the Soviet Union (Bohning). In 1962, Prime Minister Castro and “Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement…to place Soviet nuclear missiles to deter any future invasion attempt” (“The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962”). Defense of the Cuban island was integral for the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro, encouraging the communist leaders to place strategic nuclear missiles in Cuba for defensive purposes. Nuclear missiles would function as a device to intimidate the United States and deter future attempts at invasion or attack against the Cuban regime. For Cuba, the missiles were a key development for the sake of national security, establishing Cuba as a stronger country against a superpower (Stern,

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The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in the month of October, 1962 when American-Soviet relations were tested by the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union. Many historians point to this moment in time as the closest the United States and the Soviets ever came to nuclear war. The tensions began to rise once the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, supported by the American government, failed to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba. As a result, Castro was open for the Soviet Premier Khrushchev to place troops and nuclear missiles to threaten the United States. Khrushchev considered this justifiable because of the American missiles positioned in Turkey.

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America, fearing for their own safety, then put a quarantine around Cuba, not allowing any ships with weapons to enter. (Doc D) Tensions were high, with both capitalist and communist nations having the potential to launch a nuclear strike against the other. After some time, the Soviets decided to retreat. They removed their missiles from Cuba and the threat of a nuclear war subsided.

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A large component of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis; this started when the U.S. attempted to assist the rebel Cubans to defeat the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro. The United States failed during the Bay of Pigs invasion by not properly taking out the Cuban Navy and solider as planned. After the attack, Fidel Castro gave a speech stating “Everybody, men and women, young and old, we are all one in this moment of danger. ”(Document H). This attacked caused the people of Cuba to fear what would happen if the U.S.—an omnipotent country of the time—attacked Cuba again.

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In January of 1959, Fidel Castro came to power. The United States’ attempted to overthrow Castro with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro by landing 1200 disgruntled Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs. The attempt fails miserably and is a huge embarrassment for Kennedy, who then vows to bring down Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro looked to the Soviet Union for protection. According to document D in 1962 “The soviets began shipping 40,000 troops, 60 missiles and 158 nuclear warheads to communist Cuba.”

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Findings Analysis In 1962 nuclear war seemed inevitable to the world, it was the first time nuclear war was hanging on a thread. The Cuban Missile Crisis presented a threat to the world, in which the USSR planted nuclear missiles on Cuba. (Source B).America’s response was to threaten launching nuclear missiles at the Russians. Kennedy clearly stated that he is prioritising on the security of the United States and of the southern hemisphere.

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John F. Kennedy started his presidency with astounding votes of seventy million people which allowed him to become the youngest president of the United states. The first thing he did was bring a sense of youth and glamour to the white house, and he began to work on the end of poverty as well as the battle to win against communism in the Cold War. During his presidency he created an organization called the Peace Corps which helped other nations with health care, construction, farming and education. The crisis of Cuba was an event involving both the United States and Cuba. Spy planes were flying over Cuba as they noticed that nuclear missiles were being there, they took pictures and sent it into the president Kennedy where he reached a conclusion that they were offensive and that meant an immediate threat to the United States.

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The Cold War was a very significant period of time in the history of the world. The two Superpowers, USSR and the United States of America, were in the battlefield of ideology representing Socialism and Capitalism respectively. One of the most crucial conflicts in this Nuclear Arms Race was the Cuban Missile Crisis; in fact, it was the closest that the two sides ever got to the nuclear annihilation of the entire human species. As per the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, all the Americas would eventually be under the United States of America, and this supposedly justified the Bay of Pigs invasion by the U.S. to overthrow Castro, and return Capitalism to the nation. In consequence to this threatening attack of the U.S. Castro approached Khrushchev for economic and military support to stand up against Kennedy.

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Conclusion The Cuban Missile Crisis turned out to be nothing but a feud between some countries. It was an important part of the 1960’s still. One thing is that the United States knew better than to fight back because they knew it would lead to World War three.

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President Kennedy set up a blockade around Cuba that allowed him to seize the turkish missiles ending the cold war. “John F. Kennedy decided to place a naval ‘quarantine,’ or blockade, on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of missiles. ”(Cuban Missile Crisis). This blockade stopped the Soviets from getting missiles. After creating a blockade, that allowed him to seize the missiles.

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Kennedy pledged if elected to "strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism" (The Cold War). United States is perceived in 1960’s as to losing the Cold War at this point Sputnik was launched by the Soviets and having a lead winning in the space race, and a missile gap because the Soviet Union was developing long-range missiles. The U-2 accident that occurred in May 1960 the U-2 is a plane it’s a high-altitude surveillance plane and it was shot down by a Soviet missile the Soviet Union has caught the U.S. spying. Cuba offers support and aid to the United States after its revolution and the U.S. refused in turn Cuba goes to the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro comes to power through revolution in 1959 and aligns himself with a communist nation.

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As we know, this decision resulted in the Soviet Union removing the missiles from Cuba and voided a nuclear war. President Kennedy was a leader that I can learn from when faced with decisions to

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The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and

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During the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. It was when two superpowers were close to causing a nuclear war. Its main origin was when the United States invaded Cuba, on April 10, 1961; which is also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the invasion, previous Prime Minister; Fidel Castro of Cuba, was ‘paranoid’ because he felt like America was planning another attack. So in order to protect his nation, he sought military and economic help from the Soviet Union.

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