Cuban Missile Crisis Document
Cuban Missile Crisis Document
Intro
The Cuban Missile crisis was a huge event that occurred in the height of the Cold War, an event that shook the earth to its foundations as its future rested on a knife’s edge, whether Nuclear War would break out between the US and USSR.
Main Playa's
JFK
Or John Fitzgerald Kennedy as he is formally known, lived from his birth in the state of Massachusetts on the 29th May 1917 until his controversial assassination in November 1963 in Dallas, Texas after being pierced with a bullet first to the torso and then finally to the head. Though it has since been the subject of much debate, it was thought that he was put to rest by a certain Lee Harvey Oswald that was himself murdered before he could be put to trial by Jack Ruby, only two days after the initial murder.
JFK was in office (as the 35th president of America) from early 1960 - after defeating Richard Nixon (a man who has become equally infamous), the republican candidate in one of the closest votes in America's history - up until his death, and has since become well famed for his unique presidency, assassination and the events whilst he was in power. The man himself was America's first (and only as of yet) catholic president, 2nd youngest president, the only president to out live his parents and even his grandfather and was arguably elected at one of the most tense times the world has ever seen; as the Soviet Union and the USA teetered on the brink of nuclear fallout.
Before the Crisis itself, Kennedy's image and reputation were very similar to that of afterwards; as a kind man that was very popular with the people, a man that established the Peace Corps, a man that was written about in songs (Twisting at the White House), addressed by Marilyn Monroe at the Madison Square garden and a man whose administration was referred to as a Camelot, due to the families charisma. Mirrored, this wonderful reputation was carried on after the Cuban Missile crisis and even until today, as a president who diffused the Cold war (largely anyway), set the ball rolling to putting a human on the moon and who had served his country then and even in the second world war where one of his two brothers were sadly killed. He was finally laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, where his brother Robert Kennedy (also a senator who served beside John as minister for Justice), his wife and two children joined him later where he was commemorated with an eternally burning flame.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, (born 1926) played a very key role in the formation of the Cuban Missile Crisis and has been part of Cuba's government for just under 50 years to date, with his brother Raul Castro succeeding him in July 2006 - just as much of a political family as the Kennedy's you could say. As with Kennedy, Fidel was brought up in quite a wealthy family, with his servant mother being married eventually by the owner of the house - Angel Castro, which is when Fidel's name was changed from Ruz to that what it is currently. Later embroiling in the University of Havana, he emerged with a Law degree where he began to become entailed in several action groups - after which he overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and became Prime minister of Cuba in short.
A revolution was the way the people of Cuba saw him. After the increasingly corrupt and oppressive government of Batista, the people needed change and Fidel provided that, with promises to restore the economy and his trade of sugar with the Russians bringing greater wealth into the country; though the Americans became increasingly more concerned. It is claimed by one of Fidel’s advisers that there have been a massive 638 assassination attempts by the USA!
Khruschev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev was the close successor of the famed World War 2 leader, Joseph Stalin. After his death on March 5th 1953 following a massive stroke in Moscow, Khruschev succeeded Stalin and came to power on the 27th of March 1953. But not before a bitter power struggle between Russian officials and politicians that resulted in the man himself who ruled until October 1964 - at which point he resigned under pressure from the communist party that felt very strongly that they shouldn't have negotiated with the USA and thought that he made the Soviet Union appear weak and cowardish.
The time in office of Nikita was a very interesting time, that both helped to reform the worlds largest nation (with such economic additions as the minimum wage, reformation of the agricultural industry and introduction of extra housing - actions which made him much loved by the people as living standards rose and economic growth was higher than most western countries) but also to initiate the missile crisis and construct the Berlin wall that maintained the suffering of East Germany after the separation of Germany in the terms of its defeat in World War 2; quite impressive for a person born in one of the poorest areas of Russia in a town of just over a thousand inhabitants, who soared through the ranks up till his 59th birthday where he could go no higher.
Kruschev later passed away in Sept 1971 of a heart attack, after having been a member of the communist party until his death (in contrast to most usurped leaders who were cast out), though he was closely watched at first, lifting as he aged. He is now buried in Novodevichy Cemetery to this day.
Cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Even as early as the 1940's, a huge feud was brewing between the two largest superpowers of the world - a squabble that would bring nuclear weapons, submarines and H-bombs to the Earth's eye and poke it until it bled. Arguments began first with the conflict of ideologies but soon escalated to be also a personal war between nations, a conflict that was reinforced with the USA's disgust of communism. Many original causes for argument are:
· The Red Scare and the actions of Joe McCarthy, the aid given to the Bolsheiviks enemies in the years before WW2 and the reinforcement (with Marshall aid) of the Western, democratic countries made Russia feel threatened as it seemed America would stop at nothing to obliterate the Left wing ideology of communism.
· The use of nuclear weapons to bully the Soviet Union (as shown to the Russians in the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and a lack of aid given to them in WW2 even as allies.
· Events such as the Berlin Blockade, rushing towards nuclear weapons and going back on promises made at several conferences (Potsdam and Yalta mainly), the Russians showed themselves to be untrustable and also threatening to the US.
Deep trenched resentment from these occurrences was going to erupt eventually and so it did as the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. These are the long term causes, but there were many immediate (short term) causes; chief of these being the building of the Berlin wall, reassertment of Hungary with force via the Red army and the destruction of a spy plane over Russia that caused a cancellation of peace meetings. Above all though was opportunity, the opportunity of a site close to the USA that put nearly the entire of Russia's nemesis within Missile range - Cuba.
Cuba itself has had an interesting history, intertwined from 1898 with the American’s history when it had help being liberated from Spain; after which point the American’s built Guantanamo and took an important role in Cuban infrastructure and industry – in particular mining and farming. However it was nearly 40 years later in 1934 that America finally attempted to take control by installing Fulgencio Batista and his government as puppet rulers in Cuba – but this government became increasing repressive, corrupt and controlling and the Cubans began to associate this with the US and they became resented among the people. So when Fidel Castro (see earlier) came along and usurped Batista the country began to recover and lean towards America’s enemies – the Russians.
As Castro’s rule became more and more communist they began to trade Cuban sugar with the USSR in return for economic aid, oil, capital and eventually weapons and the two nations became increasingly acquainted, which worried the Americans intently to see a non democratic nation flourishing just 150 kilometres off of their south coast. So the US acted by distancing themselves completely from Cuba and refusing to trade with them which had the opposite effect and only forced Fidel’s rule closer to Russia. This relationship prompted fierce action and would indefinitely lead them to the missile crisis.
The Bay of Pigs
After Castro seized power, some natives fled the country dreaming of the return of Batista to government. These people were called the Cuban exiles and an idea was formed by JFK, the very recently elected prime minister, to try and infiltrate Cuba and establish a camp from which to launch raids and other guerrilla activities, being confident of the peoples support. Hence, the exiles were given armaments, training and transport by the Central Intelligence Agency of America (CIA) and were sent to invade at the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba.
A complete disaster is an understatement. There was no support from the people, 1400 exiles were either killed or captured by a 20,000 strong army waiting for them and the incident only convinced Castro to house more weapons in Cuba for protection, with a public announcement in September 1961 from Khrushchev that he would supply arms. America claimed that it was not behind the invasion but it was clear they had been, the CIA were shamed and the US was becoming increasingly worried at the now nationalised, communist and technologically advanced country at its border. Nuclear missiles however were the USA’s real concern.
Main Event
These concerns became realized when (despite Khrushchev’s announcement that he would not station nuclear missiles on Cuba) a U-2 spy plane, on the 14th of October, whilst scouting took several pictures of missile sites under production and a fleet of Soviet ships arriving carrying large quantities of armaments and equipment. Even more worrying was the information that some sites would be operational within a week.
As soon as Kennedy himself saw the pictures on the 16th, he arranged the EXCOMM (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) to try and settle on a decision that would avert an all out nuclear incident, after all if Kennedy got it wrong then the results could be catastrophic. EXCOMM itself came up with quite a few plans, but only a very few were viable and all of them had their problems:
- Commence a blockade of Cuba to restrict extra supplies into Cuba and to pressure the Russians into removing the missiles, but a confrontation at the blockade could trigger a global conflict and a blockade itself is seen as an act of war.
- Simply wait it out, after all, the Russians may be stationing for self defence or other reasons. Worst case scenario that the Russians are intending to fire and could destroy most of the USA.
- A full scale invasion to try and seize Cuba as well as destroying the Missiles which removes the threat completely, but some missiles could be fired in panic and the Soviet Union would be likely to retaliate in Berlin.
- Multiple air strikes to obliterate the sites before any weapons could be activated would cause similar problems to plan 3.
- Try to dissuade the Russians from war and to put pressure on for them to remove the bombs altogether. This had almost no chance of working as Khrushchev had publicly denied the presence of them and felt that JFK was a weak leader and so would not give in.
EXCOMM and Kennedy’s military advisors had very different preferred courses of action though, with the two Chiefs of staff (General Maxwell Taylor – chairman and General Curtis Le May –airforce chief of staff) strongly supporting military action and a full scale invasion, whereas figures such as Paul Nitze (assistant Secretary of state for Defence under Robert McNamara), Douglas Dillon (Treasury), George Ball (Under Secretary of State under Dean Rusk) and McGeorge Bundy (President’s Aide), aswell as Robert Kennedy felt that defensive action needed to be carried out and that an invasion would only make them seem ‘trigger happy’ and confrontational.
It wasn’t until the 22nd (8 days after the pictures were taken) that Kennedy, with the support of Robert McNamara, decided to commence the blockade and to leave an invading force on standby if worst came to worst. Later that day JFK addressed the nation with the news that missile sites had been discovered, the blockade/quarantine was to be carried out and a final plea to the Soviet Union to remove its weapons.
Khrushchev merely replied with a statement that the blockade was an ‘act of piracy’ that would be ignored – exactly the words the world didn’t want to hear and the world teetered on the brink as the Soviet ships sailed towards the blockade, if they didn’t stop they would be open fired upon by the US battleships stationed on Cuba’s east coast and war inevitably would follow. But crisis was averted as the group of Soviet ships turned round and sailed back to Russia after one oil tanker was allowed through – and yet the war wasn’t over yet, there were still deadly missiles stationed on Cuba within range of the USA.
Hope came though in the form of a letter on the 26th, a letter that looked like it was written by Khrushchev himself commenting that if the Americans removed the blockade and swore that they would not attack Cuba then the USSR would remove the missiles. Before Kennedy could accept the terms, on the 27th a further letter came from what looked like another more impersonal Russian stating that US sites in Turkey were an equal threat to the Cuban missile, requesting that they were dismantled – but the USA couldn’t be seen to be giving in could they?
The 27th of October saw the end of the crisis and was very eventful, starting with the destruction of a U-2 spy plane over Cuba (with several demands for war from Kennedy’s cabinet ensuing), carrying on with JFK’s decision to respond positively to the first letter and ignore the second and ending with Robert Kennedy meeting with the Russian ambassador. It ended with a promise of removing the Turkey missiles within a short period of time and the next day Khrushchev sent a letter saying the weapons would be dismantled. The crisis was averted.
Consequences of the Crisis
The crisis had taught the world and the two quarrelling nations an important lesson, that conflicts on this scale were a serious threat to global peace and the Earth’s populations safety. So to reduce the chance that this would ever occur again, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed (in 1963) and a permanent phone link (‘hot line’) was established between the Kremlin in Russia and Washington in America and it’s worked so far at least.
Though Khrushchev was the only leader that was really affected; JFK was praised as the hero and emerged victorious (especially due to the fact that the dismantling of missiles in Turkey was kept quiet) and stayed in office up to his assassination; Castro remained in power up till 2006, but Khrushchev was evicted from power by the communist party after being seen as a failure even after a speech naming the crisis a success of the Soviet Union for preserving the independence of a Communist country. Khrushchev went on to take a back seat in the communist party after the missiles were dismantled shortly after the 28th of October, JFK remained in office and Castro has lead Cuba ever since.
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