Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 (Impact (Kennedy’s immediate political…
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
Idea:The Cuban Missiles Crisis served as a warning of the dangers of global nuclear proliferation, and indicated that Cold War ‘rocket rhetoric’ (Gaddis) was quickly becoming a reality.
Historical Detail:In 1959 Fidel Castro seized power from the American supported dictator, Batista. America withdrew support (i.e.: trade) of cuba and even attempted to stage an invasion with an American trained ex-Cuban force. The ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion was a fiasco. It was severely under-armed and the rebels were defeated by castro’s forces. This defeat reflected poorly on JFK who had promoted himself as a foreign affairs expert. As a result, Castro, to safeguard Cuban sovereignty and to facilitate trade (including the importation of oil), abandoned his non-alignment policy and established relations with the USSR. From July 1962, Soviet troops and armaments arrived in Cuba- an estimated 40 000 Soviet troops as well as ICMB’s (reaching 2500km).
Detail & SourcesIn response to US missiles placed in Turkey, the USSR placed missiles in Cuba. They were discovered on the 25th September by a U2 spy plane, and this resulted in a crisis where the small nation of Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war- brinkmanship.
“A first strike would have knocked out all the American air bases…and all American cities except Seattle” Hilsman (Head of Intelligence at US Foreign Ministry)
“We had to think up some way of confronting America with more than just words…the logical answer was missiles” N. Khrushchev (1970) ‘Khrushchev Remembers’
Source:“the Cuban Missile Crisis- a confrontation between the two giant atomic nations, the US and the USSR, which brought the world to the abyss of nuclear destruction and the end of mankind”
R. Kennedy (1971) ‘Thirteen Days’
Idea:The Cuban Missile Crisis testified to the success of mutually assured destruction as a form of deterrence, and emphasised the reluctance of both superpowers to participate in military confrontation.
US Response: President Kennedy established EXCOM (Executive Committee of the NSC) a smaller section of the National Security Council who had to decide upon a number of options:
doing nothing (runs counter to the policy of containment)
launch an air attack on missile bases (could start a nuclear war),
blockade Cuba with US naval ships (Thus blocking the entry of nuclear weapons).
Decision:On the 23rd October the blockade began, and US forces were ready to attack with nuclear war if a Soviet ship broke the blockade. The Cold War had reached a stage of brinkmanship.
Khrushchev's Reasoning
-
OrthodoxHowever, this view of Khrushchev’s behaviour is at best
superficial
Khrushchev later wrote in his memoirs that he feared losing Cuba. This would have destroyed Soviet prestige in Latin America and weakened it elsewhere
Thus, by secretly installing missiles in Cuba, the US would be presented with a fait accompli, Cuba would be safe and the Soviet’s reputation for protecting its allies would have been ensured
-
Impact
Kennedy’s immediate political situation improved dramatically;
- he was hailed as a far-sighted statesman
- the Kennedy legend was off and running long before his assassination
Khrushchev’s political fortunes went into reverse;
- though his esteem rose in the west, inside the Soviet Union he was increasingly being seen as reckless
- his failure over Cuba, Sino-Soviet relations and agriculture, culminated in his overthrow in October 1964 when he was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev
Cuba was removed as a source of tension;
- the US-Soviet agreement meant there would be no more Bay of Pigs invasions
- However, this did not stop US pressure on Cuba (still present in 2010). The bizarre attempts to murder Castro continued
-
The major irony of the Cuban Missile Crisis was that it made possible a major improvement in US-Soviet relations;
- the Soviet achievement of nuclear parity was a key factor in making detente possible
- it brought home the reality of nuclear war to both sides
- the red phone was established, the nuclear test band treaty was passed, and the US sold the Soviets $250 m of wheat
- HOWEVER, rivalry and the war continued
Kennedy had entered the presidency as a firm supporter of the policy of containment. Cuba had proven the wisdom of containment;
- the line had been drawn at the spread of communist expansion and america had shown that it would act
- support for containment was unquestioned in both political and public circles in the US
- a "cold war consensus" prevailed, a belief that the US must stand up to communism wherever it raised its head
- this belief was a key factor which would make it possible for kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, to escalate the war in Vietnam
For all their crowning about the future security of Cuba, the Soviets knew that they had suffered a massive humiliation;
- the main aim of Soviet policy now was that there would be ‘no more Cubas’
- the Soviet Union sought to achieve nuclear parity with the US so that they could never be blackmailed again
- Throughout the 1960s. the Soviets pursued a massive military build up. By 1970, the Soviet Union had not managed to equal the US in nuclear capability, but they had built up sufficiently to prevent America being able to humiliate them as had happened in 1962