Later that night Kennedy got on television to tell the U.S that the Soviet Union had secret installed nuclear missiles in Cuba that were aimed at American cities. Kennedy didn’t know how to get the missiles removed without starting a nuclear was with the Soviets. If this were to happen tens of millions on both sides would be killed. Communism was a threat and it was coming to America in 1959 when Castro staged a revolution in Cuba and became allies with the Soviet Union. Khrushchev thought that by moving nuclear missiles to Cuba, he would not only help close the missile gay with the U.S but that it would also prevent another American invasion of Cuba.
Cuban leader, Fidel Castro agreed to have the missiles stationed there. The US had no plan in place because they believed that the Soviets would never install nuclear missiles in Cuba. The EXCOMM quickly discussed several possible courses of action, over the period of thirteen days. One of the options was, military invasion: to take full force over Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro. The second option was, an air strike: use the US Air Force to finish off all the nuclear missile locations.
On October 16, 1962, the US received photos of Cuba taken from planes that showed soviets working with nuclear missiles in Cuba. Those photographs were the proof that the soviets, more specifically Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviets premier minister who had promised many time that they would stop sending arms, had been lying and betrayed the trust between the US and USSR. From this point, the US qualified this as a serious issue and John Kennedy set up a private brain trust called the executive committee of the national security council. Their role was to help Kennedy on the decision taking of the Cuban Missile Crisis. ‘‘Thus, placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba beginning in the spring of 1962 not only challenged the perception of Soviet missile inferiority but also provided the Soviets with a counterbalance to U.S. missiles situated in Western Europe.’’ ("Cuban missile crisis."
Khrushchev placed missiles in Cuba to see if Kennedy would back off or face up to aggression and the blockade was certainly an aggressive move. Directly blocking off Cuba, an ally of the USSR is clear evidence of high tensions and points towards the idea that the Cuban Missile crisis was the point of highest tension. This point is only further
Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, Fidel Castro sought even more support from the USSR to prevent any further attempts to overthrow him. This security came in the form of Soviet nuclear missiles. From an orthodox point of view this has been viewed as an act of aggression by the USSR as it brought Soviet missiles in range of continental America, however from a revisionist perspective this can be seen as a reaction to the USA's deployment of nuclear weapons throughout Europe, particularly of Jupiter missile installations based in Turkey1. Soviet aims in Cuba were defined as bridging the missile gap between the USA and USSR, defending socialism were it was threatened and to use the missiles as a bargaining tool in international politics2. On October 15th 1962 American U-2 planes obtained photographic evidence of Soviet medium range missiles on Cuban territory.
The President had no closer ally and no more trusted confidant than his brother, U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, written by Robert Kennedy, shows this intimate relationship through a chronological diary of Robert Kennedy’s perspective. The Cuban Missile Crisis defined the American resolve to stop communist influence in the Western Hemisphere. Thirteen Days is a chronicle of the Cuban Missile Crisis as seen through the eyes of the Robert Kennedy. It focuses on the diplomatic and legal efforts of the Kennedy brothers in resolving the issue of Soviet nuclear missiles inside Cuba.
Truman made some decisions that ultimately had a huge effect in the build up to the cold war. When plans were made for the division of power after WWII, Truman originally opposed America ganging up against Russia and said he would keep the agreements that were made with them. But Truman wanted to appear decisive and tough and he was not prepared to accept any deal if he could not get the majority of it his way. When Truman went to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, he went there only to advance American Interest and he believed that the atomic bomb was the way to do this. Though this treat he was able to have his way at the Yalta conference.
In 1960 President Eisenhower game the CIA order to begin training Cuban exiles to lead resistance groups in Cuba. This was so when the United States invaders landed, there would already be a force slowing down Cuban forces. After John F. Kennedy was elected president, he was briefed on the latest plan and ended up giving the order for the Bay of Pigs invasion. About 1500 Cuban exiles landed on April 19, 1961. They were hoping to get support from the local population and intended to cross the island to Havana.
attack on Cuba the equivalent of a world war, and claims to be receiving lots of aid from the USSR. But once the USSR and Cuban governments began building missile bases in Cuba, it became an immediate threat to the United States. The bases being built for these IRBM missiles were capable of launching them to practically any area of the continental United States. We responded by transporting 100 US missiles to Turkey and Italy, which were in striking distance of Moscow. By mid October, a U-2 photoreconnaissance plane retrieved pictures of missile sites in Cuba, giving Kennedy hard evidence that they existed.
, highlighting that he believed without the use of atomic weapons, the Cold War was not an inevitability. Despite the pre-existing tensions between East and West, the use of atomic weaponry amplified the Soviet’s paranoia causing Stalin to authorise ‘a crash Soviet program to catch up’ , signifying the start of the Cold War which would shape the course of the twentieth century. A key significance of the use of atomic weapons in 1945 was the ethical implications that using such weaponry held. As Stalin stated ‘war is barbaric, but using the A-bomb is superbarbarity’ . Stalin’s view is supported by Admiral D Leahy, who in his memoirs writes ‘we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages’ This quote holds a substantial amount of weight to my argument due to Admiral D Leahy’s position as Roosevelt and Truman’s chief of staff, it would be expected for a man of such status to hold a view in support of America’s actions.