The Cuban Missile Crisis had begun at October 1962. The threat of nuclear war became increasingly apparent. It was vital that Kennedy and Khrushchev came to some sort of agreement - the future of the world depended on it. Source A: A diagram illustrating the crisis, courtesy of the BBC Cuba became the Soviet missile site of USSR which shows at source A. The missile had been set at an appropriate location where it could brought every major city in the US within range of Soviet nuclear missiles either by the short range or long range missile.
Following previous attempts by the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro, Rufus announces that he has just been asked to take charge of Operation Mongoose, a secret operation that was created in November 1961. “By 20 October the state of affairs in the Cuban region had greatly intensified. Apart from Washington’s political threats and declarations to the Cuban Republic, US aircraft carriers had arrived in the theater, ready to deliver an aerial bombardment. Provocative over flights of our transport vessels by US aircraft had begun, as well as efforts to stop them for inspections” (Ketov 224). The person asking Oaks to take over the operation was none other than the Attorney General of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy.
(White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) The United States along with the United Kingdom would embark on a race to build the first atomic bomb. This great race was named the Manhattan Project. In anticipation of beginning the program, there was an extensive amount of fieldwork covered in nuclear energy between 1932 and 1939. The discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932 clarified the reason for atomic weights of the same element differed. (Delgado 43) Research in atomic energy progressed when scientists learned that using a neutron to bombard atoms performed better than protons and alpha particles.
“The building of missile sites triggered the Cuban Missile Crises in October of 1962.” (Harper pg. 25) John knew he couldn’t allow nuclear weapons in Cuba, but getting rid of them presented a huge problem. If the U.S. entered Cuba or bombed missile sites, the Soviet Union would declare war. An ordinary battle could turn into nuclear warfare. Such a war could destroy the U.S. and Soviet Union along with other parts of the world.
The United States, realizing that if the Nazi's could possibly even, with a tiny amount of possibility, make this weapon would be making them unstoppable. So the US, not liking to be held one step below any one started their own nuclear weapons program, called the Manhattan Project. The U.S. won the first nuclear arms race when they tested the first nuclear weapon on the Alamogordo Bombing Range in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The modern nuclear arms race, that is the race between the US, under Harry Truman, and the USSR (Russians), under Joseph Stalin, began in 1946, when the American representative of the newly formed United Nations (UN), Bernard Baruch, suggested that nuclear weapons be eliminated. The Russians refused this proposition and the arms race started.
During the summer of 1962, the flow of Soviet weapons to Cuba, including nuclear missiles, increased greatly. President Kennedy responded at first with a warning that the US would not tolerate the presence of offensive nuclear weapons on Cuba. On October 14, American U-2 planes took pictures as evidence for the president that the Soviets were secretly building missile bases on Cuba, and that some missiles were ready to launch and could reach US cities in minutes. The Soviet offered to remove the missiles in return asked America not to invade Cuba. President Kennedy agreed and the crisis
13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis On October 16, 1962, President Kennedy was given his most difficult decision he would ever have in office. It started out as a routine spy plane patrol when photographs taken had revealed that soviet Russia were building missile bases on Cuba’s soil—about 90 miles from the island of Key West, Florida, faced with a problem John F. Kennedy would have to make a conclusion to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was presented four possible responses by his top advisors in several secret meetings over the next thirteen days. The reactions were to: Engage in further negotiations with Khrushchev. The option, being very peaceful would have allowed the soviets to finish the missile bases, invade Cuba.
Roosevelt agreed to join and for the next four and half years a huge, secret effort was launched in cooperation with the United Kingdom. Code-named "The Manhattan Project," the effort eventually employed more than 200,000 workers and several thousand scientists and engineers, many from Europe. Finally, “The first atomic device tested successfully at Alamogordo in New Mexico on 16 July 1945” (source A). Its power amazed even the men and women who had constructed
Beginning with how the Manhattan Project first came about, the book chronicles the discovery of fission, and how Pearl Harbor increased the push for a U.S. nuclear weapon. It follows the progression of the Manhattan Project from the dropping of the bombs through the fallout affecting the world. As Robert Oppenheimer said, “The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country” (Tracy 41). By making the atomic bomb her focus, Tracy was able to span a long period of time and still give a descriptive account of the event.
The Manhattan Project “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” was what Robert Oppenheimer, one of the makers of the nuclear bomb, said after successfully exploding a bomb (Jinarājadāsa). There are few events that forever change human history such as the invention of fire and the Manhattan Project’s creation is one of these. The Manhattan Project’s atomic bomb was the most influential invention of the 20th century because it forever changed Japan, started a worldwide race for nuclear bombs, and marked the start of a 40 year Cold War with the Soviet Union. There had never been such a powerful weapon that could level cities in seconds and cause such widespread damage over hundreds of miles and it forever altered society. In August