With that in mind, America also had missiles in Turkey targeting the Soviet Union. In The fog of war it says “We (America) lucked out from not having a nuclear war”. In the interview it says “we went eyeball to eyeball and they blinked”, referring to the friction between the United States and the Soviet Union. JFK strongly tried to keep America out of war with the Soviet Union. Kennedy asked how many American causality’s there would be if one of the Soviet Union’s missiles would go off in the United States.
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."
Michael Richards US History II Period 5 Cold War Response Paper January 4, 2011 While US and USSR military forces in the Cold War never clashed, battles consisted of technological competitions, political propaganda, and proxy wars. The starting point of the Cold War is disputable, but due to the USSR’s formation of the Warsaw Pact, their desire to control Berlin, and their building of missile bases in Cuba, the USSR was unquestionably responsible for escalating tensions throughout the Cold War. The creation of the Warsaw Pact was a response to the Federal Republic of Germany joining NATO in 1955. The Warsaw pact consisted of eight communist states in Eastern Europe, posing as the United States’ largest threat in control for
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.
In this essay it will be argued that indeed the Cuban Missile Crisis was the point of highest tension during the Cold War and also that Kennedy benefited the most from the outcome as opposed to Khrushchev who was the leader of the USSR. Firstly the Cuban Missile Crisis began on the 16th October 1962 when an American U2 spy plane photographed Soviet missiles sites in Cuba. The fact that the USSR had responded to appeals for help from Cuba following the Bay of Pigs invasion was a large problem for the USA and straight away increased the tensions of the Cold War. It was an issue because Cuba was lead by Castro, a communist who had already overthrown the pro- American government in 1961 and so he was motivated to possibly harm the United States of America and working with Khrushchev gave him the means to do so. Furthermore Cuba was only 90 miles off the coast of America, which meant these missiles, particularly the long-ranged weapons could reach major American cities.
It was a hard decision to order to destroy the American bombers but President did not have any choice. After the fighters did not succeed to shut down Group Six and they went down in to the sea, President called Mr. Chairman to notify him of the existed problem. The Security Dilemma is created on both sides because when the bombers step on the Russian
Later that year in Potsdam, many open disagreements took place because Germany had lost the war so Russia had promised to fulfil, Churchill had lost the 1945 election and Roosevelt died so Truman, who replaced him was angered by the large scale reparations imposed on Germany and the setting up of a communist government in Poland. He did not trust Russia, so kept him in the dark about him having the atomic bomb in 1945 before he dropped it on Japan to get them to surrender. By America using the atomic bomb, Stalin knew that it was possible for it to be used against them. Russia was therefore tricked by America preventing the Red Army from going to Japan. This threatened Russia and warned them that America was wary of them and could act on it.
1. During Kennedy’s administration; which was more effective, The Bay of Pigs ,The Cuban Missile Crises and the Berlin Wall? • During Kennedy’s administration the most effective was, The Cuban Missile Crises. The united states deliberated and came to an agreement with The Soviet Union, to take away this missiles stations in Cuba and moved them back to Russia. The Bay of Pigs was not effective because it was not planned through.
The West hesitated to stop this because the people of Britain and America did not want to consider another war. The Truman Doctrine in March 1947 allowed America to send money, weapons, and advisors to any country that felt threatened by Communism. By June 1947 the Marshal Plan was devised to offer American aid to all countries. When East Berlin was cut off from the West on the 23rd of June 1948, with only enough food and fuel for six weeks, Britain and America decided to airlift supplies, known as the Berlin Airlift. They were not shot down, as Stalin feared US’s nuclear weapons.
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.