Essay on cuban missile crise

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Words: 1587
Pages: 7
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Ismery Paul
History
02/21/14

The New World Order
In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles (1,000-5,500 km) in Cuba. The idea of a deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real discouragement to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.
While the idea was still simmering, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the United States. Castro approved of Khrushchev’s plan to place missiles on the island. Since October of 1962, the world had gone through a major event that caused it to change as we know it. For fourteen days, the world stood on the verge of a nuclear war. The world would never be the equivalent due to this event that is now known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Soviets were building nuclear missile bases on the island of Cuba, which the government of United States had discovered. They started to build these bases because the Soviets wanted to close the missile gap due to the fact the U.S had them out powered. Hoping the United States wouldn’t find out, the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba after the they promised they would not attempt to. The plan almost worked and was nearly completed until a U.S. U-2 spy plane discovered the bases. The United States demanded withdrawal from the Soviets. On October As these events unraveled before the United States, the world began to hold its breath and watch.
Looking back at the events and how John Kennedy handled the situation I do not believe that he made the right decision. Instead of dropping the atomic bomb which killed many of innocent lives of everyday people, which is believed to roughly 66,000 causalities I felt that the situation could have been handled in a more humane manner. We should have steered toward a strategic method such as surgical strikes against their bases to let them know that we would not accept by any means a threat that close to our own coasts. Instead I felt that he took the most drastic way out to make a statement to Russia.
Due to my research, historians would say that due to the epic fail of the Bay of Pigs where he unsuccessfully directed out undercover agents to remove the dreadful dictator Castro, that he was swayed to make that decision fearing the retaliation of Castro. The Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt by the U.S. to remove Castro from office. The attempt consisted of the U.S training and arming a couple thousands man while looking up the information. Due to in exact numbers roughly 1500 to 2500 Cuban exiles for the job. The main purpose was that a general revolt occur, which would led to Castro being removed from his powerful position as dictator. The U.S. did not provide air cover for the troops. Out of the 2000 troops, 300 were killed and the rest were taken to prison.
President Kennedy, in a televised address on October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be taken as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded accordingly. He also forced a naval quarantine on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of offensive military weapons from arriving there. On the 25th of October, Kennedy pulled the quarantine line back and raised military readiness to DEFCON 2. On the 26th EX-COMM, a group of Kennedy’s twelve most important advisors, heard from Khrushchev in a letter that was filled with great emotions. He proposed removing Soviet missiles and personnel if the U.S. would guarantee not to invade Cuba.
On October 27, EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in
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