Cuban Missile Crisis Essay -- essays research papers

On October 22nd, 1962, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th chair of the united States of the States, addressed the democracy on television. In his seven-point speech, he informed his audience that long-range nuclear rockets, capable of striking most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far north as Hudson Bay, Canada, and as far south as Lima, Peru (JFK library p. 3) were being installed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy discussed the United States response, which included the placement of a naval blockade around the island of Cuba, a request for an immediate convening of the United Nations Security Council, and a heightened force alert. However, it was his third point which sent a chill around the piece. tertiary It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an blast by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full(a) retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union. (JFK Library p. 3)With these words, President Kennedy informed the world that the Cold War was perilously close to turning hot, and the world stood on the brink of nuclear holocaust. Almost twenty years since the end of humans War 2, after two decades of mounting tension between the Soviet Communist Empire and the Western allies, the dreaded nuclear showdown was underway. America and the Soviet Union were on a collision course. How had this come to walking?Although the announcement came as a great shock to the public, the Cuban projectile Crisis had non occurred overnight it had been building for more than two years. In mid-1960, Cuba gestural agreements with the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and almost immediately U.S. Intelligence detected the start of a massive, sequestered arms buildup on the island, sponsored by the Soviets. (Johnson, Hatch p. 2) Soviet ships began arriving at Havana, and the Cubans set down them under extreme secrecy. Over the next year, U.S. In telligence recorded deliverie... ...ations, to chequer the carrying out and continuation of these commitments (a) to remove promptly the quarantine measures now in effect and (b) to give assurances against the invasion of Cuba. (Goldman, Stein p. 3)On October 28, the Russian premiere conceded to President Kennedys demands by ordering all Soviet supply ships extraneous from Cuban waters and agreeing to remove the missiles from Cubas mainland, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Looking back on the crisis, Robert McNamara believed the world was one step off from nuclear war. That step would be the President ordering invasion of Cuba. What was not known at the time was the presence of 43,000 combat-ready Soviet soldiers in Cuba, or the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons along Cubas shore. Khrushchev had also given a standing order to his generals that if he couldnt be reached in the event of an invasion, they had potential to launch battlefield nuclear weapons. If Kenned y had invaded, the Soviets would harbor used nuclear weapons and President Kennedy would have had no choice but to retaliate. The response would likely have been an attack on Soviet soil, and global nuclear war.