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Briefing paper cuban missile crisis
Briefing paper cuban missile crisis
Entire story of cuban missile crisis
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Robert F. Kennedy's chilling account of his experiences with his brother, President John F. Kennedy over thirteen days in October of 1962 give an idea to the reader of just how alarmingly close our country came to nuclear war. Kennedy sums up the Cuban Missile Crisis as "a confrontation between two atomic nations...which brought the world to the abyss of nuclear destruction and the end of mankind."1 The author's purpose for writing this memoir seems to be to give readers an idea of the danger confronted during the Cuban Missile Crisis and to reflect on the lessons we should learn from it as a country, and for future members of government.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began with a set of photographs taken over Cuba by an American pilot.2 These photographs showed that Russians were building missile bases in Cuba and placing missiles and atomic weapons there that were easily within range of the United States. President JFK and Robert Kennedy were both stunned. From this point a board of advisors was created and called the Ex Comm, who met every day during those thirteen days and debated the various courses of actions, and consequences of each, that the president could take. Kennedy emphasizes the making of this board as a lesson for future government officials because he believes that it "proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one...point of view."3
The situation continued to escalate from this point. Kennedy met with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on several occasions, and he consistently claimed that Soviet Chairman Nikita Khrushchev assured him that "there would be no...offensive weapons placed in Cuba."4
The President decided on a course of ...
... middle of paper ...
...e thirteen days JFK and Robert Kennedy always keep in mind the perspective of the Russians, taking great care not to back them into a corner, or give them no choice but to react violently.
Footnotes:
Kennedy, Robert F., Thirteen Days (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1968) 19
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 19
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 86
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 21
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 40
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 49
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 68
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 71
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 73
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 75
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Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 94
Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 95
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy reached out to America and the Cubans with his Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation. During this time, the Cold War had occupied several countries of world. This war resulted from tensions, military and political, between Russia and its allies and America, its allies, and the Western Hemisphere. When President Kennedy gave his speech, Russia had occupied Cuba and began building military bases that contained nuclear warheads and other deadly missiles. People of America saw this as a threat to the freedom of the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. In a time of great tension and fear, President Kennedy delivered his spectacular and reassuring speech that appealed to the citizens of American in several ways.
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thorndike: G. K. Hall, 2001. Print. The. MAY, ERNEST R., and PHILIP ZELIKOW.
pp. -. Pearson, Drew. A. A. “Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Cuba.” Saturday Review 29 March 1969: 12-16. “The Price of Military Folly.”
Thirteen Days is a historical account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is told from the perspective of Robert F. Kennedy, senator and brother to President John F. Kennedy. It is an account of the thirteen days in October 1962. It lasted from the 16th to the 28th. During this time many crucial events in the United States.
After thirteen days of conflict, both superpowers agreed to withdraw their missiles. Although it was a stalemate, in the US this was presented as a major victory. Nuclear war was avoided without any loss of life or destruction. Just as in the Berlin Crisis, Kennedy used diplomacy to resolve conflicts with the Soviet Union. For Kennedy, “his readiness to offer negotiations was in part based on a politician’s belief
May, Ernest R. “John F Kennedy and the Cuban MIssile Crisis.” BBC News. BBC., 18 Nov. 2013.
The Soviet Union and the United States were very distant during three decades of a nuclear arms race. Even though the two nations never directly had a battle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, amongst other things, was a result of the tension. The missile crisis began in October of 1962, when an American spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. JFK did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles, so he made his decisions very secretly. Eventually, Kennedy decided to place a ring of ships around Cuba and place missiles in Turkey. Eventually, both leaders superpowers realized the possibility of a nuclear war and agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would remove the missiles from Cuba if the US didn't invade Cuba. Even though the Soviets removed took their missiles out of Cuba and the US eventually taking their missiles out of Turkey, they (the Soviets) continued to build a more advanced military; the missile crisis was over, but the arms race was not.
General Taylor remarks Russians are doing whatever they want when they want (Thirteen Days), he also makes reference to the Bay of Pigs. A false analogy fallacy (Fujishin 112), trying to put two events that are different from each other together. And so begins the cat and mouse game deciding what to do and how to react to this discovery. Many of JFK’s military advisors were in favor of striking now before weapons were active. JFK and his closest of advisors knew that if they reacted with force it could start a chain reaction beginning WWIII (a nuclear war of mass destruction). JFK decided against his advisement to wait and look for alternative
Perhaps the most critical moment that had occurred to the United States and the world of the last century is the Cuban Missile Crisis. The significance of this event was that it had brought the world to the closest it could ever be to a nuclear war. Millions of lives, cultures and infrastructure would have been lost if it was not splendidly dealt with. Yet, a man was able to prevent this devastation, and he was none other than President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) of the United States. How was he significant to the event? This research paper will discuss it with the points that are based on JFK’s characteristics. Hence, to provide an overview of this paper; the outbreak of nuclear warfare was prevented in the Cuban Missile Crisis specifically by John F. Kennedy’s many distinguished characteristics.
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis is a book that goes in depth about the details of what really happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author of this book is Robert F. Kennedy, he was the attorney general, while his brother John F. Kennedy was president. This book goes further on the Cuban Missile Crisis then what your average high school history class will study on that event. Little do people know that there is much more to the Cuban Missile Crisis than just a standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US had a problem with the Soviet Union’s decision to implement nuclear weapons in Cuba with plans to bomb the US. Kennedy goes in depth by writing about the meetings in the White House during the crisis and by including how US leaders were planning to solve the problem.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major event in U.S History that almost led to nuclear destruction. It was over a period of thirteen days in which diplomats from the U.S and the Soviet Union were trying to reach a peaceful resolution so that they wouldn’t have to engage in physical warfare. The crisis was the hallmark of the Cold War era which lasted from the 1950’s to the late 1980’s. The Cold War was a power struggle between the U.S and Soviet Union in which the two nations had a massive arms race to become the strongest military force. The U.S considered Communism to be an opposing political entity, and therefore branded them as enemies. Khrushchev’s antagonistic view of Americans also played a big role in the conflict. The Cold War tensions, coupled with a political shift in Cuba eventually lead to the military struggle known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the point of most tension and near collapse causing the Cold War to almost shift from a passive and underground struggle to a violent and catastrophic one.
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted two weeks in the midst of the Cold War, and brought the world closer to nuclear war than ever before. In October of 1962 multiple nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union’ s were discovered in Cuba, a mere 90 miles south of the United States. Given the communist ties between Cuba and the USSR, this poised a considerable threat to our national security. Throughout the 14 days the two leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled to clearly understand each others‘ genuine intentions. Actions taken by each state during this crisis demonstrates the realist point of view, in a variety of ways. The fundamentals of Realism will be explored and explained along with actions taken during this crisis from a realist point of view.
In the film Robert Kennedy exaggerated the range of the Soviet missiles on Cuba having said that the missiles “could level every American city except Seattle” (“Counter Punch Thirteen Days Is Accurate Where It Counts”). Donaldson mainly focused on the United States reaction towards the Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, Donaldson does not take into consideration how much background knowledge his audience have regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis for both the United States and the Soviet Union. In the first scenes Donaldson immediately dives into the moment where President Kennedy is told by his administration the there are Soviet Missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy is notified of the missiles placed in Cuba by the Soviet Union he immediately consults his administration team. Robert “Bobby” Kennedy who is a member of the Kennedy’s administration in the film is portrayed as the individual who was immediately able to “create a peaceful solution” (“Thirteen Days Film Review”) that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet, the film does not highlight the long process it took for the United States and the Soviet Union to come to a compromise. The United States and Soviets actually came to a consensus when the United States said it would remove its missiles from Turkey after the Soviet Union removed their
Chang, Laurence and Peter Kornbluh. The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. New York: The New Press, 1992.
Stern, Sheldon M. The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths versus Reality. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ., 2012. Print.