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John F. Kennedy's role in the Cuban missile crisis
John F. Kennedy's role in the Cuban missile crisis
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What were the repercussions of President Kennedy and his Executive Committees decisions made during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
A. Plan of the Investigation
This investigation will be an evaluation of President Kennedy’s Executive Committee and the repercussions of the decisions made during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tape recordings and files had been deemed classified, but these files are now released and the decisions made by the government can be assessed to the fullest extent. This can produce major implications regarding the relationship between what was then the Soviet Union and the United States. The public was kept in the dark about several courses of action, including the removal of American missiles and many other surprising judgment calls that may be a cause of international security between the two country’s today.
A frequently used source is The Kennedy Tapes by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow as well as others. This book in particular delves into the tape recordings during those thirteen days between President Kennedy and his advisory committee, revealing information that could provide insight into what really happened in October, 1962.
B Summary of Evidence
President Kennedy was informed at 9.00 AM on Tuesday, October 16, 1962 that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles in Sierra del Rosario, Cuba. This confirmation was made by an authorized U-2 flight over the area on October 14. Kennedy was immediately briefed by CIA director Marshall Carter who explained what the missiles meant and how it affected the United States. By this time, Kennedy had created a council, now referred to as his Executive Committee or ExComm. Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara and Secretary ...
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... Brink of Nuclear War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. Print.
Kennedy, John F. A Nation of Immigrants. New York: Harper and Row, 1964. Print
Kennedy, John F. The Strategy of Peace. New York: Harper, 1960. Print
Kennedy, Robert F., and Arthur Meier Schlesinger. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thorndike: G. K. Hall &, 2001. Print.
MAY, ERNEST R., and PHILIP ZELIKOW. The KENNEDY TAPES: INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE DURING THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. Cambridge: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2000. Print.
May, Ernest R. "John F Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis." BBC News. BBC, 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. Print.
Stein, R. Conrad. Cuban Missile Crisis: In the Shadow of Nuclear War. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
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.
"Cuban Missile Crisis." - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
The account is told from Robert F. Kennedy's point of view. Kennedy was a key player in the decisions made during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy believed that the United States should try and resolve The Cuban Missile Crisis peacefully and that the United States needed to try and avoid resolving to violent measures. Kennedy took over for his brother, the President on many occasions. He led important meetings and tried to negotiate an understanding with the other cabinet members who were involved. At first he believed that a blockade around Cuba would be the right maneuver and his proposal was supported by the majority of the other members. Soon he realized though that the Russians were not planning on negotiating or dealing with this matter in any peaceful manner. Though apposed to it Kennedy moved for an air strike. He was very uncomfortable with the idea and he showed this with his remark to the president of "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor.
May, Ernest R. “John F Kennedy and the Cuban MIssile Crisis.” BBC News. BBC., 18 Nov. 2013.
The docudrama ‘13 Days’ depicts the conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union which nearly ended in a cataclysmic crisis widely known as the Cuban Missile crisis. The course of events and the escalation of the crisis during the intense 13-day period in October 1962 are conveyed to the audience through the perspective of US political leaders. The crisis begins as U-2 spy planes evidence that Soviet leader, Khrushchev, had intermediate-range missiles deployed to Cuba in secrecy and is in the process of activating them. The movie surfaces the conundrums faced by President Kennedy in deciding appropriate actions to be undertaken, such that the missiles in Cuba are removed without resorting to war. Audiences are acquainted with the various complexities involved in the decision making processes, as President Kennedy not only had to deal with the antagonistic Soviet Union, but also disagreements within his own administration.
This paper will analyze the role of John McCone in the thirteen-day crisis, how the crisis impacted the United States, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the world, and lastly whether the resolution achieved reflected the United States triumph and its success in handling the crisis. Several months before the crisis, the Director of Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A. John McCone, a paranoid anticommunist, was one of the first government officials to discover the massive military buildup ongoing in Cuba. Starting August 1962, he insistently advocated his hypothesis about Soviet actions in Cuba to the President advisors that the Soviets might take a risk and place nuclear missiles in Cuba. He reasoned that the placement of missiles in Cuba gave Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev a way to counter the growing American nuclear superiority and to protect the communist government in Cuba (I). He also thought that one potential political motive from the Soviet action was that if a missile was fired from Cuba and struck Washington, the Russians could later deny being involved with the catastrophe and put the blame on the Cubans, rather than if the missile was fired from the Russia itself (11).
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
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.
Comparable to no other moment in history, the Cuban Missile Crisis shaped a generation entering the nuclear age with unease and tension. Decisions ultimately were made by the leaders of the nations which were undoubtedly shaped and influenced from voices far exceeding the three men’s own ideologies. The opinions and beliefs of those closest to the leaders with large vested interest in the Crisis dictated monumental moments throughout the thirteen-day standoff. The issue arouse on the morning of October 16th when National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy awoke President Kennedy with startling photographs taken by U-2 aircraft over Cuba’s mainland. The photos proved that there were Soviet Medium-Range Ballistic Missiles on the island, which is only 90 miles from American shoreline. Long before the Cuban Missile Crisis, as noted by the JFK Presidential Library, “Kennedy warned of the Soviet's growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces.”...
This source provided a very good counter-argument to the usual interpretation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It gives an insightful criticism of the Cuban Missile Crisis as seen through American propaganda. This internet article was able to give an opposite interpretation of the events and portray the U.S as the aggressor in some ways, which helped make my paper more well-rounded.
BBC News. BBC, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. The Web. The Web.
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
This historical investigation aims to address the question: How significant was Fidel Castro’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?
Stern, Sheldon M. The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths versus Reality. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ., 2012. Print.