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Impact of cuban missile crisis on cuba
Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and its importance to the cold war
Events leading up to the Cuban missile crisis
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For thirteen days, the United States held its breath, fearing the ultimate destruction
of the nation by nuclear weapons. This was the Cuban missile crisis, a struggle fought
between the world's two largest superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union,
which nearly provoked a nuclear catastrophe on both sides from October 16, to October
28, in 1962. This crisis had been brewing for many years and was sparked by previous
issues between the two nations. The United States had been at odds with Communist
ideals for many years beginning with the onset of the Cold War. The direct stimulant for
the Cuban missile crisis, however, was due to the emergence of the Communist led regime
of Cuba, by Fidel Castro. Wanting to prevent Castro from gaining too much power,
President Kennedy, aided by the CIA, attempted to take control of Cuba. This failure,
known as the Bay of Pigs, only secured Castro's as well as Cuba's power. For fear of
further attacks, the Soviet Union provided protection by way of nuclear weapons, for
Cuba. This was the premises for the Cuban missile crisis during 1962. The United States
reached near destruction due to President Kennedy's persistent refusal to tolerate
Communism, and therefore, he can not be lauded for his success in ending the crisis which
he himself started.
Cuba had been a large assent for the United States throughout the 1950s, prior to
President Eisenhower severing diplomatic relations with Cuba in the 1960s.1 After Fidel
Castro and his Revolutionaries took control of Cuba, they began to gain mass popularity
and power which upset Government officials in the United States. Eisenhower developed
a plan which the Kennedy Administration later followed through on, to overthr...
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...ities.
The crisis never would have escalated to the level that it did, had Kennedy been more
tolerant of outside powers. The Bay of Pigs disaster could have been prevented all
together if Kennedy had not issued it, and caused Castro to seek Soviet aid. Even with
the Bay of Pigs mission launched, it could have been a success if Kennedy had provided
sufficient support, again preventing the Cuban Missile Crisis from ever taking place. Due
to Kennedy's stubbornness, he was reluctant to see the obvious signs that an attack was
brewing so close to home. He was too concerned with his image to admit he was wrong
and only wanted to look good in the eyes of the American public. He was able to end the
horrible debacle in the end, but it came after major Governmental spending and could have
been prevented all together had Kennedy backed down early on in the 1960s.
With the Cold War in full swing when he stepped into office, President Kennedy had no choice but to turn to Cold War ideology when determining the country’s foreign policy. For example, the Peace Corps, which “…sent young Americans abroad to aid in the economic and educational progress of developing countries” (Foner 969) was spawned out of the desperation to improve the global image of America. When President Kennedy took office in 1961, the United States’ image was still subpar to that of other nations. The Cold War ideology obsessed over making the United States the image of freedom and conveyer of lifestyle ideals, and Kennedy’s Peace Corps aimed to show the rest of the world that Americans cared deeply about the success of other countries. Through the Kennedy Administration, the United States also showed that they cared for other countries, in an effort to improve their global image and spread their ideals of freedom, through the Alliance for Progress. Much like the Marshall Plan, the Alliance for Progress provided sums of money to economically support Latin American countries. Kennedy claimed that the program would promote “…‘political’ and ‘material freedom’” (Foner 970), with the hopes of diminishing the appeal communism could have on the countries. In addition to aiming to improve the United States’ image, some of Kennedy’s foreign policy had roots in the Cold War ideology of containment. As tensions with Cuba began to rise after Fidel Castro took over the government, Kennedy sought for ways to eliminate Castro’s control in order to contain his revolution’s influence. Most notorious, the Bay of Pigs disaster was a U.S.-planned...
In January of 1959 , Communist dicator Fidel Castro took over Cuba. The United States in 1961 tried to overthrow Fidel by arming rebels and attempting to support them. This was the failure known as the Bay of Pigs. In October of 1962 , The US finds evidence that medium range nuclear sites had been installed in Cuba. They annonce that on the twenty-third that a quatntine was being Cuba and that any ship carrying offensive weapons to Cuba wasn’t allowed. Five days later , the crisis was averted when the Soviets began to remove the
"Kennedy's Cuban Crisis Is Risky as a Precedent." - Harvard. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
Cuba and the U.S.: The Tangled Relationship. New York: The Foreign Policy Association, 1971. Flaherty, Tom.
The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.
...ity of the blame went onto Kennedy's record as not being the one that had planned it out and not giving the go ahead for the second air raid. It was later proven that no matter what the outcome of the second air raid would have been, it would not have mattered. The CIA also released a document taking the full responsibility and blame for the incident at the Bay of Pigs. The Cuban Missile Crisis not only worried the U.S. but also worried the rest of the world as to how it would turn out. The Soviet's backed Cuba as an ally and fed them missiles and the supplies to build the missile silos in Cuba. The Soviet's said they did this as a counter measure incase we did in fact invade Cuba. Between these two major conflicts of the time, it can be said that the two countries were not battling over Cuba in itself, but more or less battling over the belief of Communism.
The question becomes how would the course of American History, primarily Vietnam, be different had Kennedy remained President. To truly answer the question, would the Vietnam war still occur under the Kennedy administration, first analyze how Kennedy handled the situation in Cuba and the Cold War, use reasonable and presented evidence to make a ruling on whether or not the Vietnam War would occur, and the last looks at why Johnson invaded Vietnam and the Kennedy memory. The Kennedy assassination was a noteworthy turning point in history as the conflict in Vietnam would never occur since Kennedy was skeptical and cognizant when deciding on foreign policy issues, on top of having little to gain from a war in
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.
The United States embargo of Cuba has its roots planted in 1960, 53 years ago, when “the United States Congress authorized President Eisenhower to cut off the yearly quota of sugar to be imported from Cuba under the Sugar act of 1948… by 95 percent” (Hass 1998, 37). This was done in response to a growing number of anti-American developments during the height of the cold war, including the “expropriation of United States-owned properties on the island… [and] the Soviet Union [agreeing] to purchase sugar from Cuba and to supply Cuba with crude oil” (Hass 1998, 37). Bad sentiments continued to pile up as Cuba imposed restrictions on the United States Embassy and especially when, after the United States “officially broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba, and travel by United States citizens to Cuba was forbidden ... Castro openly proclaimed his revolution to be ‘socialist’” (Hass 1998, 38). The day after this, the Bay of Pigs invasion occurred, but it failed in its job to topple Castro (Hass 1998, 38). Left with no diplomatic options and a failed military attempt, the United States decided that the only way to end Castro’s socialist regime was to sever all ties, and from 1961 to 1996, a series of acts were passed prohibiting the majority of trade and interaction with Cuba. (Hass 1998, 38).
After World War II, nationalistic and communist ideas and ways of government inspired many Latin American countries. Dwight D Eisenhower stated, “By the middle of 1954 Latin America was free, for the time being at least, of any fixed outpost of Communism.” In Cuba, Fidel Castro leads a revolution and the communist and him took control of Cuba. Shortly after, he nationalized the sugar plantations, and in response the US placed an embargo on Cuba. In a speech that was heard over the radio and was televised, Castro states, “If they blockade our country they will exalt our nation, because we will resist… We are part of humanity and we run the necessary risks, yet, we are not afraid.” He was willing to do anything in his power in order to continue the spread of communism. The Bay of Pigs was an attempt made by the US to overthrow Castro’s communism, but it failed. The citizens of Cuba desperately wanted to be set free from his communist ways. Some even went as far as making precarious voyages in hopes of reaching the Florida coast. The United States also caught the Soviets building Silos for missiles in Cuba. Because of this, the US and Soviets came near to war, possibly starting World War Three. Everyone thought that once the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain was lifted, that countries, including Latin American countries, under communist control would soon rise above communism. But instead, communism began to violently spread throughout the region. With all of the desperate attempts of the United States to cease the spread of communism, they were not competent
This buildup of weapons by the two countries started The Cuban Missile Crisis (The Cuban). Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader of the time, was nervous about the buildup of nuclear weapons in Western Europe and Turkey by the United States. He felt a build-up of missiles in Cuba would level the playing field.... ... middle of paper ...
...he Cuban missiles in exchange for a promise by U.S. leaders not to invade Cuba. The
The tropical island of Cuba had been an object of empire for the United States. Before the Missile Crisis, the relationship between Castro and the US were strained by the Bay of Pigs occurrence in 1961. This was where counterrevolutionary Cubans were American funded and tried to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. However, the counterrevolutionaries failed. Castro then found an alliance with the Soviet Union and an increase of distrust that Castro had on the US. On January 18, 1962, the United States’ Operation Mongoose was learned. The objective would be “to help the Cubans overthrow the Communist regime” so that the US could live in peace. Consequently, Castro informed the Soviet Union that they were worried about a direct invasion on Cuba, thus longed for protection against th...
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.
By the early 1960’s the U.S. had cut off ties with Cuba and was engaging to overthrow the Castro regime. In 1961 the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a fumbled CIA attempt to crush the government, inflamed