Cuban Missile Crisis

May 2, 2009

Kennedy’s Handling Of The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis to this date has been the only time that the world has ever come to the literal brink of all out nuclear war. On October 6, 1962 The United States became aware of Soviet nuclear missile sites being built on the communist island of Cuba. Cuba was at the time ruled over by Premier Fidel Castro, who had began to develop ties to the Soviet Union, which Scared the U.S., since Cuba is only a mere ninety miles from the coast of Florida. If Kennedy were to be given a grade on his handling of this crisis, I would give him a C.

• First of all, Kennedy made it clear that the Soviet missiles need to be dismantled and taken away from Cuba. He saw these nuclear missiles as a threat to American cities. His insistence on the missiles being removed alone was a great demonstration of his fear of American security being disregarded. He demanded that Khrushchev “Halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat”.

• Kennedy ordered a naval “quarantine” around Cuba. This action prevented Soviet ships from making further missile deliveries. It forced Khrushchev to either back off or take aggressive action against U.S. warships. In announcing this decision of his, Kennedy was careful to use the term “quarantine” and not blockade, since a blockade is an act of war.

• In the entire ordeal, the world coming extremely close to a nuclear holocaust, there were no casualties that came about. One would think that in such a situation, casualties would be unavoidable. Due to Kennedy’s “quick and slick thinking”, the decisions that he made, such as quarantining Cuba, made it possible to avoid a hot war, and thus, avoid casualties.

• The Cuban Missile crisis came about only because of one thing, The Bay of Pigs Invasion. “The invasion to overthrow Castro was an absolute failure”. The Soviet Union, disturbed by the attempted Bay of Pigs Invasion, had “pledged to...