Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrates Advocacy versus Inquiry approaches as discussed in "What You Don't Know About Making Decisions" by David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto. It also displays the Double Approach-Avoidance decisions that we studied in "Conflict" by Dennis Coon. Finally, the steps taken by John F. Kennedy display the steps described by Dennis Coon in his writing "Coping with Conflict".

Once President Kennedy learned of the missiles in Cuba he formed a committee, EXCOMM, to discuss the appropriate course of action to deal with the weapons. During the meetings three options were presented:

The first was to take a political course of actions to begin talks with Cuba. This was quickly dismissed because no members of the committee believed that these talks would be successful. The second option was continued surveillance combined with a blockade. Finally, the third option was military action.(Wiersma and Larson 6)

This is an example of Double Approach-Avoidance because both option number two and option number three had positive and negative qualities. Option number two allowed the United States to apply pressure on Cuba without declaring war; however this approach could take a long time to eliminate the threat of weapons and could supply Cuba with time to hide their weapons. Option number three would quickly destroy Cuba's weapons which was desirable, But Kennedy did not want to declare war because it most likely would upset Alliances and would be costly in American lives. During the discussions of the committee they wavered back and forth between option two and three. Indecisiveness is a common occurrence when a double approach-avoidance decision has to be made.(Coon 202) The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Air Force were adamant that the US proceed with military action and tried to persuade the group to their way of thinking. The Joint Chiefs of Staff would be an example of the Advocacy Approach. John F. Kennedy asked a lot of questions about the possible outcomes of each option. He wanted to know how the US would be perceived, what the costs were, and how quickly we would see results from each of the options. John F. Kennedy would be an example of the Inquiry Approach.

On Day four of the EXCOMM talks a majority decision was reached. There were still dissenters and they remained that way. John F. Kennedy liked