Cuban Missile Crisis

During the administration of our thirty fifth United States President, John F. Kennedy, the Cold War reached its most dangerous state, when the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) came to the brink of nuclear war in what was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this analysis, I will research and answer questions such as, what was the Cold War? What started the tensions between the United States and the USSR? What actions were taken and how were the problems resolved? And finally how the systematic level of analysis explains how the international theory of Liberalism was used during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Cold War was a struggle between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union. Although direct military conflict never took place, diplomatic and economic struggles occurred. It occurred during the Cold War. The Cold War began when Joseph Stalin, leader of the Communist Party, used the Red Army to take control of most of the countries of Eastern Europe. The United States as well as Western European countries were greatly concerned. In response to Stalin's military movements, President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine in 1947.

In his address to Congress, President Truman decided that the United States would aid any country that asked for help in resisting communism (Browne 263). The Truman Doctrine became known as the basis for containment, the policy to keep communism from spreading to other countries. According to White House documents online, after the Truman Doctrine, George Catlett Marshall, Secretary of State, proposed the Marshall Plan, the European Recovery Program through which the United States provided aid to Western Europe after World War II, in June 1947. The Marshall Plan was offered to all European countries, but Stalin would not allow the countries his military was occupying to take part. In April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed (Browne 263). The countries involved in this pact were the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.

The NATO agreement said that "an armed attack against one or more of its members in Europe and/or America shall be considered an attack against them all." To ward off aggressors, American forces and nuclear weapons were to be kept in Western Europe. In response to NATO, the Soviet Union formed a similar pact between seven Eastern European countries called the Warsaw Treaty Organization, or Warsaw Pact (Browne 263). The countries involved along with the Soviet Union were Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

While these pacts were forming, the United States and the Soviet Union were in an arms race. They were building nuclear weapons, trying to out produce each other so that neither dares attack. This policy was called deterrence, and is still in use today. By 1952, the United States tested a hydrogen bomb, a bomb more powerful than an atomic bomb. A year later, the Soviet Union also tested a hydrogen bomb. Both countries developed rockets that had nuclear warheads. By 1957, the Soviet Union had developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM's). ICBM's could reach targets all over the world.

While arms were building, the Soviet Union went through a major change in power. In 1953, Joseph Stalin, leader of the Communist Party, died. After Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev took over the Communist Party. This is where the effects of a change of power come into play. See Khrushchev's policies were vastly different from those of Stalin. He said that the Soviet Union would follow a policy of "peaceful coexistence" with the West. This "peace" was to continue until the early sixties, when new conflicts surfaced.

In the early 1960's, tensions rose between the United States and the USSR when Fidel Castro openly embraced communism and allied with the Soviet Union. Anastas Mikoyan, the Soviet First Deputy Prime Minister, negotiated this alliance. Increasing friction between the United States and the Soviet Union caused President Dwight D. Eisenhower to sever diplomatic ties with Cuba. This was the unofficial beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Before the ties were severed, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been training Cuban exiles for a possible invasion of Cuba. Newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy approved this invasion on April 12, 1961. On April 14, 1961, a group of B-26 bombers, which were piloted by Cuban exiles, attacked air bases in Cuba. This raid was designed to destroy most of Castro's air power before the land invasion was to take place.

According to J.A. Sierra, on April 17, 1961, the land invasion of Cuba took place at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion forces consisted of about 1400 Cuban exiles. Not much was achieved, however. Cuban ground forces quickly stopped the invasion. Of the 1400 Cuban exiles, 114 were killed and 1,189 were captured (Sierra). After the invasion in Cuba, more tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union surfaced. In August 1961, the East German government, which was occupied by the Soviet Union, built the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall Online indicates that the Berlin Wall was an actual brick wall dividing West Berlin and East Berlin. It was 12 feet high and 28 miles long. Guards were on watch constantly and mines were placed around the wall to discourage escape.

After the Berlin Wall, the United States' worst fear came true. On October 14, 1962, U.S. U-2 spy planes spotted the first ballistic missile on Cuban soil. In September of '62, various American intelligence agencies became flooded with reports which stated that the Russians were supplying and assembling surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles inside Cuba. When questioned, the Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev, denied that any missiles were being supplied to Cuba (Abel 83). Most of these intelligence reports were unconfirmed, but later, after Air Force U-2 aircraft reconnaissance missions, it was established that Russia was indeed setting up missiles (p91). One can state that Russia was only supplying the defense of one of its allies, but the cause for concern came from the short distance between Cuba and American soil.

According to a website posted by the CIA, the closest American border was a mere 90 miles away from Cuba. If these missiles were to be launched, quite possibly with nuclear warheads, then it left almost half of the continental United States under a nuclear threat. During a September thirteenth press conference, President Kennedy announced the situation to America. He stated that intelligence reports of Russian shipments did not pose a serious threat to America or any of its allies at this time. He was quick to add, though,