Thirteen Days Paper

After the destruction of the axis powers in World War II the United States was greeted almost immediately with a new enemy and a new superpower of the world the Soviet Union. This war which never escalated beyond words was one that lasted 35 years never came closer to an actual all out nuclear holocaust than it did during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day standoff between the USSR and the USA and more importantly the United States President John F. Kennedy and the Chairmen of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. This would be the closest the world would ever come to an all out nuclear war and still to this day many people don't understand how close we actually came. According to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. when he attended a meeting in Havana it was reveled that we had greatly underestimated the soviet forces in Cuba as they had around 43,000 troops or 33,000 more than we estimated, they were equipped with nuclear weapons and the scariest fact was if communications with Moscow were lost they were to use nuclear weapons if the U.S were to attempt and invasion, which we came extremely close to doing . Had it not been for the level headed composure and leadership of President Kennedy this world might not exist as we know it .

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The start of this crisis can be traced back to the Bay of Pigs when the Americans tried to overthrow Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro but failed do to a miscue by the Air force. This made Castro seek help from his allied countries the largest of which was the Soviet Union . After many conversations between Castro and Khrushchev they came to an agreement against Castro's better judgment to give Cuba missiles for self-defense although they would later bring in offensive weapons as well . Khrushchev however made a critical error in not listening to Castro and announcing to the world that he was giving Cuba the missiles and instead choose to do it secretly . This made the Soviet Union look like it was doing a lot more than it said it was and made them look like the instigators thus allowing us to gain the support of a majority of the world and basically all of the western hemisphere .

A key problem that President Kennedy faced was getting the USA to back him in his fight against Cuban missile bases for this he would need the help of the OAS or Organization of American States. This organization had the power to allow the blockade to take place or to stop it right in its tracks . And despite the fears of the cabinet the OAS easily passed the two-thirds votes required to put the blockade in effect . With a unified country behind his back and a blockade in affect President Kennedy was on the right track to defusing the situation without any further incident.

After a few days pasted and many letters were exchanged between President Kennedy and Chairmen Khrushchev the Americans learned that