Introduction
The Cuban Missile Crisis was an
event that occurred in October 1962 when the USA detected that the USSR had deployed
medium-range missiles in Cuba, which was ninety miles away from Florida. It was
the period that the cold war reached its peak because of the possible
confrontation between the two superpowers, the US and the USSR, at the time.
The Cuban Missiles Crisis was a very important part of world history
because of the risk of nuclear war that could lead to the destruction of the
world. Therefore, it is very fascinating to identify what happen before the
crisis, the causes, the actual events in the crisis, and the impacts of the
crisis (Rich 2003,416-428).
Prior to the Crisis
The Cuban Revolution began in
1956, was the outcome of extensive economic oppression of Cuba by the USA.
During Batista’s, the ruthless ruler of Cuba, regime, Cuba's per capita income
was twice greater than other countries in general. The Cuban economy was controlled
by the USA, which owned 90% of Cuba’s telephone and electronic services, 50% of
Cuba’s railway, and 40% of Cuba’s sugar production (Johnson 1965, p 443).
Furthermore, the USA put very strict control on Cuban sugar production.
The USA also controlled the Cuban import quota, divided lands into estates, and
forced the Cuban farmers to grow monoculture crop, which was sugar (Dye& Sicotte
2011, p.674). These USA’s investments in Cuba were massive. By the end of
Batista’s rule, Cuba had the highest investment from the USA than any other
country in Latin America at that time; thus, Cuba’s per capita income was
the highest in Latin America (Johnson 1965, p. 445). However, the distribution
of wealth was not equally distributed. The majority of people were illiterate,
and the mortality rate was very high because the health care system was not
extended to the poor in the rural areas, who remained in poverty (Mabry 2003).
Furthermore, Batista was a corrupted dictator and a pro-western ruler. These
political and economic oppressions from Batiste and the USA inspired Fidel
Castro, the charismatic revolution leader, revolt for reforms (Rich 2003, p.
417). Between 1956 to 1959, Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevera, and his younger
brother Rual used the tactic of Guerilla warfare to fight against Batista’s army
at Mount Sierra Maestra in Cuba where he gained support from the local framers.
The guerrilla warfare proved to be successful. In January 1959, Castro and his
troops were able to overthrow Batista and his government. After the overthrown
of the Batista government, Fidel Castro set up a shadow government consisted of
major Cuban political figures. Still, the majority of power was in the hand of
Castro. When the shadow government failed to put forward his reforms, he
dismissed them and took control of the government as he appointed himself
Cuba’s prime minister (Rich 2003, p 418). Two months after the victory of the A guerrilla forces, Castro paid his first visit to the USA where his story was
romanticized by the media. He was supposed to have a meeting with Eisenhower;
however, the President refused to have a meeting with him and went to the golf
court. He was accommodated by Nixon, who was the vice president at that time.
During the meeting, he refused to accept USA financial support because he
believed that it would continue the USA influence in Cuba. After Castro visited
the USA, the relation between the USA and Cuba began to decline (Rich 2003,
419). One month after the visit, Fidel Castro began his reforms. He
nationalized Cuban lands, cattle ranch, bank, railroads, oil, and other
utilities, which were once owned by the USA (Perez 2011, p. 230-231). On the
other hand, the relation between Cuba and the USSR had become more
dynamic. In order to reach economic independence from the USA, Castro turned to
the USSR for support. As a result, in 1960, Cuba trade with the USA declined to
0%; while, trade with the USSR increased to 43% (Leogrande& Thomas 2002, p
325-363).
The Bay of Pig Invasion
The Bay of Pig Invasion, January
3, 1961, was the CIA’s plan to overthrow the Castro government by launching
thousand of Cuban exiles on Cuba’s Bay of Pigs believing that only a thousand trained exiles would be able to overthrow the Castro government. However, the mission
was a total failure because the Cuban army was already waiting for the Cuban
exiles at the Bay of Pigs. As a result, one hundred people were killed and
thousands of people were taken as political prisoners. The Bay of Pigs invasion
was the last Eisenhower administration plan, which took action during Kennedy's
presidency (Rich 2003,p. 420). There were several reasons for the causes of the
Bay of Pigs Invasion. However, the main reason was the US insecurity of its
decline in Latin America domination. The USA based its policy on Latin
America policy accordingly to the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that the USA
must contain its influence in Latin America (Perez 2011, P.233). In other
words, the idea that communist Cuba could influence other Latin American
countries to transform their political systems to communism was intolerable for
the USA’s standard (Ferguson 1961, 288-290).
Causes
The Soviet Union’s Hidden Agendas
There were several reasons for the USSR to the installed missiles in Cuba. According
to Khrushchev, his two main motives were to balance the missile gap between the The USA and the USSR, and to prevent any further American invasion of Cuba (Cimbala
1999, p. 199). Khrushchev believed that the only way to prevent Cuba from the
USA invasion was to install missiles in Cuba (Allyn et al 1989-1990, p.138). He
believed that it would protect the Cuban national pride. Moreover, in 1959, the
US-installed Jupiter and Thor missiles, intermediate-range ballistic missiles,
in Turkey, which pointed directly at the USSR. Furthermore, during the 50s and
the 60s, the US had advanced the USSR in terms of the arms race, therefore,
Khrushchev decided to deploy missiles in Cuba as a means for the USSR to reach
symmetry with the USA, which would provide him with negotiation power for the
missile trade. He wanted to propose to the US that the USSR would remove missiles
from Cuba if the USA would remove missiles from Turkey (Allyn, Blight &
Welch 1989-1990, p.139). His motive to reach symmetry in terms of arms race with
the USA could be seen as a means for the USSR to boost its national prestige. If
the USA could deploy missiles in Turkey and Italy, the USSR could also deploy
missiles in Cuba, which was ninety miles away from the USA (ibid). Nevertheless,
President John F. Kennedy already planned to remove the Jupiter missiles from
Turkey. (Berstein 1980, p. 120-121). Thus, there should be hidden agendas under
Khrushchev’s actions. According to many American scholars, the deployment of
missiles in Cuba was Khrushchev’s plan to test USA reaction for future war,
to demonstrate the USSR nuclear superiority to the Soviet and Chinese governments,
to persuade the USA that the arms race was useless, and to increase Khrushchev
popularity at home and in the Communist bloc, so that he could have the freedom to
reduce USSR arm built (Cimbala 1999, p. 199).
Cuban insecurity
The main reason for Cuba's
agreement on the installation of missiles with the USSR was its insecurity.
After the Bay of Pig Invasion in 1961, the CIA planed many assassin plots on
Fidel Castro. According to the BBC, the CIA and the Cuban exiles came up with
more than 600 plots to assassinate him. The plots varied from poisoning, car
bombs, to massive underwater explosions. The suspects involved in the plot
varied from the mafias to one of Castro’s ex-lovers (Campbell 2009, n.d.). One
of the assassination plots that actually took place was a strafe in Havana
hotel by Alpha 66, which killed several Cubans and Soviet technicians (Brenner
1990, p.121). On the same hand, the USA began a serious trade embargo against
Cuba. If other countries trade with Cuba, they would not receive financial aids
from the USA. The Cuban government viewed the US’s policy as a means to
weakening the Castro government by weakening Cuba’s economy (Brenner 1990, p.
188). Moreover, the Cuban intelligence discovered that the CIA planned another
invasion on Cuba, Operation Mongoose, which would be more substantial than the
previous invasion. In order for the Cuban government to protect Cuba
sovereignty, they believed that they need military aids from the USSR (Brenner
1990, p. 189). Therefore, Castro decided to let the USSR installed missiles on
their island.
The Crisis and the Resolution
In 1962, the USSR sent a cargo ship
to Cuba. The ship carried sixty missiles with forty launchers, and 40,000
Soviet technicians for the deployment of middle-range missiles in Cuba (Kozak
2009, p. 19). On October 14, the U-2, USA’s spy plane, spotted missiles in Cuba,
which pointed directly to the US. The US intelligence informed the President on
October 17 (Berstein 1980, p.9). After the President was informed, there was a
meeting between President John F. Kennedy and the EXCOMM, the Committee of the
National Security. Many plans were proposed during the meeting. One of the most
obvious plans was the scheme to use airstrikes to remove missiles from Cuba.
However, Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s younger brother, advised the
President does not use airstrikes because there was no way to guarantee that the
airstrike could remove all of the missiles from Cuba. If the airstrike could
not remove all missiles from Cuba, it would give the Cubans time to deploy
missiles against the USA. Similarly, to the airstrike, any military strikes
against the Cuban could lead the Cubans to deploy missiles against the USA.
Therefore, President Kennedy and his advisors came up with the naval blockade
method as a way to deal with the Cubans (Rich 2003, p. 422). On October 22 John
F. Kennedy announced to the media that the Cubans had deployed missiles against
the USA with aid from the USSR. He informed the media of the quarantine,
naval blockade, as a means to bloc USSR ships that carried missiles to Cuba, and
if the USSR did not turn or stop its cargo ships from entering Cuba, there
would be consequences (Weimasma, & Larson 1997, p. 13). However, the USSR’s
cargo ships did not turn back, but its cargo ships did not break the USA
quarantine. It seemed that the confrontation between the USSR and the US could
happen anytime (Weimasma, & Larson 1997, p. 13). Nevertheless, from October
22 to 28, President JFK and Chairman Khrushchev exchanged several letters.
Kennedy received Khrushchev’s second letter on October 26. The letter proposed
that the USSR would remove missiles from Cuba if the USA removed the Jupiter
missiles from Turkey and, and that JFK must make a promise in front of the
public that the USA would never invade Cuba (Thinkquest Cuban missile crisis:
letters, 1997). On October 27, one day after Khrushchev's second letter was sent,
the US’s U-2 plane was shot down in Cuba. This act was seen by some American
politicians as an invitation to start a war. This is the quote from the Secretary of
Defense McNamara `This means war with the Soviet Union.” However, because of
the secret meeting between Robert Kennedy and Soviet ambassador Dobrynin, the
situation was able to cool down. Robert Kennedy assured that the President
would remove the missiles in Turkey (Weimasma, & Larson 1997, p. 21) On
October 28, JFK sent Khrushchev another letter proposed that in exchange for
the USSR to uninstall missiles from Cuban soil within the UN inspection, The USA would never invade Cuba, and secretly uninstall missiles from Turkey.
Khrushchev accepted the proposal from President Kenndy; thus, both countries
were able to resolve their conflicts. In essence, the Cuban Missile Crisis was
able to resolve because the USA accepted the USSR proposal. It removed missiles
from Turkey and made a public announcement that it would never invade Cuba. On
the same hand, Khrushchev accepted the USA proposal and uninstalled missiles
from Cuba within inspectors from UN observation (Thinkquest Cuban missile
crisis: letters, 1997). Nevertheless, JFK’s motives to secretly remove the
missiles in Turkey and Italy should be emphasized. Why would he need to do it
secretly? According to many scholars, he was afraid of national resistance from
the government and the American citizens as well as losing support from them
(Weimasma, & Larson 1997, p. 23).
Impacts
The Cuban Missiles Crisis left
several impacts on the USA and the USSR's foreign policy. The first impact was
the increase in communication between the US and the USSR. Because of the
crisis, both superpowers had realized that they needed to improve communication
between the two countries to prevent any form of crisis from occurring again
(Rich 2003, p.425). As a result, a hotline was installed between the USA’s
president and the USSR’s chairman (ibid). Moreover, because of the potential
confrontation between the two superpowers, which could lead to nuclear war,
President Kennedy began to favor the idea of coexistence (Billingsley, p.6). Therefore,
after the crisis, there was a temporary period of détente, the period that the
cold war heat cools down (Billingsley p.7). In addition, on August 5, 1963, The USA and the USSR both signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The treaty forbade
the testing of nuclear weapons on the earth surface, space, and underwater
(Rich 2003, p.427). However, the treaty itself was futile because it did not
stop the build-up of nuclear weapons, and prevent China from obtaining nuclear weapons in the following year (Rich 2003, p. 428). Subsequently, The USA and the USSR continue the arms race for another twenty-five years. They also
competed in terms of strategic gaining (Billingsley p.6). Furthermore, the
treaty caused the relationship between the USSR and China to decline. Because of
the treaty, China concluded that the USSR was being weak, and more importantly,
sold its soul to the capitalist camp. Hence, China broke out from the USSR’s
sphere of influence and gained the status of a superpower by itself. This caused
the balance of power to become imbalanced (Rich 2003, p. 428). After the Cuban
Missile Crisis, most of the US’s overseas policy was focused on the
Americanization of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, which required full attention
from the USA military resources (Rich 2003, p. 423).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the major events
prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis were the Cuban Revolution and the Bay of
Pigs Invasion. The main causes of the crisis were the Soviet Union hidden
agendas and the Cuban insecurity, which was caused by the United States of
America. During the crisis, President John F. Kennedy and Chairman Khrushchev
exchanged many letters before the resolution could be made. The period of the
crisis was the period that the cold war reached its peak because both
superpowers almost confront each other. If they had confronted each other, the
use of nuclear weapons could have happened. After the crisis, the USSR removed
missiles from Cuba under UN supervision in exchange for the USA to remove
the Jupiter missiles in Turkey, and never invade Cuba. The impact of The Cuban Missile Crisis was the improvement in communication between the USA and
the USSR. A hotline was established between both countries’ leaders. Moreover,
President Kennedy began to view the USA's relationship with the USSR in terms of
coexistence. As a result, there was a period of detente, and agreement of the
Nuclear Test Treaty Ban, which was signed by the USA and the USSR. However, the
nuclear competition still continued for the next 25 years. Furthermore, both
countries began the competition in the new area, which was the strategic
competition.
Compiled: Aqeel Ahmad
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