Cuban Missile Crisis example essay topic

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most tense and epic confrontations of the twentieth century. Many factors led to the level of escalation that was experienced. The causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis can be traced back to the late nineteenth century, during the Spanish-American War, where the U.S.A. gained control of Cuba. Until 1959, America supported a corrupt regime in Cuba under Fulgencio Batista, who had obtained power illegally in 1933.

America benefited from this alignment by controlling every major Cuban industry, especially the sugar industry. On 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew Batista with his guerrilla forces. When Castro started nationalizing the American owned factories and plantations, it became quite obvious that Cuba and America would become bitter enemies. Then, in January 1961, America broke off all diplomatic relations with Cuba. The Bay of Pigs was another cause that led to the Missile Crisis. In April 1961, 1400 Cuban patriots tried to invade the Bay behind the support of the Americans (especially the CIA).

When none made it ashore, it became a huge embarrassment for the American military. In response, Castro announced Cuba being a Marxist state, completing the estrangement with the U.S.A... Early in 1962, the U.S.S.R. decided to deploy missiles into Cuba. Nikita Krushchev, the Russian Prime Minister, did this to try to equalize the balance of power amongst the two superpowers. Before this move, America controlled not only the space race but also any first strike capability, resulting from their development of I.C.B.M.'s (inter-continental ballistic missiles).

The Russians thought that if missiles were put into Cuba, they could convince the United States to remove some of the missiles most dangerous to them, like the ones in Turkey. One of the chief concerns of both Cuba and the U.S.S.R. was an American invasion. This possibility was quite realistic considering the Bay of Pigs incident. The crisis came to its climax when, in August of 1962, an American U 2 spy plane took pictures of surface-to-air missiles in Cuba, obviously belonging to the Soviets. Also uncovered was war planes capable of carrying nuclear payloads and launch pads for long range rockets. The American course of action was to implement a "quarantine" on Cuba, thereby preventing anything from coming to or going from Cuba.

This froze the number of missiles in Cuba and defied the power of the Soviet Union. The precipice of the conflict was seen in the days that saw Soviet ships sail to Cuba under the protection of submarines, creating an unavoidable confrontation with the American boats. It was these events in sequence that led to the intensity of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis and its resulting resolution had many effects on the world but primarily on the superpowers involved. With victory attributed to the Americans, President John F. Kennedy came out of the conflict with a heightened popularity. To his people, President Kennedy had stared down the Soviets and won, drawing comparisons to the "high noon show down" known in Hollywood movies.

Throughout the crisis, communication had been difficult between the two leaders. Both Kennedy and Krushchev agreed that a direct link telephone must be implemented between the White House and the Kremlin. This was to resolve the hassle experienced during the crisis, where letters often took six hours to reach their intended reader. Then, nine months after the crisis was resolved, both superpowers agreed to an atmospheric test ban treaty. Also, Cuba emerged from the crisis as a Soviet satellite state. Finally, in October, 1964, Krushchev was relieved of his duty as Soviet leader.

This can be primarily attributed to his weak showing regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bringing fear to the forefront, the Cuban Missile Crisis permanently effected the outlook of the world on future wars. Now nuclear weapons would always enter into the equations whenever two world superpowers had a conflict. This apocalyptic fear would scar the world until the present day. The crisis further removed the importance of land warfare, replacing it with the strength of one's nuclear payload.

These are some of the effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many other things resulted from the standoff, such as long lasting animosity between the Soviet Union and the West. Also, tension rose in Berlin, with West Berliners fearing Soviet invasion with the purpose of unification. The Cuban Missile Crisis had long reaching implications on much of the world.