cuban crisis
TRANSCRIPT
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Cuban Missile Crisis
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Fidel Castro(CommunistPresident of Cuba)
andNikita
Khrushchev
(Communist leaderof USSR)
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U2 Spy-plane
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JohnFitzgeraldKennedy
What should he do?
What should he do?
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A Brief Chronology
May, 1962: Khrushchev makes veiledreferences to a plot (How would the U.S. feel tohave missiles pointing at them, as they have
missiles pointed at us?)
September: JFK and Congress issue warningsto USSR that US will deal harshly with anythreats to national security
October 14: U2 recon. flight over Cuba spotssites installing nuclear missiles
October 15: Presence of missiles is confirmed
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The Missiles: One Site
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Chronology, Continued
October 16: President Kennedy notified
October 16-22: Secret deliberations on whatshould be done
October 22: Kennedy tells nation his plan forblockade and quarantine
October 23: OAS endorses naval quarantine
October 24: Naval quarantine begins andsuccessfully changes course of many Sovietships
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Chronology, Continued
October 25: One Soviet ship challenges navalquarantine; Kennedy lets it pass
October 25: At the UN, Adlai Stevenson directlychallenges the Soviet ambassador to admit tothe existence of missiles, when the ambassadorrefuses, Stevenson wheels out pictures of themissile sites
October 26: Soviets raise possibility for a deal:if we withdraw missiles will America promise notto invade Cuba?
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Chronology, Continued
October 27: Soviets demand that Americansalso withdraw missiles from Turkey; MajorAndersons plane is missing over Cuba,
presumably shot down; U.S. recon plane straysover Soviet airspacehigh tensions
Kennedy tells Khrushchev that he will acceptthe proposal of the 26th, Kennedy tells hisbrother to tell the Soviet Ambassador that
though the Turkey missiles would not be part ofthe bargain, they would be removed in time
October 28: USSR agrees to withdraw missiles
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Soviet Decisions
Motivations
Close the missile gapCurrently farbehind U.S. in terms of number of
missiles Verbal threats no longer effective with
overwhelming evidence of U.S.superiority
Protect Cuba
Reciprocity: The U.S. has missilespointing at us, lets see how they feel
now
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Soviet Decisions, Continued
Inability to use the missiles
If fired a missile, repercussions would be
severe
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Why Khrushchev Settled
Effectiveness of naval quarantine
Conventional inferiority in the Caribbean
No possible countermoveOverwhelming world support for the U.S.
Other possible reasons
Got what he wanted?No U.S. invasion of Cuba
U.S. missiles withdrawn from Turkey
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The American Decision
In September Kennedy had statedand Congress had passed aresolution saying that if the SovietUnion placed offensive weapons in
Cuba we would not tolerate it. Could we then rely solely on
diplomacy? Kennedys thoughtJohn could be impeached if hedidnt act in accordance with hisprior warnings
Determined in first 48 hours of crisis
that the removal of missiles was theprimary objective
This objective effectively ruled outisolated diplomacy, and left twooptions
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The American Decision cont.
Option 1 - Air Strike
On October 17th, President Kennedy madethe flat statement that there would definitely be
an air strike, at least against the missile sites,and perhaps against wider targets (Bundy394)
Reservations from others, airstrike may beusing a sledgehammer to kill a fly
Later that day Robert McNamara suggestspolicy in between diplomacy and an air strike
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The American Decision cont.
Option 2 Blockade Advocated early on by McNamara and Robert
Kennedy, blockade would not require instant killing,but critics feared it would not remove the missiles
and would allow Soviets time to complete what theyalready had in Cuba Douglas Dillon strengthened blockade argument by
suggesting that it would only be a first step, that ifKhrushchev did not remove the missiles to lift it,then more could be done
By Friday the 19th
, the committee working on theblockade adapted it into a quarantine, on SundayKennedy accepted their plan as the course ofaction
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Could America have acted
differently? Could we have used the crisis to remove
Castro? Our warnings all along had been against offensive
weapons so once that warning is tested if we use itto attack Castro are we sticking to our word?
Could we have tried diplomacy before resortingto the quarantine? If we didnt keep secrecy, Khrushchev could have
proclaimed defiance, or denouncedquarantinethen both countries would be inpositions where theyre heading straight for eachother and cant just turn back
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Castros Role
No real role in decisionmaking
Apparently out of touch withthe situation
Oct. 26: Aggressionimminent/imperialistsdisregarding worldopinionClearly not thecase
Khrushchev plays alongto some extent but it isclear he disagrees withhim (your suggestionwould have started athermonuclear worldwar)
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Questions
Do you feel Major Andersons death justifiedmore aggressive action?
Seeing as how our options in the crisis weresomewhat dictated by the warnings we issued
in Septembershould we have issued thosewarnings?
Robert Kennedy likened an air strike to PearlHarbor (Bundy 394), was that a fair analogy?
If the missiles in Cuba were conventional,and neither the Soviet Union nor the U.S.possessed any nuclear weapons, would thecrisis have been avoided?
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The Cuban Missile Crisis
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Acknowledgement
Andrew Wood and Dave Ryan