Essay on The Cuban Missile Crisis
The second half of October 1962 came to be known as the Cuban (or Caribbean) crisis, which arose in an atmosphere of the “cold war” aggravation, and put the world on the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Humanity fully experienced the reality of the apocalypse. Fortunately, the power of the mind prevailed over the recklessness and emotions. The statesmen of the Soviet Union, the United States and Cuba realized the meaning of the concept of a “nuclear stalemate” for the first time at that period of time, and found the strength to embark on solving the most pressing international problems not with military actions, but using political means, showing the necessary realism for crisis management. And there is no exaggeration in the statement that the lessons of the crisis, warning against hasty and ill-considered actions, are a serious contribution to the development of a new way of thinking and new approaches to the events in the world. Thus, the main aim of this project is to discuss the Cuban crisis with all the necessary details, dwelling on its causes, main participants and consequences.
First of all, it is important to explore the historical context of the problem for the purpose to understand those days events better. According to Stern, the era of the late 50’s and early 60’s was full of events of the political confrontation between the two military-political systems (Stern, 2005). Moreover, a number of scientific advances led to the emergence and development of new weapons systems such as nuclear attack weapons, rocketry, and space exploration during these years. The development of attack and defense systems was great. In such a way, the armed forces received both the system of attack and air defense systems to protect against them.
The beginning of the 1960s is characterized by tensions between the USSR and the socialist camp, armed with large stockpiles of weapons of different systems, and the U.S. in the development of the world socialist system.
In Latin America, the national liberation movement was marked by the victory of the Cuban Revolution. In January 1, 1959, the reactionary regime of the dictator Batista (who was a protégé of American monopolies) was overthrown, and ultimately, the national liberation movement ended with the victory of the people’s revolution in Cuba. A new government led by Fidel Castro Ruz was created. In January 10, 1959, the Soviet government recognized it and established diplomatic relations with Cuba. In April 1961, Fidel Castro declared the socialist character of economic policy, and stated that the Cuban Revolution broke the chain of imperialist oppression in Latin America, and led to the creation of the first socialist state in the Americas, marking a historic turning point and opening a new phase of the revolutionary movement (Hilsman, 1996).
The victory of the Cuban revolution has caused an inadequate response from the U.S. imperialists’ side, and they sent out the entire arsenal of political blackmail, economic pressure and the organization of counter-revolutionary conspiracy. Sharply hostile anti-Cuban line of the U.S. pushed Fidel Castro for a rapprochement with USSR and other socialist countries: there was no other way to break out from economic crisis and political isolation.
The opposition gained momentum, and quite often attempts to make reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory worsen the situation day after day. In this era, the collapse of the colonial system and the struggle against dictatorial regimes were in full swing. And if not loyal to American politics came to power then the U.S. ruling circles would be taken stringent measures to such political regimes, and if it did not help, then there would be taken forceful measures. Observing the situation in Cuba, we can mention that a fast development of events in Cuba was carefully studied by the American side, and if the movement which did not change the relationship with the great neighbor came to power as a result of internal political developments, including law enforcement, then the U.S. side would not changed its position in this country.
However, the American plan relative to Cuba has been greatly changed by the actions of Cuban insurgent army. Thus, the Cuban revolution can not be embedded into the framework of a typical Latin American version of the change of power. This caused the abrupt change in U.S. policy toward new Cuba. Taking into account the above said with regard to U.S. policy towards national movements in Cuba, the reaction of the U.S. officials was expected and as a result of it there were made the following actions: there were virtually stopped trade relations, stopped the import of Cuban sugar; cases of sabotage began (the explosion of the ship “La Coubre” have cost dozens of Cuban lives); air raids and bombardment of objects in Cuba had a place; and finally, in April 1961, there was made a specific landing of 2506 brigade of invasion formed with the help of the Americans (Garthoff, 1989). While the failure of this adventure finally exploited the American political and military core to the need to use U.S. military force to resolve the Cuban ‘problem’.
In addition, it is important to mention that the U.S. has resorted to economic blockade of Cuba along with political pressure and various threats. The United States hoped to undermine the national economy, to artificially cause economic hardship, and thus, to force the Cuban government to surrender. This goal was pursued by the U.S., when it breached the own obligations to import Cuban sugar – a major source of national income because Cuba was not able to continue the own normal existence without this kind of export (it is a well-known fact that Cuba was dependent on imported food and other goods). Knowing this, the United States canceled almost 95% quota for the purchase of Cuban sugar and banned the sale of industrial equipment and other goods to Cuba (Hilsman, 1996). As a result, Cuba has found itself in an extremely difficult position. But the establishment of diplomatic relations and trade ties with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, their disinterested economic assistance, enabled Cuba to resist the pressure of the imperialists and frustrate economic aggression undertaken by the United States to strangle the Cuban Revolution.
As a result, the liberation struggle of the Cuban people against U.S. imperialism met a full understanding and active support from the Soviet Union’s side. The Soviet government, not limiting the own actions by the provision of economic assistance to Cuba, warned the U.S. aggressive circles that the USSR was ready to take drastic measures to ensure its independence.
It is surprisingly that Cuba has become a kind of knot of contradictions between the two superpowers for such a short period of time, in October 1962. The interests of the two bipolar systems – the USSR and the USA have met in Cuba. It is safe to say that their military and political confrontation has become a real threat to the lives of millions of innocent people all over the globe.
Thus, failing to understand the lessons of the past, we can not prevent what might happen tomorrow. Moreover, we can fully realize the greatness and at the same time defenseless of a man in front of such a formidable weapon of the XX century, which is kind of chip in the hands of the all-powerful politicians by studying and analyzing the historical factors of this problem.
For the purpose to understand the essence of the Cuban crisis, and why it became an arena of the two superpower’s struggle, we should mention that in May 1959, Nikita Khrushchev put forward unexpected idea – to place Soviet nuclear missiles on the island. He expressed his absolute confidence that Americans would take the invasion of Cuba not with the help of mercenaries, but only by their own armed forces. Making such a decision, Khrushchev explained it by the desire to find such an effective deterrent that would keep Americans far from this risky step because it was not enough the Soviet Union’s performances at the United Nations in defense of Cuba. Khrushchev stated that “We must make them understand that by attacking Cuba, they will have to deal not only with a rebellious country, but also with the nuclear power of the Soviet Union” (Garthoff, 1989). According to Hilsman, we see that “Khrushchev says in his memoirs that the idea of putting missiles in Cuba was his own. It came to him during a visit to Bulgaria while he was pacing up and down alone in his hotel room worrying about the fact that the Americans were not only ahead in ICBMs but knew that they were ahead” (Hilsman, 1996). It should be noted that the Soviet Union did not violate international law by supplying missiles and bombers in Cuba because Cuba was a sovereign state and the nature of the military assistance given to Cuba was determined only by the Soviet Union and Cuba. Moreover, the United States also did not ask permission of the Soviet Union creating military bases in Turkey, Japan, Norway, Iran, Italy or Germany, and by placing the own bombers with nuclear weapons in close proximity to the borders of the Soviet missiles.
Thinking about consequences of the Cuban crisis, we can say that a lot of different events have happened in Cuba, and a lot of speeches were made on its territory, but the war did not enter into the plans of the parties; however, it was impossible to reject the possibility of attack as the last argument. The fact can be finding in the statement that the winners and losers would be disappeared at all in the event of an escalation of events in Cuba and the subsequent exchange of nuclear strikes.
Moreover, in the case of the survival of some part of the population and the command staff, the member countries of the conflict would have to radically revise their foreign policy. Both aggressors would have turned from highly industrialized countries-leaders of their blocks into eternal consumers of economic assistance, which are incapable of independent development due to the complete destruction of industry, infrastructure, agriculture, loss of 90% of the workforce and the defeat of the remainder of the radiation. The very structure of relations between the countries would change, a new system of international relations would be formed, and the world would become multipolar. And the descendants of the surviving representatives of the countries who started the war would remember for a long time how their ancestors nearly destroyed humanity. But the war did not happen, the USSR and the United States went on to make mutual concessions, and, in fact, the first thaw came in relations between the two superpowers after the Caribbean crisis. It does not matter that the thaw was rather short, and then many years of senseless confrontation followed by it, more importantly, it was the first step toward ending the Cold War.
In conclusion, we have observed the Cuban missile crisis with all the necessary details, discussing its causes, participants and outcomes. It is also important to mention that the Soviet Union and the United States understood that changing of approaches to the problems of world politics, which reflected the growing awareness of the truth that there were no real measures to decrease the danger of war would inevitably lead humanity to disaster before one or the other system would be able to prove the own benefits. For example, in 1963 the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain signed a treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water. It was responsible and wise decision because a risk of radioactive contamination of the planet is possible as a result of nuclear tests.
