The Cuban Missile Crisis

How did our world manage to avoid the Third World

War?

Ermak Vlada
IB20
Tikkurila IB school
Contents:

1. Introduction - stating the research question

2. Source Analysis
3. Discussion
3.1 The strategy of American side
3.2 The strategy of the Soviet side
3.3 Conflict solution
4. Reflection
5. Bibliography
 1. Introduction

The Cuban Missile Crisis/ The Carribean Crisis

How did our world manage to avoid the Third World War?

“On Tuesday Morning, October 6, 1962, shortly after 9:00 President Kennedy called
and asked me to come to the White House. He said only that we were facing great
trouble.” - remembered Robert F. Kennedy, an American politician and lawyer who
served as the United States Attorney Genera back in 1962l. That was the beginning
of the Cuban Missile Crisis - the beginning of 13 days when there was a higher
chance that more human beings would be wiped out than ever before in history.

Firstly, to give a little bit of background, in the beginning of the 1960s the USA had a
great advantage of nuclear weapons over the USSR. In 1961 American missiles
were located on the territory of Turkey - in the proximity to the USSR borders. In
case of any war conflicts they would reach Moscow. Consequently, Nikita Kruchev,
the head of Soviet Union, considered it as a serious threat and secretly agreed with
Fidel Castro about placing Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba in order to prevent the
United States from invading the island and to balance the nuclear powers ( in 1961
the US government unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Castro’s dictatorship).

Having learnt about the presence of the Soviet nuclear powers on Cuba, the
American sovereignty was intending to place a naval blockade. However, in
international law the word “blockade” is identified as an act of war. Thus, this action
was called “quarantine”.

That is how the 2 superpowers of the 20th century stood at the brink of the nuclear
war. Yet how did the leaders of these countries manage to negotiate and
compromise? Or ,in other words, prevent the Third World War from happening? That
is the question I would like to elaborate on in my essay.

To begin with, talking about the relevancy of the topic, I think it is worth mentioning
that The Carribean Missile Crisis was the peak of the Cold War - the geopolitical
rivalry between the USSR and the USA during the second half of the 20th century.
Not only was it a defining moment of the Cold War, but also drew attention to the
issue of nuclear weapons and brought an end to the arms race between the USSR
and the USA. Another aspect I personally would like to point out is the outstanding
art of diplomacy that played a crucial role in solving that conflict, which itself
deserves to be studied.
This topic interests me because it touches upon the history of my home country and
beautifully illustrates political strategies and the power of negotiating when dealing
with an international conflict.
2. Source analysis

The next thing I want to dwell on is evaluating the sources that I have used.

Firstly I looked for primary sources - the memoirs of witnesses of the historical
events. I chose “13 Days” - memoirs of Robert Kennedy, documentary “We will bury
you” by History channel with memories of Sergei Khruchev, the son of Nikita
Khruchev, and finally the memoirs of Nikita Khruchev published by information and
publishing company “Moscow News”, 1999. I do find these sources reliable even
though all of them are not truly objective since they describe the situation from
different points of view.

“13 days” by Robert Kennedy published in 1971 by W.W Norton & Company inc
was the first book about the topic of my research that I found. It appears helpful for
me as it is organised as a diary of one of the closest President’s advisers and his
brother. Not only does this book show what was happening in the White House
during the Crisis but also illustrates the evolution of the conflict.

The next book that I picked was Nikita Khruchev’s memoirs published by information
and publishing company “Moscow News'' in 1999 - this is doubtlessly one of the
most valuable sources that I used in my investigation as it contributed to creating the
complete picture of the historical event. However, one cannot reckon for this
document being absolutely trustworthy because the former Soviet chaitman could
omit some unpleasant details of his reign and the conflict in particular. All the
quotations of his memoirs are translated from Russian into English by me.

While looking for dependable sources for my project, I came across a documentary
called “ we will bury you” ( which is a quotation of Khruchev’s speech in the UN in
1959) published on YouTube. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find the original
programm by History channel. This program includes memories of Sergei khruchev,
the son of Nikita Khruchev. Even though Sergei did not witness the Cuban Missile
Crisis himself, he can shed a light on his father’s personality. Consequently, knowing
personal traits of the Soviet leader, we can form a more vivid picture of his political
personality and , as a result, make assumptions that lead to his decisions regarding
conflict solutions.
3. Discussion
Now, in order to answer my research question I would like to analyse diplomatic
strategies used by both sides of the conflict.

According to “The American Political Science Review” by Graham T. Allison

-“Foreign policy has often been compared to moves, sequences of moves, and
games of chess”, where one is observing the chess game without knowing what has
contributed to the pattern of pieces' moves. However, one should take into account
that a “chess player”, a politician and a government should be perceived as a set of
semi-dependent institutions that are acting cooperatively to find the best way to
succeed. In other words, there are thousands of discussions and debates that stand
behind every political action - even though the leader of the country is the one in
charge, one should certainly take all possible strategies in consideration so that the
losses are minimum and the efficiency is maximum. The Cuban Missile crisis was
not an exception.

3.1 The strategy of the American side

Coming back to the conflict itself, on October 6th, 1962, Kennedy’s Administration
was at a crossroads planning the response of the Soviet Missiles on Cuba.
Presidents’ closest advisers’ suggestions varied a lot. “The general feeling in the
beginning was that some form of action was required. There were those, although
they were a small minority, who felt the missiles did not alter the balance of power
and therefore necessitated no action. Most felt, at that stage, that an air strike
against the missile sites could be the only course.” - remembered Robert Kennedy in
his previously mentioned memoirs. The further analysis will be based on his
memories.

On one side there were Joint Chiefs of Staff that advocated for a full-scale invasion
on Cuba and immediate military actions before the Soviet missiles could bring any
harm to the USA’s territories. They unhesitatingly claimed that the blockade strategy
would not be efficient and that the ongoing circumstances required a military attack.
This was undoubtedly a radical method to follow.

On the other side there was another group of advisers that favoured the strategy of
naval blockade and further negotiations headed by secretary McNavara. This
maneuver was the most preferable one since it seemed more flexible and imposed
fewer responsibilities - after all, it was more diplomatic. In particular, the idea of
raining bombs on Cuba and wiping out thousands of lifes looks unacceptable - thus,
the diplomatic course of action appeared reasonable. Another reason military
invasion strategy could not be put into practise is that the whole conception of a
large nation preparing an attack against a smaller one could not be considered by
the US government if it was to maintain its international reputation.

A few days after president Kennedy made his decision in favor of the naval blockade
of Cuba - which seems quite wise, as the military invasion would mean a complete
destruction of the USA’s moral position all over the globe. Though, the International
law has its own rules and they define “a blockade” as an act of war, so a necessity of
altering the formulation has occurred - the most suitable one was “a quarantine“

Another important point of America’s side political strategy is desinformation. In all

his speeches to the nation President Kennedy accused Khrushchev of threatening
the world peace by placing the Soviet Missiles unprecedentedly close to the borders
of another superpower ("I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this
clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to the world peace” - John Kennedy’s
address to the nation on October 22ns 1962) while he was responsible for pretty
much the same thing. Thus, the President never mentioned what had brought the
head of the USSR to the boiling point. That was installing several intermediate-range
missiles “Jupiter” in Turkey and Italy from where they could reach Moscow and
,therefore, posing a serious threat to the Soviet Union.

3.2 The strategy of the Svoiet side

According to Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs, the main motivation of placing Soviet
Missiles on Cuba - its only ally over the Atlantic Ocean- was to prevent the USA from
invading the island and to balance the nuclear powers since the American ones, in
his opinion, prevailed in that period.

‘He was a calculated person like each successful politician. He had this image that
he was very emotional. Sometimes he used it and he liked to use it to threaten
people. The same as in this case in The United Nations - said Sergei Khruchev, the
son of the Soviet chairman Nikita Khruchev in the documentary called ‘ we will bury
you’ published by History channel. I assume that this quotation is the most accurate
wording to describe the diplomatic strategies of Khrushchev - he did not tend to act
with ‘a clear head’ but rather was guided by his emotions. This statement can be
substantiated by examples of his well-known phrase ‘ we will bury you’ during his
speech or banging his shoe in order to interrupt his ideological opponents in the UN.

Another possible description of Khrushchev's diplomatic strategy is that this whole

maneuver of installing Soviet Missiles on Cuba was nothing more but just a bluff.
The missiles that were sent to Cuba were removed from their combat duty in the
USSR and later after the conflict were returned back. Obviously, there was no way
the USSR could defeat the USA on the island that was located close to the borders
of the latter. Yet a weak Cuban army and few thousands Soviet soldiers would not
have been able to defend the island from a full-scale invasion of the USA’s army,
even if American landing troops had been destroyed with nuclear weapons. The
USSR would have quickly run out of 40 missiles and 12 nuclear avia bombs
delivered to Cuba. This would not have been enough to enter the war.

This risky bluff can be attributed to Nikita Khruchev’s previously mentioned

expressive features of his political outlook - he predicted that the USA probably
would have not invaded Cuba since it would have undermined its international
reputation. Though there was a small chance that the American government would
not act the way the Soviet chairman expected them to - and that would lead to the
beginning of the 3rd World War.

3.3 Conflict solution

The key moment in preventing World War 3 from happening was conflict resolution
that stems from successful negotiation. It took both sides 13 extremely tense days to
reach an agreement.

As Nikita Khruchev noted in his memoirs: “there was a constant exchange of letters
with president Kennedy and I spent the night in the premises of the USSR Council of
Ministers expecting that alarming news to be urgently transmitted and an immediate
response to be made. The military were also warned. We have prepared our troops
as much as possible”. Even though the Soviet side were perfectly aware that they
were in the role of aggressors in terms of this conflict, it still did not rush into settling
the conflict.

Fortunately, the American side made a step towards negotiations.

Culmination of this political confrontation happened when Robert Kennedy secretly
asked Soviet ambassador Dobrynin to cooperatively find a way to get out of this
situation. Also, in my opinion it is worth considering that the supporters of the military
invasion of Cuba exerted strong pressure on Kennedy and taking into account the
peculiarities of the state system which put everything in a way that even if he did not
want war , could happen against his will irrevocable things.

As a result of further correspondence through official and unofficial channels the

USSR insisted on the following - in order to put an end to the conflict it set conditions
for president Kennedy that he would make a commitment not to invade Cuba and the
USSR,in turn, would withdraw its missiles from the island.

What is more, another decisive factor that contributed to resolution of the conflict
was that the Americand took their missiles out of Turkey and Italy.
In a sense, both sides won - the Soviets persuaded the Americans to withdraw their
missiles from dangerously close territories to its borders, while president Kennedy’s
popularity has risen as he appeared as a hero in this story and, most importantly, the
USA’s international reputation was not undermined.

4. Reflection

In this essay I tried to analyse how The Carribean Missile crisis was solved and
figure out some key moments of this historical event. Usually , when studying history,
I tend to get to the root of any phenomenon. This research was not an exception. In
this particular case I firstly decided to study each side of the conflict and then carried
out an analysis of what the chosen diplomatic strategies can be attributed to.

Having stated my main aims of this investigation, I began to carefully examine all of
my sources and look for information about the intentions of the parties of the
conflict.Besides, I was searching for quotations that would support my arguments.
Fortunately, I found memoirs of the witnesses of the event from both sides. Also, I
chose some conceptions regarding the historical science from books of Russian and
American Academicians. This helped me a lot and provided me with a general
understanding of how politics and diplomacy work.

Now, I have explained to myself how our world prevented World War 3 from
happening . All of the studied sources gave me a complete picture of how this crisis
was developing, what were its origins, and why the USSR and the US acted the way
they did. Of course, the topics of conflict resolution and diplomatic skills,which are
involved in, are deeper and more complex than I mentioned in my essay, but this
means that there is still space for improvement and more investigation.
5. Bibliography
“Cuban missile crisis” 04.02.2020. published by encyclopedia Britannica, inc.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Cuban-missile-crisis

Nikita Khruchev’s memoirs, published by information and publishing company

“Moscow News”, 1999
http://www.hrono.ru/libris/lib_h/hrush63.php

The American Political Science Review (Sep., 1969) Graham T. Allison Published by:
American Political Science Association
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1954423?casa_token=2LR7USh4OyQAAAAA
%3ACjXRN3H8dt781Pu8bVKRmmWpdqGSDAu8IG6EfF76zdJLsy4yp5Cj-
9_dQ1rsinVgXkl8CWzeRm2-
BQb8fkqbIEcwVFyoPJl1cF2Q9j9Dwgn1Zu7U1erF&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, ( 3 August, 2019), an article by Robert Longley,
published by ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/cuban-missile-crisis-4139784

The Real Story Of The Cuban Missile Crisis, When The World Was On The Brink Of
Nuclear Annihilation, (2019), an article by Mark Oliver, published by Ati.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/cuban-missile-crisis

The USSR in local wars and conflicts,(2003), S. Lavrenov, I.Popov,, published by

“Астель”
http://militera.lib.ru/h/lavrenov_popov/10.html

Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation, delivered on 22 October, 1962
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html

‘We will bury you” documentary by History channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm0yQg1hS_w

“13 days” (1971), memoirs of Robert F. Kennedy, published by W.W Norton &
Company inc.