The quarantine lent credibility to the other threats. compromised the ability of the West to rally world public opinion with intelligence data? Given the fact that both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. already had enough nuclear weapons to obliterate each other’s major cities within a few minutes, why was the U.S. so alarmed that the Russians put missiles in Cuba? Do such consequences outweigh the risk of nuclear war? After the missiles had been removed, President Kennedy described the process of crisis management by stating that one must be firm, obtain the best information possible, and act with care. What was Khrushchev’s key miscalculation when he was planning to place missiles in Cuba and why did he make that mistake? What did President Kennedy do about this? The only reason for the massive Soviet military buildup on the island was to protect the missiles, not Cuba. 30. That’s So Yesterday about the Singularity. In the meantime, the U.S. mounted a diplomatic offensive attempting to use world opinion to pressure the Soviets to remove the missiles. In addition, Communications in 1962 were not what they are today. When Castro proposed in a letter to Khrushchev that the Russians begin a nuclear war before the invasion, Khrushchev was horrified. In 1948 Stalin suddenly stopped permitting access by land to West Berlin. 1. The challenge: how to force the Russians to withdraw the missiles without provoking nuclear war. Pacifists contend that building a large military and using threats results in wars either because countries decide that war is in their best interests or through miscalculation. Would it have escalated the conflict to a nuclear confrontation? As shown in the film, while on the one hand preparing for war if it had to come, President Kennedy always chose actions that would not lead to war. (i.e., the Munich problem). In a confidential side agreement, the U.S. promised future removal of 15 obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey. 3. Well, actually, it was a rather dangerous but rather useful play of theirs. (Source: The Kennedy Tapes, pg. The first was a tour of the CIA which, while limited to very specific physical areas (including the CIA gift shop), included a 75 minute roundtable with the CIA’s CTO and his team about the future. The Kennedy brothers were actively working to change the government of Cuba and to assassinate Castro. However, by backing down and removing the missiles with only the no invasion promise, Khrushchev showed foresight and political courage. See the section entitled “WHO BEARS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS CLOSE BRUSH WITH NUCLEAR WAR?”. This scene demonstrates the dialectic nature of historical struggles. Possible Problems U.S. nuclear policy at the time also contributed to the crisis. Khrushchev had committed his personal prestige and that of the Soviet Union to action against Western interests in Berlin. (See also pages 116 and 117 in which President Kennedy disagrees with assessments by Generals Wheeler and LeMay that the missiles in Cuba significantly changed the military situation. Thus, Excomm came into being. As the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Iraq War in 2003/2004 have shown, support from your allies and the world community is helpful and important. There are some historically fascinating touches to the movie: One is the scene in which the O’Donnell character asks Bobby Kennedy if he thinks that the second Russian letter, the more aggressive letter, was caused by the Kennedys’ proposals to trade the obsolete U.S. missiles in Turkey for the Russian missiles in Cuba. The quarantine and the preparations of the U.S. military to invade Cuba, along with public and private assurances that if the missiles were not taken down the U.S. would remove them, convinced Khrushchev to withdraw the missiles. The Excomm deliberations shown in the film were the means by which President Kennedy obtained advice during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 493 & 494.) World War II had begun. Georgia, for help with early drafts of this Learning Guide and to Alexander Frieden for proofreading and comments. President Kennedy had relied upon the advice of experienced men in the government who told him that the invasion would succeed. After learning of Castro’s position, Khrushchev decided that Russia had to dismantle the missiles immediately. The Soviets insisted that the missiles they were installing in Cuba were “defensive weapons,” intended only to protect the island of Cuba. Would a tit-for-tat attack have been justified? The quarantine was to show the strength of our resolve. 6. See also McNamara’s interview in “The Fog of War.”). . Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. See the section entitled “WHY DID KHRUSHCHEV BACK DOWN?”, second paragraph. Thus, while the U.S. had more ICBMs than Russia, the two superpowers were at a stalemate. Castro’s reasons to accept the missiles were based upon solidarity with the other Communist countries rather than defending Cuba from a U.S. attack. The Soviets did. 41 & 63. But when I watched it a few months ago I didn’t give it my undivided attention. As I was immersed in it, I kept thinking about examples from Brad’s post as well as my experience dealing with web services that are powerful governments. In the end, Stevenson proved immensely valuable to the U.S. by dramatically showing that the Russians were lying to the world about the missiles. 484 & 485. See Learning Guide to Dr. Strangelove. It’s the story of the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis based on the book by May and Zelikow titled The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A first strike with nuclear weapons was not necessarily a surprise strike. Give your opinion of President Kennedy’s leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis and justify that opinion. Deterrence in American Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice New York: Columbia University Press, 1974; Goldwater, Barry Morris. The story of a man who transforms from a greedy person into a kind, charismatic and assertive businessman, being … See Standard Questions Suitable for Any Film. However, the U.S. might have tolerated Russian troops. By 1962, with the advent of nuclear tipped ballistic missiles, that feeling of insulation may have been irrational, but it was still very real. 15. So I think they’ve got … I must say I think it’s a very satisfactory position from their point of view. It was the Russians, after all, who placed their missiles in Cuba. In response to the need of the Western Europeans for maintenance of the status quo in Berlin and because of the West’s inability to defend the city using conventional forces, U.S. policy, enunciated by President Kennedy, was that West Berlin would be defended, if necessary, with a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. On balance, responsibility for events which put the future of the world at risk fall more heavily on the Soviet side than to the U.S.; more to Khrushchev than to Kennedy. This Learning Guide was last updated on October 18, 2015. degrade, “doctrinal shift,” destabilizing, “retaliatory options,” operational, “first strike,” renege, “centralized command structure,” appeasement, ICBM, IRBM, tactical, “standard operating procedure,” analogy, brinksmanship, “war game,” “strategic balance,” obsolete, overkill, “trial balloon.” confrontation, provocative, blockade, quarantine, “second guess,” “back channel”, FICTION (SOAPS, DRAMAS, AND REALITY/SURVIVAL SHOW), National Security Archive of the George Washington University, JFK: the 1960 election and Foreign Policy, U.S. Department of State Slide Show for the Cuban Missile Crisis, Photographs of the missile sites from FAS, According to the film, the Kennedy Administration was required to risk nuclear war in order to recreate the pre-existing balance of nuclear power. Russian occupying forces overstayed their tour of duty in the Middle East. Friday morning I was on a panel on The Need for Net Neutrality with Brad Burnham (Union Square Ventures) and Santo Politi (Spark Capital) followed by a dynamite meeting at the White House with Phil Weiser and members of the National Economic Council team, Aneesh Chopra (CTO of the US), and Vivek Kundra (CIO of the US). President Kennedy also realized that the U.S. advantage was only temporary and that the Russians would soon increase their ICBM fleet. Success in one area can lead to overconfidence and defeat in another. Berlin was located deep within the Russian zone. What happened to the U.S. in Vietnam and what principle in history does this scene illustrate? How might officials in Cuba’s government have felt about the intentions of the U.S. given all of the underhanded, destabilizing activities of Operation Mongoose, and what would be their likely response? President John F. Kennedy convenes a team of advisors to help decide how to respond. This film reflects on the challenges that the U.S. Government of the time faced during the period of this event as well as conveying the very nature of … Germany itself was also carved up into zones. The Soviets were worried about postwar unity among the U.S. and powerful West European nations. President Kennedy was correct. Roosevelt appointed Kennedy ambassador to Britain. 21. The CIA learned of suspicious activity from intelligence sources on the island, and the U.S. sent U-2 spy planes to investigate. These missiles would be able to reach almost all of the continental U.S. But in defense of President Kennedy’s position, could anyone have justified killing hundreds of millions of people to avoid agreeing to dismantle a few obsolete missiles? 12. As will be seen, Castro’s willingness to provoke a nuclear war was one of the destabilizing factors in the Crisis. There were many other ways in which to protect Cuba’s sovereignty. Powell’s speech was less well-received. A memorable scene from the movie involves the demonstration by U.S. The United States learned that the Soviet Union was placing missiles with nuclear weapons in Cuba. For more on Khrushchev and the fact that he conceived of the policy and extended the crisis to attempt to obtain more leverage against the U.S., see discussion below. Selected Awards & Cast See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Movies as Literature Homework Project. In an attempt to redress the imbalance in nuclear missiles and ensure that the U.S. would not mount another Cuban invasion, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, began a program to secretly place intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Russians did not withdraw their forces from Eastern Europe. What Khrushchev had not understood when he gave the order to put the missiles in Cuba in the first place, was that the U.S. population was unwilling to tolerate hostile nuclear missiles in Cuba. A primary example of Kennedy’s restraint occurred on October 27 when a Russian Surface to Air missile (SAM) shot down an American U-2 spy plane killing the pilot. I agree, what difference does it make. Excomm was an unusual body because it included representatives from outside the government, in this case former Secretary of State Dean Acheson. The situation had become intolerable for the Russians and the East German government. The movie 'Thirteen Days' dramatizes the most dangerous moment in human history: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. (3) Every diplomatic and peaceful avenue should be tried before there is a commitment to war. President Kennedy didn’t believe that the U.S. advantage in ICBMs meant that the U.S. could safely engage in nuclear war with Russia. Through the leadership abilities of John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis was successfully resolved and through his decisions he prevented a nuclear holocaust that could have consumed the world. Probably. Would a full-scale American invasion have been different than an attack by Cuban exiles? Thus, the credibility of the Kennedy Administration, with its friends and its foes, had been tied to keeping Cuba free of Russian missiles. Which leaves me only one alternative, which is to fire nuclear weapons — which is a hell of an alternative — and begin a nuclear exchange with all this happening. President Kennedy is credited with forcing the Russians to remove the missiles without provoking a nuclear war. battery that shot down the U-2 spy plane. Amy and I watched it last night. He also knew that there would have been all out war, if nuclear weapons were used on U.S. troops. Students will gain insight into this period in U.S. History and the Cuban Missile Crisis. What do you think of that theory? So, actually, it’s a quite desirable situation from their point of view. 625 – 626.) And thirdly, if we do nothing, then they’ll have these missiles, and they’ll be able to say that any time we ever try to do anything about Cuba, that they’ll fire these missiles. In 1962 while the U.S. government knew that its nuclear forces were much stronger than those of the Soviet Union, it realized that losing its major cities with casualties approaching 100,000,000 people was not acceptable. (This had been official U.S. policy before the crisis. This imbalance of blame (guilt might be a better word) most likely played a role in Khrushchev’s decision to back down and that was his saving grace.
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