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Example research essay topic: Cuban Missile Crisis Missiles In Cuba - 1,901 words

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Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important conflicts of the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union came close to starting the third world war in October 1962. The reason was the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. For a long time, the Soviets thought that they were years a head of the US in terms of intercontinental missiles. After all, they had put Sputnik into orbit, well before the US had dreamt of such an act. Most of the Soviet organizations did not believe that there was a necessity to build more intercontinental missiles.

They started to believe in their own propaganda. This laxity made it harder for the Soviets to understand and deal with the fact that they had been surpassed. As it was not possible to build more intercontinental missiles, due to economic reasons, a group within the newly created Strategic Rocket Forces proposed the using of Cuba as a missile site. The Soviet premier Nikita S. Khrushchev who believed that the future of wars would involve strategic nuclear rockets also backed such a move, and it was he who had actually created the Strategic Rocket Forces. (Chayes, 1974, p. 7) The Soviets, thus, decided to place medium- (MRBM) and intermediate-range ballistic (IRBM) missiles in Cuba as well as other weapons. Forty-two Mrbms with a range of 300 - 1200 miles and twenty-four IRBMs with a range of 1200 - 3500 miles were sent to Cuba.

Some 22, 000 Soviet soldiers and technicians escorted these missiles to Cuba. The Soviets started the shipments in early 1962. It was only on October 14, 1962 that the US discovered the presence of a ballistic missile on a launching site. John Mc Cone, head of the CIA, had suspected since August that Soviets were introducing offensive missiles to Cuba. However, he had not been listened as he was seen as being ardently anti-communist and other actors in the decision-making process did not believe that Soviets would introduce offensive missiles to Cuba until they saw them with their own eyes. (Deter, 1979, p. 39) On October 22, 1962 president Kennedy declared that the island of Cuba was under quarantine. It had not been easy to make this choice.

However, Ex Com decided that it was the only possible choice. The other choices had been surgical air strike and doing nothing. Surgical air strike had been ruled out because the US Air Force did not believe that it could guarantee success. Doing nothing was also dismissed as it would not go well with US credibility and there was no guarantee that the Soviets would not introduce more missiles to Cuba. Kennedy also announced that the US forces would confiscate offensive weapons and associated material entering the quarantined zone. None of the Soviet ships that entered the quarantined zone were carrying such cargoes; most of the Soviet ships bound for Cuba stayed well clear of the zone.

After a tense week, during which many messages were exchanged and the parties started to prepare for war, Khrushchev announced, on October 28, that the construction of the sites had stopped. Khrushchev also recognized that the missile placed on the island were of offensive nature. Although the Soviet premier declared that a UN agency could verify his promise, such a UN inspection never took place. The US government, following its U- 2 flight inspections, lifted the quarantine on November 20. (Chayes, 1974, p. 35) Many reasons have been given for why the Soviets decided to place the missiles on the island in the first place.

The more plausible ones are defending Cuba and missile balance. An inspection of the Soviet installations on Cuba shows that while defense might have been on the minds of the Soviets; it was not the real reason. The weaponry sent to Cuba included medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. These missiles were clearly of offensive nature and were sure to provoke the US. Instead of sending missiles, Soviet troops would have been sufficient to deter the US from trying to succeed where the Bay of Pigs Operation had failed. Also, the support for Cuba was only newly emerging in the USSR, which till then had seen it as a US lackey.

Missile power parity seems to be the real reason. A tiny section of the Soviet Armed Forces noticed that the US had surpassed them in terms of intercontinental missiles. They wanted to reach, at least, parity and had the firm backing of Khrushchev. As there were not enough resources, nor the support of the entire military institution, to build more intercontinental missiles, they decided to use the IRBMs and Mrbms. These missiles had a smaller range but using Cuba as a launcher would have solved this problem. Also, they were much cheaper. (Larson, 1963, p. 159) The United Nations was a non-actor in the crisis.

This is not surprising considering the fact that these countries were members of the Security Council and thus almost nothing could happen without their permission. The Soviet premiers declaration that a UN agency could verify that the missiles were removed meant that the UN would finally be involved. Thus, the superpowers were looking to the UN to help end the matter. The secretary-general went to Cuba to make the arrangements for an observer team. At the UN, plans had already been drawn up for an observer team to be composed of roughly fifty officers from neutral countries. Yet, the plans never materialized.

This was because Cuba had rejected the plans and the secretary-general was forced to return empty-handed. Since the UN needs the consent of the host country to set up and deploy such teams, the Cubans had every right to deny permission. It was a case of a rejected and embarrassed, in that they had not been able to influence the happenings on their own land country trying to make up for its injured pride. This behavior was similar to Egypt's behavior in 1956 when the Egyptians told the UN team to leave. (Stern, 2000, p. 586) The International Committee of the Red Cross was also proposed as a possible inspector of the missile sites.

The Red Cross was then advanced as an inspector on the high seas of ships going from and to Cuba but while the Cubans were favorably disposed to this plan, it was the Red Cross that had doubts: They worried that this operation would damage its reputation as a solely humanitarian body. The Red Cross, at the end, did agree to contribute 30 inspectors if they could be recruited from the Swiss Army. However, by this time, the superpowers had decided to solve the matter by themselves. US warships and helicopters were going to observe the departing Soviet ships and the missile sites would be checked through aerial reconnaissance. (Larson, 1963, p. 212) Turkish involvement in the crisis has been usually disregarded.

Former Turkish Ambassador Sure Elekdag's article Cuban Missile Crisis and Turkey (1997) tells about the situation. He claims the entire negotiations were played over Turkeys back. He also maintains that Turkey was kept in the dark during the crisis and that Ankara did not really know what was going on. If there had been a battle, Turkey would have been totally unprepared and this situation would have resulted in a total loss.

Furthermore, he echoes the Turkish feeling when he says the Soviets and Americans would have made sure that any nuclear confrontation would be limited to Cuba and Turkey. According to Elekdag, the prevalent feeling at the White House was that the Soviets would bomb the Jupiter missiles in Turkey if the Americans were to bomb Cuba. The Jupiter missiles were theater nuclear weapons which had been deployed in Europe under the dual key arrangement: the host country would build and maintain the base but the US would have the custody over the nuclear warheads and the ultimate veto over its launching. Yet, Elekdag also points out that Kennedys advisors believed that in the case of an actual bombing of the island, the Soviets would not only demand the evacuation of the Jupiter missiles but also the removal of the 100 American planes which had nuclear warheads as well as the 20, 000 American soldiers based in Turkey and the closure of the American bases in Turkey. Furthermore, if the Americans were to reject the Soviet demands then Turkey would be the victim of Soviet retaliation.

It should be mentioned at this point that the Jupiter missiles were pretty much obsolete but were of symbolic importance to Turkey. The missiles were removed on March 1963. President Kennedy had gotten his brother (Justice Minister Robert Kennedy) to secretly deliver a message to the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on October twenty-third. This act, according to Elekdag, changed the flow of events. In this letter, Kennedy said that the missiles in Turkey would be removed if the Soviets were to remove those from Cuba. Elekdag does point out that the final deal did change over the days but looking back what was finally agreed was in essence no different from what had originally been proposed.

Perhaps, Elekdag's last sentence sums up his and generally Turkish peoples feelings quite well: Even though 35 years have passed, there is a lot of lessons to be learnt from this crisis. An important point is that President Kennedy had twice ordered for the missiles to be removed from Turkey yet the missiles were still in Turkey when the crisis broke out. In early 1962, a study had concluded that the missiles were worthless and that they should be withdrawn. His aides saw that their Turkish counterparts wanted the missiles to remain. The Turks pointed the effects that such a move would have on Turkish public opinion. Kennedys aides did not want the matter to become a problem with Turkey and perhaps more importantly within the NATO alliance.

Yet for Kennedy, the Turkish connection did not justify risking a confrontation with the Soviets. At the end of this adventure nobody was happy: Fidel Castro was angry at the way the Soviets had retreated. One of the main reasons why Khrushchev fell from power in October 1964 is this crisis. The Soviets also realized that it was going to be hard to achieve parity with the US. Yet, the Soviet government did begin an extensive military expansion, which was quite successful, but the costs of the military expenditures meant that the Soviet economy was being crippled for good. The US understood that the Soviet danger was much closer to home, previously thought.

The missiles were removed from Turkey but they became a side issue as the Soviets on October 28 had announced that they would withdraw their missiles based in Cuba without making any references to those in Turkey. From the point of averting a recurrence of such a conflict between the Soviets and the Americans, a hotline communications system was established between the two capitals. This system was to enable faster and more direct exchange of messages in times of crisis. The next year, 1963, saw the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty being concluded between the two countries. (web ns archiv / nsa /publications / cmc /cmc. html) It would not be farfetched to say that coming so close to a nuclear war during the Cuban crisis pushed the USSR and the US to conclude such a deal.


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Research essay sample on Cuban Missile Crisis Missiles In Cuba

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