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Example research essay topic: Cuban Missile Crisis President John F Kennedy - 1,589 words

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The political world is much like a stew, methinks. It is a conglomeration of what has been, what is, and what is to become. Since the dawning of the atomic age with the World War II invention of atomic / nuclear war capability, however, this stew has taken on a whole new taste, a piquancy that perhaps none of us were -- or ever will be -- truly prepared for in all of its possible mishmash. No longer were the world wars to be merely strategies, complete with trenches, tanks, and troops.

Since the Manhattan Project and the dawning and dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man over Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively, our world of nations has both feared and toyed with the realities of nuclear growth, strength, and conduct. Bringing to the preparation the individual and collective perceptions and views regarding this new-age capability, the moral values of the peoples generating and possessing these capabilities have, in large part, determined the use and non-use of this truly annihilating concoction. Blended with these morals and societal standards of right and wrong mix the individual and combined interests of a people and its possessions. To heighten the brew -- or, perhaps, balm of nuclear conduct is the all-important ingredient of alliances, the influences of ones buddies -- so to speak -- on ones choices and constituent interests. Finally and continually, it appears, thrown into the nuclear potpourri pot is the aspect of time pressures, those moments in history when all ingredients are boiling, the troops are hungry, and the decision to serve or wait is paramount. The stew that almost cost the world its world -- had it been served after stirring and simmering -- was the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Poised in front of the pot were President John F. Kennedy and the 12 members of his advisory team known as Ex Comm. Tossed into the cauldron were those meaty nations well capable of annihilating one another -- as well as others, the morals of those nations, their individual and collective interests, the views of their allies, and the distinct pressures of a strongly limited time factor. In October of 1962, the United States was a Great Nation which possessed meaty weaponry. Our nation, at this time in history, far surpassed in nuclear capability that of our greatest enemy, the Soviet Union.

True to the concepts of upper hand, under dog, and the haves versus the have nots, the Soviets, as a union, were less than pleased with their nuclear / military position and lack of # 1 stature. So, they did what any typical, aggressive under dog would do: they set out to change their standing. This maneuver is what triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis. Strongly desirous of being able to launch missiles against the United States, a capability which the Soviets then lacked, the U. S. S.

R. , under the helm of Premier Nikita Khrushchev, determined it would be in their best interests to station missiles in Cuba, a land considerably closer to America and well within the striking capability of the then Soviet nuclear weaponry. Prior to this maneuver, Soviet missiles were only capable of reaching Europe, not America. On the other hand, American technology had allowed already for nuclear missile strikes on the whole of the U. S. S. R.

should it become necessary. America clearly had both the tangible capability, i. e. , the geographic position, population and work force, resources, industrial and agricultural productivity, and strong armed forces it needed to engage in warfare. It also possessed the intangible capability needed to prevail against an enemy; it was the educational, social, and technological leader of the time with a high level of national morale.

However, the question that reigned supreme during the discussions surrounding the entire Crisis was, How should the United States engage or respond to the Soviet Union? Basically what was at stake here were both position and power, two concepts close to the heart of yet a third country concerned with capability: Cuba. Viola, into the pot comes Fidel Castro. Incapable of defending his small revisionist island country, and having suffered the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Castro clearly was receptive to Khruschevs missile deployment ideas.

Castro easily saw his path to military capability and strength through the weapons of his benefactor, the U. S. S. R. And so the pot of the upper hands versus the under dogs, the haves versus the have nots, and the capable's versus the incapable's ensued into the Cuban Missile Crisis.

So, in October of 1962, the Soviet missiles were sent, constructed in Cuba, and finally detected by United States recognizance. The question now became one of not merely capability but of implementation of capability. A careful examination of the actual chances and qualifying factors on the United States within their given societal policies took place. In short, into the cauldron of capability was tossed the all-important ingredient of moral values. The tenet that the moral values of a people and its leaders influence both the policies and the decisions of those people is not a new belief. However, the degree to which these moral values create or generate their influence still remains a topic of discussion -- point in fact, the current President Clinton moral issue debates.

Proof of this long-held belief that moral values both affect and, at times, determine our directions as a people, is demonstrated clearly by our national position and actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Here, the moral values of the then President John F. Kennedy and his team of advisors were integral to the formulation and implementation of a foreign policy which not only determined the fate of several countries, but a policy that survives today and is extended upon recurrently in countries such as Iran and Iraq. Support for the belief in the power and position of morals in political decision making are not solely the thought of the common man, advocacy for this doctrine comes from our historians, political analysts, and also from our leaders themselves. As Abdul Aziz Said, Charles O.

Lerche, Jr. , and Charles O. Lerche III, authors of Concepts of International Politics in Global Perspective (4 th edition) assert that although political theory and individual actualized mores are separate factors, these two elements of politics and morals become blended in the pot of the common good. Here in the political kettle whistles the moral call of the steaming masses. For instance, as Said (et. al. ) points out, killing is both denounced and upheld by our country depending on the moral circumstances surrounding the death. Murder is a no, no.

Battle bravery is a yes, yes. The cry of the masses is what President Kennedy so clearly heard and responded to in his decision making process during the Cuban Missile Crisis. From Robert Kennedy, the late President Kennedys brother, comes the notion that morals played an eminently important factor in both Jfk's path to decision making, as well as in the determinations of Ex Comm, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. According to Robert Kennedy in Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the formulation of policy during the 13 chronicled days of the Crisis and the moral holdings of America and its people were carefully considered by all members of the committee, even those who first held for military strikes against Cuba. First, all realized that even the best American intelligence operations were lacking of total information and must be viewed as such.

Second, members realized that their decisions could not necessarily foretell the actual results of the actions they would empower. Third, members realized that time was clearly against them. Fourth, many members realized they were suffering from mental and physical exhaustion, elements which were not always leading them to sound responses, but rather to more instinctive reactions. In this regard author, then Attorney General, Robert Kennedy recalls that JFK held fast to his firm belief that to bomb Cuba and its Soviet missiles would have been a decision that would have led to the moral decay of the United States as a international political power of values and moral standing.

To strike Cuba from the air would have meant inviting the possibility of all-out nuclear war with possible world-wide implications and devastation. To invade Cuba would have meant a long and drawn-out bloody battle costing the lives of many Americans. As the world-wide promoter of democracy and moral uprightness, America should not and could not take either of these paths in the eyes of JFK. Morally the decision to either bomb or invade Cuba was unacceptable both to Kennedy and to the American people, a fact which Kennedy felt certain of and held to steadfastly during the Crisis.

Given the possibility of non-military resolution and possible quarantine, other Ex Comm members agreed with JFK. Resounding loudest perhaps John F. Kennedys moral position were the value-based thinkings of three of his advisors, Robert Kennedy, Attorney General of the United States; Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense; and Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador to the United Nations. Additionally, all three men -- as well as other committee members at varying points (save, perhaps, General Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff -- recognized that a decision to implement air strikes of any kind on Cuba would have flown in the face of American national interests, objectives, and goals. Primary among these national interests, of course, was national security with the objective and ultima...


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Research essay sample on Cuban Missile Crisis President John F Kennedy

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