The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy - Essay Example

Cuban Missile Crisis was the most precarious event which took place in the history of cold war, where U.S discovered that USSR had placed anti-ballistic missiles in the vicinity of the U.S territory. This pushed President Kennedy to take action in order to reverse the effect, and Kennedy acted very cautiously and via his diplomatic skills he was able to convince Khrushchev to roll back the missiles. Another such instance was the conclusion of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty between U.S and USSR, where Khrushchev first agreed over to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, while later began testing nuclear weapons, as a result of which U.

S tested five such weapons to retreat the situation. Analyzing the Kennedy Doctrine in this context makes perfect sense, as it implies that U.S will take all necessary steps to contain the effect of communism, i.e. expansion of the policy of containment (Thompson 1992). Though he was an advocate of diplomacy, whenever required he took all crucial steps to contain the communism threat and to secure his homeland and also his allies. In his inaugural address of 1961, President Kennedy said; “Let us never negotiate out of fear.

And let us never fear to negotiate”. . However on October 14, the U2 plane took pictures of these ballistic missiles placed in Cuba by the USSR, which definitely called for an action (Kempe 2011). Now, President Kennedy had a few options on the table out of which some were quite aggressive, while others were neutral in nature. After considering various options, Kennedy considered the option of naval blockade which was indeed a very diplomatic move as he named it quarantine to make it sound legal.

Also, chances of aggression on the part of USSR were also limited and at the same time USSR was pressurized to roll back the weapons. It was quite wise on the part of President Kennedy to use the option of quarantine i.e. to block the way where missiles were being transferred; however, the diplomatic skills were tested after the option was utilized, i.e. while he was negotiating with Khrushchev (Cull 1998). He communicated his concerns to Khrushchev via his brother Lyndon Johnson after which a deal was reached when Khrushchev put forth his concerns about the missiles in Turkey, and thus USSR rolled backed the weapons while a secret deal was reached via the backdoor implying the rollback of weapons from Turkey as well.

Also, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was also an attempt on the part of President Kennedy to follow his policy of containment i.e. to contain the Russian threat of nuclear war. Firstly, USSR and even UK signed the treaty which was a huge triumph for the diplomatic skills of Kennedy as he pursued his goal through peaceful means (Maga 1994). However, another challenge arose when USSR started preparing for another nuclear weapon test when they had already given their word on the Nuclear Test Ban. President