The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis - Essay Example

This paper will thus discuss the incidences of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis as examples of situations when the cold war resulted in an actual confrontation.
The Bay of Pigs
            The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba by the paramilitary group sponsored by the CIA in April 1961. Two years before the invasion, Fidel Castro drove his guerrilla army into Havana and overthrew president Fulgencio Batista (an American-backed President), paving the way for communist rule in Cuba. For two years, the U.S. state department and the CIA attempted to overthrow the communist government, thus in 1961, the CIA launched a full-scale invasion of Cuba. However, the invaders were outnumbered by the Cuban forces and were defeated within less than 24 hours of fighting. The aftermath of the invasion at the Bay of pig led to a stronger tie between the Soviet Union and Cuba with the United States perceiving Cuba as a threat (Dunne, 448–458).
The Cuban missile crisis
            The Cuban missile crisis was another scenario where the cold war exploded into an actual combat war. The Cuban missile crisis was a thirteen-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the latter’s ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. The Cuban missiles were a response to the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. Additionally, the presence of American missiles in Italy and Turkey was seen by the Soviets as a threat to their security prompting retaliation from USSR. The Russian missiles in Cuba were thus stationed as a means of protecting Cuba from future harassment by America. The Cuban missile crisis was resolved following a period of negotiation between President Kennedy and Khrushchev, with the Soviet Union agreeing to remove the missiles from Cuba with a promise the U.S will not invade Cuba without direct provocation (Schwarz, 73-81).
Alternative response of the US
            Concerning the Bay of Pigs, the United States had few options other than to prepare a secret invasion team into Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the communist government. However, to make the invasion a success, the US government ought to have done a thorough assessment of the opponent before the commencement of the operation. However, concerning the Cuban missile crisis, the crisis escalated b the perceived aggression of the United States towards the communist states; the deployment of US missiles in Italy and Turkey could be seen as an act of aggression towards Russia, and the invasion of the Bay of Pig and aggression towards Cuba. The US government would have prevented the Cuban missile crisis through the adoption of moderate policies towards the communist states.