The Cuba-Soviet Unions Relations - Coursework Example

Running head: THE CUBA-SOVIET UNIONS RELATIONS The Cuba-Soviet Unions Relations Insert Name Insert Grade Course Insert Tutor’s Name April 28, 2011 The Cuba-Soviet Unions Relations Introduction Various conflicts have been witnessed in history between nations in the world. During such conflicts, the other nations that are not directly involved in the war often take sides and support their allies against the enemy nations. The situations often lead to further enmity among the rival groups and develop into social and political unrest in the whole world. Such wars led to research and subsequent developments of deadly weapons by nations that could destroy the whole world. Various crises in the world have been seen that follow a period of conflicts between rival nations especially if the rivalry has erupted between two or more industrial powers that are key drivers of the world economy. There are different types of war that can be experienced between two or more nations. These are Hot War, Warm War, and Cold War. A Hot War occurs when there is a complete disagreement between nations and all the attempts to have a peaceful dialogue have failed. It is characterized by physical confrontations between the armies of the rival nations. Warm war is a situation where there is room for dialogue and it is actually being carried out. Meanwhile, the defense of each side is undergoing preparation for the possibility of war that might break. Cold War occurs between two nations that are actually rivals but do not want to face each other one on one as was witnessed between USSR and US catalyzed by the Cuban revolution, more so when U.S refineries refused to process Soviet Union’s oil1. Instead, the nations support their allied conflicting nations through weapons and manpower during the wars. The Cold War As has been pointed out earlier, this type of war occurs silently between two nations through other nations that they support. The Cold War refers to the relationship that America and the Soviet Unions had after the World War II until late 1980s. During the Second World War, both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and America appeared to be on one side probably due to their common enemy, Nazi Germany2. It would be thought that there would be a good relationship between the two industrial powers after the end of this war. However, it turned out that the two nations were not friends anyway. Their postwar relations and the ideological differences would result into the Cold War. The difference between the foreign policies of the United States and the policies of Soviet Union led to war3. Despite the two nations have such differences, they have never engaged each other in combat war4. The distrust that grew stronger and stronger between the two nations was due to the difference in leadership and governance that was practiced by the two nations, and which led to their ideological differences, as either nation flexed muscle to dominate the world5. America was a capitalist state while Soviet Unions was a communist state and this determined their allies and the differences6. The American government was democratic and characterized by free and fair election whereas that of Soviet Unions was autocratic with restricted or no elections. There was a lot of freedom of speech and expression in America compared to the censored moves in the Soviet Unions. The anti-communist states would then be allied to America while pro-communist states would side with the Soviet Unions. During the Cold War period (1945-1991), America would supply weapons to the nations that were invaded by Soviet Unions or other countries supported by the Soviet Unions. Countries like South Vietnam were against the communist culture and received support from America during the war whereas North Vietnam supported communist states and received support from the communist states like Russia. The government of the United States authorized the support of various anti-communist movements in the countries that were likely to be influenced by the communist movement of the USSR. The US intended to control the communist movement that was likely to rock the whole world. The manufacture of nuclear weapons by the two nations also resulted into the Cold War. The United States had made the first atomic bomb in 1945 as a way of bringing to an end the Second World War and being able to control foreign policy. The USSR also made their first atomic bomb towards the end of the decade7 and the silent enmity grounded itself, more so when Soviet Union’s leadership claimed to be “producing missiles like sausages”8. Various political moves were witnessed in the nations and a policy was later developed in the US that any attack by the USSR supported camp would be given a massive nuclear response. This resulted into development of more dangerous weapons like the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) that would accurately destroy targets thousands of miles away. The Republic of Cuba The present Cuba refers to the Island of Cuba and other groups of islands in the Caribbean Sea. It has its capital situated at the city of Havana. The nation was under the Spanish rule for over four centuries9 and would later be under the US rule. Cuba obtained her independence from the US in the beginning of the twentieth century. After independence, the two countries signed the Treaty of Relations on May 22, 1903 that was seen as adopting the terms that had been provided by the Platt Amendment two years earlier. The treaty defined the kind of relationship that would be exercised between the two nations, Cuba and the United States. The United States was provided with a right to get involved in the affairs of Cuba. It also provided for the relationship between Cuba and other nations after the independence. Several constitutional reforms have been made in the country since this period under the leadership of different individuals. However, the leadership is still seen to be autocratic with opposition parties not allowed to campaign or raise funds in the main Islands of Cuba. Cuba is also a communist state and would be an ally to the Soviet Unions. It is this close relation with the USSR that would later make Cuba the scene for one of the most deadly confrontation between US and USSR10. The US realized that USSR was in the process of shipping deadly weapons and strategizing in Cuba11. The country had developed good relations with other countries in Africa and Latin America and had supported these countries during various wars. The government of Soviet Unions The creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic was a communist movement that began back in the 1920s12. The rivalry between America and the Union started around this period as the former was against communism. Besides, the United States of America was foreseeing the communist move as a threat to her objectives of monopolizing the world policies. The US took a long time (about seventeen years) to recognize the Soviet Union13 and the kind of leadership that prevailed in USSR did not allow for good relations. The Soviet Union was characterized by autocratic/dictatorship kind of leadership and this was one of the causes of distrust between the two nations. The autocratic leadership of Joseph Stalin between 1929 and 1953 worsened the situation. The steps towards reforms were later adopted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s due to the transformations that were being experienced in different sectors of the economy locally and globally14. The Union consisted of Russia and other surrounding states that would be united until 1991. After this period, the USSR broke into numerous constituent republics like Latvia, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and Russia among others. The relationship during the cold war The relationship that occurred for a long period between Cuba and the Soviet Unions was one that gave hard time to the long serving Cuban president Fidel Castro. The relationship was meant to serve the interests of each side. Castro supported Soviet’s invasion of Czechoslovakia to strength their relationship15. The Soviet had ideological differences with the United States and but not want to directly confront one another. Cuba had various influences from the American side and the president feared that supporting the US side would tamper with the power of control that he exercised over the sovereign state. The Soviet Union also experienced hardship in keeping close relationship with the Cuban side but had reasons that would call for such a material sacrifice. Soviet maintained the relationship so that Cuba would serve her interest as long as the Soviet-US rivalry continued and as long as there were still communist movements. The relationship can be traced back to the late 1950s when a policy was developed that created the Central Committee that would be responsible for the coordination of the departmental operations within the governments and other agencies. This would later pose challenge to Cuba at the collapse of the union, as there would be several departments and ministries in the resulting constituent republics16. The two nations had different leadership styles and yet their differences were not so apparent due to the internal regulations that had been imposed on them. The Soviet Union had had plans to incorporate Cuba into the Socialist camp and the move was accelerated by the 1960 meeting of Fidel Castro of Cuba and Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. The two leaders grew intimacy that would later support the relationship between the nations. Various leaders came to power in the Soviet Union and contributed to modifying the Soviet policy towards Cuba17. The Soviet-Cuban relationship lasted for a long period perhaps due to the ability of Cuban president Fidel Castro to manipulate the relationship. He was able to make the Soviet side feel that there was some kind of favor offered by the Cuban government. During this period, Cuba depended so much on Soviet Union as compared to the support they she provided and the relationship was often seen by others as a liability on the Soviet side. However, the common issue that brought them this close is their enmity with the United States: ‘for Castro the United States was the one foreign power ultimately capable of overthrowing him, and one that had tried to do so; for the USSR, the other superpower was an antagonist in a life-and-death struggle between socialism and capitalism’18. The Cuban president demonstrated more hatred to the United States than the Soviet Union. The latter would allow for dialogue with the allies of the US who could be of help in persuading the US to abandon imperialism in the Third World nations. The two nations also had a common interest of supporting liberation movements in the Third World nations. Castro was quick in considering that force be used in promoting communism and getting the Third World nations freed from the colonial powers. This was however not supported fully by Moscow based Soviet side. The Soviet Union had no support for Guerilla fighters but provided military support to well-established governments and their agencies. Indeed, Soviet Union supplied Jeeps that were used travel through flooded sections of Havana and Santiago19. The effects of this relationship on the United States The good relation that was developed between Cuba and the Soviet Union after the Second World War was seen as a threat on the United States’ political and economic stability. The country that is close to the US and that was liberated from the latter at the beginning of the twentieth century allied with an enemy nation to the US and advocated for policies that were contrary to the requirements of the States. The alignment of Cuba to the Soviet Union was a challenge to the enactment of foreign policies by the US government, a drawback to the US quest to monopolize the world. After the Second World War, and following the growth in military of the Soviet Union, the US had purposed to develop foreign policies that would stop the Soviet from abusing the military power20. The Cuba-Soviet alliance played key roles in the incidences that were witnessed during the Cold War including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missiles Crisis, and the incidence that was witnessed in Angola. The Cuban Missile Crisis came at a time when the then US president John F. Kennedy was campaigning ahead of the November 1962 elections21. The president received information from his guard that photographs had been taken of Soviet Union positioning missiles in Cuba and he noted that one of their biggest fears was becoming a reality, a phenomenon that is emphasized by the statement from the White House in 196222. There had been an ongoing conflict between the two nations23 that were competing each for allies and power globally. This intense competition to have control over the world had led to the invention of very dangerous weapons. Both the nations had weapons of mass destruction that could be used to sweep a whole city and this is a reason as to why they did not dare wage a direct war between each other. Thus, the secret positioning of the missiles in Cuba, which neighbors the US, was a threat to the safety of the US. The war weapons were able to bring down the huge cities in the United States within few minutes. The silent Cold War that had had its effects on other parts of the world was right then behind the US soil. The United States had allies in Europe and the Eastern countries that surround USSR like Turkey and Iran and had planted missiles in these countries. The USSR on the other hand, had never got closer to the US borders and getting into Cuba would ensure a global balance of power, a big threat to the US. The president and his advisors were faced with a tough decision to make. There was a need to stop the Soviet from establishing themselves in Cuba and there was a need to get rid of Fidel Castro. How to achieve this was questionable, as it would lead to nuclear war that would claim millions of lives and valued property. The two nations almost crashed out but the leaders came to an agreement and the president of the Soviet Union withdrew the missiles from Cuba following the US withdrawal of the planned attack on Cuba24. The crisis created diverse political wave in the US. The US control of foreign policy was negatively affected and there was a global divide towards communism supported by USSR25. The whole world was divided into Eastern and Western blocs. However, the agreement by Cuba to return missiles to Soviet Union facilitated the US withdrawal its bombers from Cuba, thus signaling the end of conflict26. The incidence witnessed at the Bay of Pigs and the other plan known as the Operation Mongoose were failed attempts by the US government to get rid of the Cuban president Fidel Castro. The US president organized anti-Castro Cubans to help remove the leader from power but their planned invasion failed being an embarrassment to the president27. The president later made secret plans to assassinate the president in the Operation Mongoose but this also failed due to the strong relations between the USSR and Cuba. The latter got support from the USSR and this failure of the president Kennedy strengthened the Cuba-USSR relations. The poor US-Soviet relation continued to negatively impact on the American foreign policies. The close relationship seen in the Soviet policies, the strengthening of the Soviet military power and the extension of such powers beyond its border was a threat to US that necessitated a reaction by the US28. The increasing need or interdependence among various and the overall global transformation that were being experienced in the 1980s are some of the factors that led to the improvement of the US-Soviet relations and the end of Cold war in the following decade. Conclusion It is important to note that the conflicts that often occur between two or more nations are brought by the ideological differences that are witnessed among the nations. Two opposing groups are often formed with the rivalry groups taking sides. In the case of a cold war, the two conflicting nations do not come out openly to fight each other but support their allies in various wars against the enemy nations. One faction can provide military weapons whereas the other could provide armed support during warfare. The effects of such silent wars are often adverse on the economic, social, and political developments of the conflicting nations as well as the agent nations that are used in the confrontations. The need to fight back by the attacked nations leads to the inventions of very deadly weapons that can lead to mass destruction of the whole world. Weapons have been developed that have very long harmful effects on the human life. Effects of atomic warfare have been seen to be connected to hereditary system and have been passed on to generations as was witnessed in Japan. Such wars also destroy the good relations between nations that would be of economic importance to each other simply because they took different sides during the war periods. Lack of proper international relations by a nation bars the nation from featuring into the global economy and thus her economic development will be impaired. Bibliography Abel, Elie. The Missile Crisis. PA: Lippincott, 1968. 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