JFKs Handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis - Essay Example

Topic: Critically evaluate JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book en d Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba Laos and Vietnam by Lawrence Freedman tells us that John Fitzgerald Kennedy's more than nine hundred days as president of the United States was spending them handling one crisis over another. The cold war between Soviet Union and United states was at its hottest temper during that period. One of the causes of this situation in the 1960's was the Cuba missile crises. John F Kennedy faced strong defiance over what will happen with the future of West Berlin, Vietnam and especially Cuba. Cuba was on friendly terms with Soviet Union. Kennedy expertly manoeuvred thru each and every crises like the true intellectual diplomat that he has been known for until his untimely assassination. People who study how he brilliantly surpassed these predicaments until the twentieth century were mesmerized by his prowess. His decisions during those years were tainted with dangers of an erupting third world war. The danger was bigger in the 1960s because of the nuclear bombs possessed by both the two strongest nations, Soviet Union and the United States. Unlike the Iraq war, There has been no evidence currently that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. But evidences point to the fact, before the invasion and capture of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. There is still a possibility that either there really were no weapons of mass destruction or it is still hidden or transferred to another "place". Thru all the stages of his incumbency, John F Kennedy kept the American interest at all times while doing his utmost to reduce the triggering of a third world war against Communist Soviet Union. At the time of his assassination, he had diplomatically improved the relations with Russia and also relaxed the tense situation with East Berlin or Germany with the signing of the test ban treaty. The Cuban missile really took a big toll on him. He was brought to the brink of world war III when he was tempted to invade Cuba. The situation in Vietnam was also worsening at this time. Yes, Kennedy had been known in the newspapers as a "womanizer" and his character was, at times, put in question, but this other part of his personality has no connection with the brilliance he displayed in relation to his expert "brave stance" handling of the Cuban crises. Freedman concentrates his book on how John F Kennedy handled the WAR and PEACE issues during his time. Many of his advisers even went as far as to advice John F Kennedy to "roll a dice" resulting to a take over of Cuba. He was pondering over the multifarious advices from his staff. He was assessing daily, even nightly, the Cuban situation, and forming many conclusions while mingling with "friendly" and "unfriendly" countries. Many books and articles have been written about how John F Kennedy handled the Cuban missile crises of the 1960s. Soviet Union was under Nikita Khrushchev. There was, daily, the feeling in everyone's mind that the third world was start and this time nuclear weapons that could wipe out the entire human raise at the push of a button will be a reality. Many new facts, especially today, of the Cuban situation which were "classified " before and now open to public scrutiny have given news stories of the possibility that the president was "inches" away from pressing that missile button to start the third world war against Russia with Cuba the first target of annihilation. All countries around the world were eagerly waiting the unfolding of daily events between the two powerful nations on earth since any action or non action by John F Kennedy affected the lives and the future of the other nations with economic dealing with both countries. In the book of Raymond Garthoff, Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis (Washington, DC:1998) who was an active participant in the Cuban crisis himself, gives a first hand account of his reflections on the nature of the crisis, its consequences, and it lessons for the future. He provides a unique combination of memoirs, historical analysis, and political interpretation. The author showed facts in his book which were confidential during the 1960s. The crises was also experienced by the Soviet side. His book tells us how both sides of the "chess table" handled excellently and diplomatically the Cuban missile crises where both sides gave in to the other side's overtures. His book focuses on the American side of Cuban crises. The Americans are continuously learning about the Cuban missiles crisis even until today's twentieth century. It is described as the MOST intensive, dangerous, and climactic crisis of the cold war. This scenario shows how adept John F Kennedy is at crisis management. To the Russians, this is called the Caribbean crisis. They do not want the emphasis of this event to be concentrated on the missiles in Cuba. Reference: Publication Information: Book Title: Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Contributors: Raymond L. Garthoff - author. Publisher: The Brookings Institution. Place of Publication: Washington, DC. Publication Year: 1989 OVER A QUARTER of a century has now passed since the Cuban missile crisis, and despite serious international frictions there has not been another incident with the same magnitude. Nonetheless, the risks from any direct confrontation, even how small in probability, are enormous in potential consequences. INTRODUCTION The United States and the Soviet Union are great powers with global interests, and sometimes those interests clash. Crisis management is necessary if crises actually arise but crisis prevention and crisis avoidance based on political restraint and accommodation of differences are much to be preferred. Arms control limitations and reductions are important in their own right and because they can favourably affect political relations. Prevention of nuclear war, and hence prevention of any war involving the United States and the Soviet Union, are of the highest priority. Nonetheless, since political efforts to resolve disputes peacefully are not always successful, we must be prepared to deal with and defuse any crises that may, despite our best efforts, occur. This includes the need to de-escalate crises and to prevent any armed hostilities that might break out. Studying the experiences and learning the lessons of the 1962 missile crisis, and to the extent of doing it together, has helped both the United States and the Soviet Union ensure not only that such a crisis never recurs again, but also that a greater catastrophe never occurs. The book states that the United States and Soviet Union had both expertly handled the crisis then. But it is better to prevent a crisis from happening or even for it to escalate into an "inches away from the push button" predicament. This could be done if the political restraint and accommodation of differences is given priority as what had been the case during the actual Cuban crisis. Prevention of the third world war was the UTMOST priority during the Cuban crisis. War was the last prerogative when there were instances when political diplomacy to resolve disputes could not be made successfully. This is what happened in the Vietnam War. The German - Allied forces war is another example where men, and war money was used. Most recently, the Iraq war whether invasion of Iraq was looked into as the better alternative action by some quarters or nations. Of course, other countries like France and the United Nations disapproved of this decisive move. THE U.S. DECISION When President John F. Kennedy was shown, on October 16, during the 1960s, several photographs of Soviet SS-4 launching installations under be constructed in Cuba, which were brought there a few days earlier by Soviet submarines, he held two meetings that day and other meetings in the ensuing days with senior government officials called the executive committee of the national security council (Ex Comm.). After a week's meeting the president made a public address to the American people on October 22 about the situation. The Cuban missile crisis continued until 1962. The Ex Comm. was dissolved in 1963 after being so effective in advising John F Kennedy daily on decision making during this MOST dangerous time period. The main objective of John F Kennedy from day 1 during the entire crisis period was this: the Soviet missiles must be removed. THE CONFRONTATION President John F Kennedy directed his intentions to remove the Cuban missiles directly at Russia. He ignored talking to Fidel Castro and Cuba's role in this precarious situation. This was considered a serious Soviet and communist challenge to the American territorial jurisdiction. President John F Kennedy then briefed the Organization of American States the Mexican president of the Cuban missile crisis and the Soviet encroachment on their area of responsibility. There was a unanimous vote by the Organization of American States to condemn this as a Soviet threat to peace in the area and the immediate removal of the Cuban missiles. The United Nations, then, believed the side of the United States when shown they were shown pictures of the missile structures. The Soviet reason was that it was normal to put missile in a country "friendly" to the Soviets. Cuba is willingly to allow Russia to put missiles on its land. The United States had more allies to its side that tipped the United Nations leaning to the American side. United States was more concerned with the Soviets forcing their way thru the United States Navy blockade to deliver the missiles and related armaments to Cuba. A nuclear war could break out. A situation was recorded that a Soviet submarine was told to surface which had its nuclear missiles ready to fire at the American blockade near Cuba. The Soviet submarine preferred to surface and prevent sparking the third world war. THE SETTLEMENT The crisis was finally over when the Soviets and Cuba gave in and decided to dismantle the Cuban missiles. People from both the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as people from countries around the globe, had a sudden widespread and unspeakable euphoria over the conclusion of the stalemate. The October 28 agreement was finally signed. But the signing did not end the Cuban Crisis. The actual dismantling of missiles was the next problem. The inspection conditions on the Cuban missiles installations by the United States still had to be threshed out. Another question was the intrusion in the future of missiles. This was again ironed out smoothly by the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States was allowed to verify if the missiles were actually removed. In return, the United States reassuringly declared it will not invade Cuba now or in the future. Cuba's main concern during the entire crisis was the constant violation of its air space by American reconnaissance place taking pictures of the Cuban missile installations. In the article ANNALS OF BLINKSMANSHIP, written in the Wilson Quarterly in the summer of 1997 and published by the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Thomas Blanton wrote that America coined the Cuban crises "cold war" this was the stand of the Orthodox School of Herbert Feis and Arthur Schlesinger. The cold war was blamed on the Soviet Union. On the other hand, The Soviet Union blamed the United States for economic expansion. This was the stand of the revisionist school of William Appleman. John Lewis Gaddis typified the postrevisinoist mentality. He emphasized the amalgam of both sides of the Cuban Crisis story on the 40th anniversary of the missile crisis. The deal struck between the parties to end the Cuban missile crisis was for the American side, there would be no invasion of Cuba and the US withdrawal of US Jupiter missiles in Turkey. President Ronald Reagan said that the Cuban missile crisis was resolved not by US nuclear supremacy but by it superiority in the Caribbean that enabled restraint and quarantine in Cuba since Cuba is closer to the United States than the Soviet Union. John F Kennedy decided that peace was the best strategy by agreeing to the two requests of Soviet Union. Other declassified information showed that the Cuban missiles could be used to attack American cities in case John F Kennedy followed some of his advisers' opinions to invade Cuba. One may therefore imagine the jubilation among Cold War historians at the literary work of "One Hell of a Gamble," by the Russian scholar A. Fursenko and his Canadian collaborator, Yale University historian Timothy Naftali. This book shows soviet archived documents and US documentation that is now declassified that invading Cuba is ONE HELL OF A GAMBLE for John F Kennedy and the American people which John F Kennedy preferred not to push thru. He decided not to follow the advices of some of his Ex Comm. members to ROLL THE DICE. This was a very strong John F Kennedy. He was a calculating diplomat and a very peace loving man. Also called the "bay of pigs", Cuban President Fidel Castro was fearful of a United States invasion because of his permission to place Soviet missiles in his country. Krushchev insisted thru the entire Cuban missile crisis that the missiles were for the protection of Cuba from foreign invasion, especially the United States. One comment about Fursenko and Nafhali's book is that only a few "chosen" citations were used in the book... Gaddis called the Cuban situation a "new profile on courage". Fursenko calls the situation "adventurism on both sides". The Cuban missile crisis was resolved because both leaders from the United States and Soviet Union preferred to be HUMILIATED in order to prevent ARMAGGEDON or man -made ending of this world. President John F Kennedy estimated that the odds of an actual nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis were a staggering high of thirty - three percent. Bundy estimated the gamble of a nuclear war during these Cuban missile crises to be a low one percent. But, according to Bundy, this one percent was too large for comfort. Thomas Blanton is the director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, co-author of The Chronology (1987), on the Iran-contra affair, and editor of White House E-Mail (New Press, 1995). CONCLUSION President John F. Kennedy handled the Cuban Missiles Crisis with a perfect score of one hundred. He gets an A plus grade on the grounds of diplomacy, attitude, composure, intelligence, strategy, planning, organization, and product knowledge. He preferred the best way out of the situation. He wanted the missiles in Cuba removed, he got his wish. He won in this area. In exchange for the removal of the Cuban missiles, he had to agree with Soviet Russia's counter offer not to invade Cuba and the removal of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey. Turkey is near the Soviet Union's borders. Both Heads of State preferred the way of "humiliation" than to go the "push button" devastating alternative. Cuba was fearful the Unite States would retaliate and invade the small country of Cuba due to its allowing Soviet Union to place its missiles on its territory and endanger the lives of the American people and its neighbours. John F Kennedy truly was a living hero during this most dangerous of times because we could not reach the sunrise of the year 2000 if both the United States and Soviet Union decided to launch the missiles with the Cuban people first to go. BIBLIOGRAPHY Raymond Garthoff, Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis (Washington, DC: 1989). Thomas Paterson, ed., Kennedy's Quest for Victory (Oxford, 1989). Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam, Oxford Press, Lawrence Freedman http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/War/books.html Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Contributors: Raymond L. Garthoff - author. Publisher: The Brookings Institution. Place of Publication: Washington, DC. Publication Year: 1989 http://www.questia.com/PM.qsta=o&d=13755306 Alexander Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble (New York, 1997) One Hell of a Gamble," by the Russian scholar Alexandr A. Fursenko and his Canadian collaborator, Yale University historian Timothy Naftali. http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/annals.htm Read More