Cuban Military Crisis: A War of Power Between the US and Soviet Union

Running head: CUBAN MILLITARY CRISIS
Cuban Military Crisis
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CUBAN MILLITARY CRISIS 2
Cuban Military Crisis
Fidel Castro became the president of Cuba in 1959. The United States of America did
not support his presidency. This is evidenced by the attack that was organized by the United
States against Cuba soon after Castro assumed power (Colman, 2016). The attack failed
terribly since the Cuban intelligence was aware about it and prepared a combat. The attack is
famously known as the bay of pigs. Due to the hostility between Cuba and America, Castro
sought to create ties with the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev, the then president of the
Soviet Union welcomed Castro and the ties between the two countries grew stronger. This
background is important in helping understand the missile crisis. The missile crises took
place for about two weeks in 1962. It started when a spying United States’ plane
photographed a site used to assemble nuclear missiles in Cuba. It was without doubt that
these were from the Soviet Union. There has been a rivalry between the United States and the
Soviet Union (Scott and Hughes, 2015). For this reason, both wanted to have as much as
possible weapons to increase their power. This is what had motivated the Soviet Union to
expand the military base.
The photographing of the site was done secretly. John Kennedy was the then president
of America. When he learnt this, a committee was formed to give him advise on the way
forward. The executive committee is famously known as the ex-com. The president and the
ex-com deliberated on the best move to make. The reason for the concern is that the missile
base posed a threat to the security of the United States (Peltonen, 2019). The base was only
90 miles south of Florida. The decision arrived by the president and the ex-com was to send
American naval to prevent arrival and installation of more missiles from the Soviet Union as
they came via see. John Kennedy then informed citizens of the United States that the security
of the nation was threatened by a nuclear war. People were worried and waited for the
reaction of Nikita which would determine the next move.