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

The Cuban Military Crisis was a war of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. Learn about the origins, course, and aftermath of the crisis, including the establishment of a hotline between the two countries.

Running head: CUBAN MILLITARY CRISIS
Cuban Military Crisis
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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.

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When the ships ferrying the missiles neared arrival and met the ‘quarantine’ (as the
blockade by the US navy was called) they stopped before reaching the blockade. Had they
threatened to cross the blockade by force, a nuclear war would likely have resulted. Stopping
of the Soviet Union ships meant peace. During the two weeks, there were communication
exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union (Nathan, 2016). About two weeks
since the crisis, Nikita sent Kennedy a message accepting to remove the missiles from Cuba
in exchange of a promise that the United States would not attack Cuba. Nikita sent another
message the following days requesting that the United States also remove the missiles that
they had in Turkey. United states had deliberated on agreeing to the first message and
ignoring the second. However, after further thought the United States decided to agree to both
requests. The second request was however fulfilled secretly (Jervis, 2015). After receiving
the message, John Kennedy went to the Soviet Union ambassador and informed him that both
the requests were accepted.
The United States removed their missiles from Turkey. The Soviet Union also
removed their weapons from Cuba. The threat of a nuclear war was dealt with peacefully and
people all over the world regained their peace (Frankel, 2018). The two super powers went
ahead to establish a hotline between the two countries to make sure that such issues would be
dealt with amicably in case they arise in future. The two countries however went on to make
missiles. In fact, the Soviet Union now started making stronger missiles. The term stronger
means that the missile would easily attack the United States from the Soviet Union. The more
the ammunition that a state have, the more power that they have.
The conclusion that can be alluded to from the missile crisis is that of two countries
interested in increasing their power. Having more ammunition bases would mean that a
country is stronger than the other. The Soviet Union would have become even stronger with
the missile bases in Cuba as Cuba is just about 90 miles from the United States. The hunger

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for power is further evidenced by the continued accumulation of ammunition by the two
countries even after agreeing to maintain peace. The two countries continued to make even
stronger ammunition. In a nutshell, the Cuban missile crisis was a war of power between the
United States and the Soviet Union.

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References
Colman, J. (2016). Cuban Missile Crisis: Origins, Course and Aftermath. Edinburgh
University Press.
Frankel, M. (2018). Learning from the Missile Crisis. In Cuban Communism, 1959-2003 (pp.
80-90). Routledge.
Jervis, R. (2015). The Cuban Missile Crisis: What can we know, why did it start, and how did
it end? In the Cuban Missile Crisis (pp. 19-57). Routledge.
Nathan, J. (2016). The Cuban missile crisis revisited. Springer.
Peltonen, T. (2019). Wise Leadership During the Cuban Missile Crisis. In Towards Wise
Management (pp. 69-102). Palgrave Macmillan.
Scott, L., & Hughes, R. G. (2015). The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal.
Routledge.