Cuban Missiles Crisis: Genesis & Fallouts

Abstract

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was a pivotal moment in the history of the Cold War, and one of the most dangerous moments in human history. For thirteen tense days in October of 1962, the world was on the brink of nuclear war as the United States and the Soviet Union faced off over the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

This showdown between two superpowers brought the world closer to a nuclear holocaust than ever before and had profound implications for international relations and global politics.

This article will explore the background, events, and aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and examine its lasting impact on the world.

Background

Cuba became involved in the Cold War in 1959 when Fidel Castro, who had just seized power from the corrupt, American-backed dictator Batista, outraged the USA by nationalizing American-owned estates and factories. As Cuba’s relations with the USA worsened, those with the USSR improved: in January 1961 the USA broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the Russians increased their economic aid.

Convinced that Cuba was now a communist state in all but name, the new US president, John F. Kennedy, approved a plan by a group of Batista supporters to invade Cuba from American bases in Guatemala (Central America). The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was deeply involved. There was a general view in the USA at this time that it was quite permissible for them to interfere in the affairs of sovereign states and to overthrow any regimes which they felt were hostile and too close for comfort.

The small invading force of about 1400 men landed at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, but the operation was so badly planned and carried out that Castro’s forces and his two jet planes had no difficulty crushing it. Later the same year, Castro announced that he was now a Marxist and that Cuba was a socialist country.

Kennedy continued his campaign to destroy Castro, in various ways: Cuban merchant ships were sunk, installations on the island were sabotaged and American troops carried out invasion exercises. Castro appealed to the USSR for military help. Khrushchev decided to set up nuclear missile launchers in Cuba aimed at the USA, whose nearest point was less than a hundred miles from Cuba.

He intended to install missiles with a range of up to 2000 miles, which meant that all the major cities of the central and eastern USA such as New York, Washington, Chicago and Boston would be under threat. This was a risky decision, and there was great consternation in the USA when in October 1962, photographs taken from spy planes showed a missile base under construction.

Why did Khrushchev take such a risky decision?

Historians have speculated on the motives of Khrushchev to take such a risky adventure. Some of his motives could be

1. The Russians had lost the lead in ICBMs, so this was a way of trying to seize the initiative back again from the USA. But it would be wrong to put all the blame for the crisis on the USSR.
2. In 1959 the Americans had signed an agreement with Turkey allowing them to deploy Jupiter nuclear missiles from bases in Turkey. This was before any top-level contacts between Castro and the Russians had taken place. As Khrushchev himself put it in his memoirs, ‘the Americans had surrounded our country with military bases, now they would learn what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at you’.
3. It was a gesture of solidarity with his ally Castro, who was under constant threat from the USA; although the Bay of Pigs invasion had been a miserable failure, it was not the end of the US threat to Castro — in November 1961 Kennedy gave the go-ahead for a secret CIA operation known as Operation Mongoose which aimed to ‘help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime’. Hopefully, the Russian missiles would dissuade such an operation; if not, they could be used against invading American troops.
4. It would test the resolve of the new, young, American President Kennedy.
5. Perhaps Khrushchev intended to use the missiles for bargaining with the West over the removal of American missiles from Europe, or a withdrawal from Berlin by the West.

How Crisis Developed and Resolved

Kennedy’s military advisers urged him to launch air strikes against the bases. General Maxwell Taylor urged Kennedy to launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba but he acted more cautiously: he alerted American troops, began a blockade of Cuba to keep out the 25 Russian ships which were bringing missiles to Cuba and demanded the dismantling of the missile sites and the removal of those missiles already in Cuba. The situation was tense, and the world seemed to be on the verge of nuclear war. The Secretary-General of the UN, U Thant, appealed to both sides for restraint.

Khrushchev made the first move: he ordered the Russian ships to turn back, and eventually, a compromise solution was reached. Khrushchev promised to remove the missiles and dismantle the sites; in return Kennedy promised that the USA would not invade Cuba again, and undertook to disarm the Jupiter missiles in Turkey (though he would not allow this to be announced publicly). Castro was furious with Khrushchev for ‘deserting’ him apparently without consulting the Cubans, and Cuban-Soviet relations were extremely cool for several years.

Fallouts of Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis had significant global fallouts, with far-reaching implications for international relations and global politics. Here are some of the main consequences:

1. Reduction in tension between Superpowers: Initially, the crisis marked a significant escalation in the already tense relationship between the two superpowers. However, soon both sides realized how easily a nuclear war could have started and how terrible the results would have been. It seemed to bring them both to their senses and produced a marked relaxation of tension. A telephone link (the ‘hotline’) was introduced between Moscow and Washington to allow swift consultations.
2. Nuclear arms race: The crisis led to an increased emphasis on nuclear weapons, as both sides sought to build up their arsenals as a deterrent against future conflict. This further fuelled the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
3. Increased importance of diplomacy and negotiations: The crisis highlighted the importance of diplomacy and negotiations in resolving international conflicts, rather than resorting to military action. This led to an increased focus on arms control and disarmament negotiations in subsequent years. In July 1963, the USSR, the USA and Britain signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, agreeing to carry out nuclear tests only underground to avoid polluting the atmosphere any further.
4. Increased attention to Latin America: The crisis drew attention to the role of Latin America in international affairs, and the United States began to focus more on the region, both politically and economically.
5. Impact on domestic politics: The crisis had significant impacts on the domestic politics of the United States and the Soviet Union. Kennedy’s handling of the crisis was highly praised. Most American commentators argued that by standing up to the Russians and by resisting pressure from his own army Chiefs of Staff for a military response, Kennedy defused the crisis and achieved a peaceful settlement. They laid all the blame for the crisis on the USSR, maintaining that Khrushchev and various Russian diplomats had repeatedly lied, insisting that they had no intention of building missile bases in Cuba. However, in the Soviet Union, Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s handling of the crisis led to his eventual ouster from power.

Tailpiece

Although Kennedy has always been praised for his skillful handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, some later historians were more critical of Kennedy. A few accused him of missing a chance to solve the problem of Cuba once and for all — he ought to have called Khrushchev’s bluff, attacked Cuba and overthrown Castro.

Others criticized Kennedy for causing the crisis in the first place by placing nuclear missiles in Turkey and repeatedly trying to destabilize the Castro regime. It was also pointed out that since Soviet long-range missiles could already reach the USA from Russia itself, the missiles in Cuba did not exactly pose a new threat.

(From my book “International Relations: Basic Concepts & Global Issues”, available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QZSRWT1)