Today many consider the Cuban Missile Crisis to be the closest the Cold War ever got to escalating to an all-out nuclear war. In July of 1962 Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev responded to American Jupiter ballistic missiles placed in Italy and Turkey by placing nuclear missiles in Cuba just 90 miles off United States shores. Cuban leader Fidel Castro was eager to ally himself with the Soviet Union due to the previous failed American Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. President Kennedy discovered the missiles in October of 1962 when an American U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba and photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled. The president immediately called a secret meeting of advisors known as the executive committee
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They argued that the supplies to make the missiles were likely already at the site and to simply set up a blockade would be ineffective. The team argued that putting a blockade around Cuba would only speed up the production of the missiles out of fear. On top of this possibilities the Joint Chief of Staff believed that a simple blockade would tell the rest of the world that we are a weak target. Dean Acheson presented a moral argument to ExComm saying that it was the president’s moral duty to take out the missile site as they were putting over 90 million American lives in danger. The team researched and developed an attack plan that would require both Navy and Airforce strikes along with troops being deployed in over 500 …show more content…
During the crisis, Khrushchev sent two important letters to President Kennedy hoping to solve the problem. The first letter he offered to remove the missile sites from Cuba if America agreed not to invade. However, the following day Khrushchev sent a second letter that said they would dismantle the missiles, but America must dismantle the missiles held in Turkey. President Kennedy publicly agreed to the first letter drafting a letter to Khrushchev with the help of his brother Robert. In a separate secret deal, America agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey. This second deal was kept from the American public for over 25 years. Although these two deals did not end the arms race, some say it even encouraged Soviet Union weapon production, it did end the Cuban Missile Crisis and prevent the world from entering a nuclear
They argued that the supplies to make the missiles were likely already at the site and to simply set up a blockade would be ineffective. The team argued that putting a blockade around Cuba would only speed up the production of the missiles out of fear. On top of this possibilities the Joint Chief of Staff believed that a simple blockade would tell the rest of the world that we are a weak target. Dean Acheson presented a moral argument to ExComm saying that it was the president’s moral duty to take out the missile site as they were putting over 90 million American lives in danger. The team researched and developed an attack plan that would require both Navy and Airforce strikes along with troops being deployed in over 500 …show more content…
During the crisis, Khrushchev sent two important letters to President Kennedy hoping to solve the problem. The first letter he offered to remove the missile sites from Cuba if America agreed not to invade. However, the following day Khrushchev sent a second letter that said they would dismantle the missiles, but America must dismantle the missiles held in Turkey. President Kennedy publicly agreed to the first letter drafting a letter to Khrushchev with the help of his brother Robert. In a separate secret deal, America agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey. This second deal was kept from the American public for over 25 years. Although these two deals did not end the arms race, some say it even encouraged Soviet Union weapon production, it did end the Cuban Missile Crisis and prevent the world from entering a nuclear