Summary Of How Kennedy Handled The Cuban Missile Crisis

I decided to write my research paper on how President Kennedy handled the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the sources I have chosen to use is High Noon in the Cold War: Kennedy, Khrushchev & the Cuban Missile Crisis, written by Max Frankel. Frankel is an American journalist who has won a Pulitzer Prize. Frankel’s take is interesting, because he had covered the story while it happened. He uses his “personal memories of covering the conflict, and gathering evidence from recent records and new scholarship and testimony, [Frankel] corrects widely held misconceptions about the game of “nuclear chicken” played by John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962”. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13 day tense standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was the closest that either of the two countries came to using nuclear weapons against each other. The problem began when United States intelligence learned that the Soviet Union had missiles in Cuba. Many accuse President Kennedy of handling the conflict badly and accuse him of putting the country in serious danger, but Frankel argues that Kennedy handled it very well, calling him “statesmanlike and calm” in a very tense situation. He calls Khrushchev a “wily old peasant” who was “insecure” and “desperate to achieve credibility”. Published in 2004, this book goes over new uncovered information and revelations that has come to light since the crisis in the 1960’s. …show more content…
It has been a very useful source for my paper. I would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is writing their paper on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Knowledge of the Cuban Missile Crisis is necessary when understanding American foreign relations because it’s a crucial component to the Cold War and to understand Cuban/American relations. The two countries only recently restored relations in 2015. It is also important for understanding President Kennedy’s diplomacy and