THE CRISIS
In October 15 1962 an American spy jet U2 snapped pictured that revealed that the Soviet Union had everything there to launch ballistic missiles into the US. The US could not tolerate the existence of the first strike capability in Cuba, which would give the Soviets full superiority in case of an armed conflict. This was also critical for JFK politically given the fact that just a month later elections of the House of Representatives were to happen. Given that JFK was a democrat, hat could hit the political image of all democrats as being soft on communism by allowing missiles on Cuba. Kennedy had to respond and was holding meetings for 13 days in late October with the special Executive Committee (ExComm) that was called specially …show more content…
This day is particularly important because it was full of the events that were putting the wold on the edge to having a nuclear war. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. cited by Michael Dobbs called it “ the most dangerous moment in human history”. This day better than other days of the crisis illustrates total miscommunication and miscalculation of the parties involved. The day started from Castro convincing Khrushchev to strike against the US with nuclear weapons, meanwhile Kennedy’s brothers were secretly trying to deal withdrawal of missiles from Turkey in exchange for Soviet Union’s leaving of Cuba. The same day a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and another one was strayed over the Soviet territory. The U-2 was shot not by the orders of Moscow, in fact, it was initiated not even by the Soviet commanders. Kennedy was not sure how to react to such moves and the head of the Air Force have proposed an immediate bombing of the island. Luckely so, JFK has called for a pause for a couple of days before the planes left the runway. Kennedy first wanted to communicate Khrushchev, and due to the lak of a telephone line, the communication was taking up to several hours in a situation where every minute was so important. As the Joint Chiefs were finalizing the operation of invading Cuba, Soviet Union has moved the missiles 15 close to the US Guantanamo base, not to mention the incident with the Soviet submarine which was forced to the surface, unlike the air force, the submarines were carrying nukes and were authorised to use it. The US was not aware of the fact that the submarines were carrying weapons. According to Pious(), the US had little idea of the amount of tactical weapons on Cuba. Indeed, the very fact that the captain of the submarine was authorised to give a nuclear strike is also questionable, given the absolutely fatal communication of those on board with
In October 15 1962 an American spy jet U2 snapped pictured that revealed that the Soviet Union had everything there to launch ballistic missiles into the US. The US could not tolerate the existence of the first strike capability in Cuba, which would give the Soviets full superiority in case of an armed conflict. This was also critical for JFK politically given the fact that just a month later elections of the House of Representatives were to happen. Given that JFK was a democrat, hat could hit the political image of all democrats as being soft on communism by allowing missiles on Cuba. Kennedy had to respond and was holding meetings for 13 days in late October with the special Executive Committee (ExComm) that was called specially …show more content…
This day is particularly important because it was full of the events that were putting the wold on the edge to having a nuclear war. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. cited by Michael Dobbs called it “ the most dangerous moment in human history”. This day better than other days of the crisis illustrates total miscommunication and miscalculation of the parties involved. The day started from Castro convincing Khrushchev to strike against the US with nuclear weapons, meanwhile Kennedy’s brothers were secretly trying to deal withdrawal of missiles from Turkey in exchange for Soviet Union’s leaving of Cuba. The same day a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and another one was strayed over the Soviet territory. The U-2 was shot not by the orders of Moscow, in fact, it was initiated not even by the Soviet commanders. Kennedy was not sure how to react to such moves and the head of the Air Force have proposed an immediate bombing of the island. Luckely so, JFK has called for a pause for a couple of days before the planes left the runway. Kennedy first wanted to communicate Khrushchev, and due to the lak of a telephone line, the communication was taking up to several hours in a situation where every minute was so important. As the Joint Chiefs were finalizing the operation of invading Cuba, Soviet Union has moved the missiles 15 close to the US Guantanamo base, not to mention the incident with the Soviet submarine which was forced to the surface, unlike the air force, the submarines were carrying nukes and were authorised to use it. The US was not aware of the fact that the submarines were carrying weapons. According to Pious(), the US had little idea of the amount of tactical weapons on Cuba. Indeed, the very fact that the captain of the submarine was authorised to give a nuclear strike is also questionable, given the absolutely fatal communication of those on board with