The Cuban Missile Crisis was an event that would have been felt by not only the United States, Russia, and Cuba; it was an event that would have been felt around the world. Nuclear war would have been inevitable had neither side decided to back down. But due to the humility and cooperation of both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, a nuclear war, and undoubtedly a third world war, were averted. Without looking at the decisions made by John F. Kennedy and his staff in hindsight, I will explain why they made the right ones while also taking a closer look at the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The book starts with a mention of the Cold War and that the United States and the Soviet Union were always fighting to gain an edge in power over the other. …show more content…
Kennedy was just trying to keep the United States from taking any nuclear damage and Khrushchev thought he was doing a fellow socialist country a favor by giving them some protective measures. It seems to me, now that I have read it all, Khrushchev thought of the United States as a bully and wanted to give Cuba somewhat of a backbone to fall back if push came to shove between Cuba and the United States. Khrushchev knew the United States feared the Soviet Union because the Soviets were a power threat to the United States and could more or less match their military power, but he also realized that if he let nuclear weapons be launched on the U.S., he would have world war III on his hands. The fallout from the nuclear strike on the U.S. would undoubtedly cause an act of retaliation on Cuba by the U.S., which would call for the Soviets to step in for Cuba because it was obvious Cuba could not hold their own against a power like the U.S. It was great diplomacy on both sides to not let world war three happen.
The most interesting thing about this book was to find out how many and what kinds of weapons were being sent to Cuba from the Soviet Union. I was fascinated by all of the weapons and to learn what the acronyms stood for and the threat that they posed to the United States. To hear what the nuclear weapons would do, how far they could go, and how much it frightened the U.S. was
The book starts with a mention of the Cold War and that the United States and the Soviet Union were always fighting to gain an edge in power over the other. …show more content…
Kennedy was just trying to keep the United States from taking any nuclear damage and Khrushchev thought he was doing a fellow socialist country a favor by giving them some protective measures. It seems to me, now that I have read it all, Khrushchev thought of the United States as a bully and wanted to give Cuba somewhat of a backbone to fall back if push came to shove between Cuba and the United States. Khrushchev knew the United States feared the Soviet Union because the Soviets were a power threat to the United States and could more or less match their military power, but he also realized that if he let nuclear weapons be launched on the U.S., he would have world war III on his hands. The fallout from the nuclear strike on the U.S. would undoubtedly cause an act of retaliation on Cuba by the U.S., which would call for the Soviets to step in for Cuba because it was obvious Cuba could not hold their own against a power like the U.S. It was great diplomacy on both sides to not let world war three happen.
The most interesting thing about this book was to find out how many and what kinds of weapons were being sent to Cuba from the Soviet Union. I was fascinated by all of the weapons and to learn what the acronyms stood for and the threat that they posed to the United States. To hear what the nuclear weapons would do, how far they could go, and how much it frightened the U.S. was