Cuban Missile Crisis Impact

To what extent did the Cuban Missile Crisis impact the USA 's foreign policy?

As a key event within the Cold War 'conflicts ' between the USSR and the US, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 has held a significant role in impacting the evolution of the US 's foreign policy and its international interactions. The most noticeable change in the US 's foreign policy is most arguably the shift from military responses to diplomatic responses. There are also noticeable changes in the US 's use of international military forces, priorities, and use of diplomatic power. These changes all ultimately grow from what a nation 's foreign policy is based upon - national interest. There were other areas of the US 's foreign policy, however, that were only slightly …show more content…
However, the Cuban Missile Crisis did not reach the extent of completely removing or altering the Mutual Assured Destruction Policy. The US 's core national interest at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis was that of 'anti-communism ' according to Charles William Maynes of foreignpolicy.com. The time being that of following two world wars in the past few decades, the US 's foreign policy was already militant. The creation of the atomic bomb, the 'nuclear arms race ' between the two nations, and with one of the key issues of the Cuban Missile Crisis being the threat of USSR nuclear missiles being launched onto the US from nearby Cuba, prevention of such an attack was of utmost priority. With the combination of these two national interests, military preparation and the prevention of a nuclear war, the US foreign policy held a factor that was key to the US 's response to the Crisis - Mutual Assured Destruction Policy. With this policy, the US had secretly placed nuclear missiles in Turkey to remedy the situation. The Mutual Assured Destruction, …show more content…
According to foreign policy analyst, Nina Harchigian (n.d.), all big emerging national powers share common concerns - free trade, economic growth, prevention of terrorism, and efforts to stymie nuclear proliferation - which would include the USSR. Finding such concerns within the USSR with communication with their national leader, the US President at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy, was able to come to a diplomatic resolution with the opposing nation. With effective use of diplomacy ultimately saving not only the US but the entire globe from nuclear war, there was a shift in international practice evident within the US foreign policy that can be largely attributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Examples of such a shift in the foreign policy include the newer alternative to threatening counterattack - diplomatic 'isolation ' of rogue states - and 'encouragement ' of an agreeable ideology rather than the 'containment ' of a disagreeable ideology (Shawn Grimsley, n.d.), which by nature concludes that diplomacy should be considered in higher priority than military action. While such evidence could be arguably a result of the Cold War as a whole, rather than the Cuban Missile Crisis alone, there was evidently a large increase in emphasis on the importance of quick and clear communication between nations,