Nikita

One of the most defining moments in the relations between the United States and the Soviets in the course of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis that took place in 1962. It marked a time when the two nations were nearly involved in a war with the possibility of using nuclear weapons, and after it had passed, the two superpowers started pursuing ways of adjusting to one another, especially, aiming at preventing the use of nuclear weapons. The United States intelligence community (IC)…

In the summer of 1955, Eisenhower attempted to make yet another large step towards peace with the Soviet Union. At a summit, Eisenhower proposed his famed “Open Skies,” the plan that would allow mutual reconnaissance between all nuclear powers (Tal, 2001). Essentially, all the countries would disclose the location of every military and nuclear facility, and allow the other countries to fly surveillance planes above these facilities. This would allow the countries to verify that there is no plan…

On the final few days of the crisis, Cuba didn’t feel like they were going to have a say in what was going to happen in the end. Castro did not like being abandoned by the Soviet Union because they wanted to save their own interests. According to Belkin and Blight (1991), on the “final weekend of the crisis a communication from Castro warning of an American attack and proposing that the Soviets launch their missiles preemptively” because they didn’t feel like the compromise would be fulfilled on…

The Cold War, a war between the Soviet Union and the United States, was aimed towards preventing the others influence towards mankind. To begin with, the relationship with the Soviet Union and the United States didn’t go so well. They both were super powers of the world and aimed to increase its worldwide influences. Between the years 1945 and 1950, the two competitors broke out into war. Both sides were fighting for what they believed in thus resulting into this major conflict. Not only were…

Introduction Failed illusions by Charles Gati examines the events leading up to and surrounding the Hungarian uprising of October 1956. Gati argues that all the major players in the drama failed to provide adequate if any reasonable leadership. Throughout the drama the USSR gave vague and often conflicting orders to their Hungarian satellite. The Hungarians responded by attempting to fulfill their soviet overseers orders to no avail. The Hungarian leadership then was thrown into turmoil, and…

I. The Bay Pigs Invasion was a covert operation conducted by the CIA and the U.S. Government in the 1960’s. The operation took place in Cuba and ended being a complete failure which led to the cover up by the CIA saying that the U.S. had no part in the invasion at all even though it was completely their plan. At the time president John. F Kennedy had agreed to come up with the funds to go through with the invasion. A poor landing site, unfavorable decisions regarding air strikes, and poor…

In October nineteen-sixty-two, after learning that the Soviet Union secretly placed missiles facing the United States in Cuba, John F. Kennedy said “It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.” The U.S discovered the Soviet’s missiles when an American plane took photos of Soviet soldiers setting up missiles in Cuba that were in line with southern Florida. The Soviet’s decision to secretly place nuclear missiles in…

The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most studied events in world history. The United States never came so close to an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union or any other nation than it did during this time. The resulting 13 day political and military standoff beginning in October 1962 over the building of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles in Cuba would shape the way in which the United States conducted their foreign policy for decades to follow. The 1960s was a times of global shift as the…

The crisis was not over. Nuclear missiles remained on Cuba and Kennedy was determined to remove them. A resolution had to be found, and quickly, before Kennedy was pushed by the national panic he had generated to launch an attack on Cuba. Both leaders, it is clear, had become horrified at the prospects in front of them. Kennedy, desperate to avoid pushing Khrushchev too far, to the disgust of Excomm ‘hawks’, ordered the navy to allow Soviet and Soviet-chartered merchant ships not carrying arms…

This film covers the thirteen day period in October of 1962 where John F. Kennedy fought to keep the Cuba Missile Crisis from leading to the third world war. The movie follows the life of Kenny O’Donnell, Special Assistant to President, and his involvement with this situation. The event began when U-2 fighter jets flew over Cuba while taking photographs of the land below, reveling nuclear missles brought there by the Soviets. President Kennedy was left with a very hard decision. The options…