Cuban Missile Crisis

The main objective of the thesis paper is to elaborate on the influence of foreign successes and failures on the presidency of John F. Kennedy, paying particular attention to his long-lasting legacy.I am willing to touch upon the foreign affairs in Berlin, Cuba, Latin America and Vietnam in a way that I chose not to illustrate the historical events themselves. Instead, I would focus on the deep analysis of the occurrences, studying them from the perspective of Kennedy. Next to the relations outside the United States, I would also emphasize his medical condition, marriage, philandering and some of the most significant political achievements, such as the Peace Corps, which was established in 1961 as well as the official initiation of the Apollo program, which can be closely tied to the name of the president. In addition, I would outline the personality development of the 35th President of the United States from the presidential elections of 1961 until his death in 1963, scrutinizing the decisions and their effects in regard with Kennedy’s character throughout his presidency. The thesis is primarily based on the products of written and printed media (books, newspaper articles, public papers) and only secondarily on Internet sources (web sites, e-mail conversations, EBooks). The following remark of Ronald Reagan from 1985 proves to be true continuously: “History is not only made by people; it is people. And so, history is, as young John Kennedy demonstrated, as heroic as you want it to be, as heroic as you are.”

In the autumn of 1962, two weeks before U-2 aerial photographs confirmed Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba, the US intelligence community attempted to image the island with the spy satellite Corona. Insufficient image resolution and extensive cloud cover, however, prevented this photography from providing solid evidence confirming or denying the presence of offensive missiles. This event – previously unaddressed either by Missile Crisis or Corona scholars – illustrates both the promise and the limits of early satellite imagery intelligence. It further provides insight into the early imagery tasking and coordination process and demonstrates needs that drove further development of national satellite reconnaissance in the years that followed.

The handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis under the leadership of John F. Kennedy as either an instance of American grandiosity or a disastrous game of brinkmanship has been highly debated. At the time, policymakers were eager to antagonize the Soviets in American eyes by publicly condemning them for deploying “offensive” missiles in Cuba. The notion of this being an unreasonable and unprovoked act of Soviet belligerency was emphasized to the public; however, the very similar yet supposedly “purely defensive” installation of US Jupiter missiles in the Soviet-Turkish border was instead conveniently kept in the dark. A rather simple “missile trade” could have quickly abated Soviet-American tensions, yet given that the President’s political reputation both domestic and internationally was presumed to be on the line, bargaining or making such concessions with the enemy on the public front seemed demeaning and therefore unthinkable. As a result, the Kennedy administration purposefully withheld key information from the public regarding both the origin of the Cuban Missile Crisis itself and the measures that were taken to bring the conflict to an end in order to avoid public humiliation and preserve America’s image as a world-wide indispensable nation.

This article departs from the apparent homonymy among works of three figures of Cuban culture, the ethnographer Fernanrdo Ortiz (1881-1969), the filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1928-1996), and the visual artist Ivonne Ferrer (1968). Each of them produced a respective piece with the title [Historia de] Una pelea cubana contra los demonios. This article’s intention is to trace how such intellectuals, who came from distinct generations, faced the complexities, ambiguities and inevitable bifurcations in the path/task of (re)constructing/fictionalizing “history” during epochs of radical turning points in the articulations between culture and politics in the Island of Cuba: the 1959 Revolution, the anticipating events of Quinquenio Gris and the period that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Öz: Küba Füze Krizi ya da Türkiye’deki algılanış biçimiyle Jüpiter
Füzeleri Krizi, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin (ABD) Türkiye’ye,
Sovyet Sosyalist Cumhuriyetler Birliği’nin (SSCB) ise Küba’ya nükleer
başlıklı füzeler yerleştirmesi sonucunda ortaya çıktı. Söz konusu kriz,
Soğuk Savaş Dönemi’nde her iki bloğun başat gücünü ilk kez ciddi
manada karşı karşıya getirmekle birlikte dünyayı da nükleer bir savaş
tehdidi ile karşı karşıya bırakacaktı. Krizin aktörleri ABD ve SSCB olsa
da Türkiye de bu krizden ziyadesiyle etkilenecekti. Zira ABD’nin,
Sovyetlerin Küba’daki füzelerini kaldırması karşılığında Türkiye’de
konuşlandırılan Jüpiter füzelerini Ekim 1962’de kaldırmayı kabul etmesi,
Türkiye’yi de bu krizin bir parçası haline getirecekti. Türk-Amerikan
ilişkileri tarihinde önemli bir yeri olan Jüpiter Füzeleri Krizi farklı
boyutlarıyla da ele alınması gereken bir konudur. Şöyle ki, şimdiye kadar
yapılan çalışmalarda söz konusu krize daha çok devlet adamlarının nasıl
baktığı, nasıl bir çözüm ürettiği ve iki ülkenin diplomasi tarihindeki yeri
açısından ele alındığı görülmektedir. Oysaki krizin her iki ülkenin
kamuoyu tarafından nasıl algılandığı da oldukça önemlidir. Zira
devletlerarasında yaşanan krizler bazen kamuoyunda çok farklı
algılanabilmektedir. Bu minvalde, tebliğde Jüpiter Füzeleri Krizi’nin iki
ülke ilişkilerini nasıl etkilediği sorgulanmakla birlikte, daha çok iki
ülkenin kamuoyunun bu krizi algılayış biçimine ağırlık verilmiştir.
Basının işlevinin ve bu kriz sırasındaki tutumunun Türk-Amerikan
ilişkilerine bir etkisi olup olmadığı da sorgulanmıştır. Bu amaçla, iki
ülkede neşredilen gazete ve dergilerin yanı sıra arşiv kaynaklarından da
yararlanılmıştır.
Anahtar Sözcükler: Türkiye, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Jüpiter Füze
Krizi, Küba Krizi, Basın, Kamuoyu.

The article discusses how the emerging genre of American and British science fiction symbolised and expressed Cold War anxieties after 1949. 
It begins by briefly showing how a popular Western symbolised the Berlin Airlift, then considers how several new Sci Fi novels, including "The Martian Chronicles," "The Day of the Triffids," "I am Legend," and "The Bodysnatchers" each respond more precisely to changing Soviet aggression. 
The chief writers explored are Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, John Wyndham, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, and the television writer Terry Nation.  Connections are drawn between key science fiction novels and public concerns about possible atomic war, espionage fears, future Soviet invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It then suggests a shift in meaning affecting British science fiction from the mid-1950s, with rising fears about the demise of empire, and concerns that European civilisation is waning.  The chief writers discussed in this regard are John Christopher, whose work is linked with the Suez Crisis, & J.G. Ballard's "The Drowned World."  Strong links are also established between several British science fiction novels and William Golding's "Lord of the Flies."
9pp.

This paper will analyze one of the most tense superpower confrontation in history-The Cuban Missile Crisis-which occured in October of 1962 and it is seen as the most dramatic stage of the Cold War (Seibert, E. W.,2003). The latest being a spiral conflict between the two nuclear giants, the United States and the Soviet Union, due to the probability of the crisis to escalate until the catastrophic point of a third world war namely a nuclear one. The mainly goal of the two parties was to take position and possession of land where the other could become vulnerable in order to defend each other interests and emerge as the superpower. As a matter of fact this episode chose Cuba as the battleground, in this small Caribbean island nation, the Soviet Union installed offensive ballistic missiles pointing at the United States. It was only when John F. Kennedy realized via a photographic mission the presence of those destructive missiles that the crisis started and thirteen days from there the whole world lived a time of disquietude, tension and fear; the globe trembled. During this short but horrendous period the presidents managed to give a peaceful solution to the conflict. They knew the dangerous consequences of a counterattack or a retaliatory blow despite both contenders had the opportunities, the power and the means to contest.

Drawing on revealing new research, this richly informative volume is the definitive concise introduction to the crisis that took the world to the brink of nuclear war.


• 73 alphabetically organized entries that offer valuable insights into the leaders, events, and ideas that shaped the Cuban Missile Crisis

• More than a dozen expert contributors representing all countries involved in the crisis

• Seven primary source documents, including President Kennedy's speech to the American public and letters exchanged between Premier Kruschev and Fidel Castro

• Biographies of major figures, including the Kennedys, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Adlai Stevenson, and Valerian Zorin

• A thorough chronology outlining all key events before, during, and after the crisis

• A comprehensive bibliography on the crisis, including a significant number of recent publications that have brought new understanding of the conflict to light

Biografía de Enrique Pérez-Serantes, arzobispo y primado de la Iglesia cubana entre 1948-1968. Este prelado ha pasado a la historia por su frontal oposición a la dictadura de Batista y por salvar la vida a Fidel Castro en 1953 tras el asalto al cuartel Moncada.

Building the Minuteman missile fields in central Montana and bringing Alpha flight to alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis was a heavy lift for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Air Force. Given the urgency the Cold War placed on this weapon system, the USACE had to acquire vast tracts of land from private citizens. Some resisted outright, others acquiesced, but the overall process was long, painstaking, and anything but simple. As construction began, some Montanans revolted against the prime contractor Fuller-Webb because they believed it was hiring too many out of state firms and employees to do the work. Ultimately, this issue resolved itself and the project injected over $300 million into the state economy. However, shortly after construction was underway the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics entered a standoff against each other known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result Strategic Air Command and the 341st Strategic Missile Wing brought the first flight of Minuteman missiles to alert, eventually prevailing against the Soviet Union, but not before both the Kennedy administration and Khrushchev realized these weapons were not good for mankind, let alone their own nations. As a result, the Department of Defense began to pare back resources for the ICBM mission following the Cuban Missile Crisis. These actions from the 1960s, left largely unattended by leaders in the Air Force, provided the foundation for the mission’s post-Cold War problems.

The essential parts a guided missile need stopper form properly are: 1. Air frame and control surfaces. 2. Propulsion system. 3. War head system. 4. Guidance and control system. In addition in this article the basic fire control problem, how some of the forces of nature affect the trajectory of a guided missile as it flies to its intended target. How wings and finssteera missile and keep it pointed along its flight path.The use of interior control devices by missiles without exterior control surfaces (or limited ones) was described briefly. The different types of guidance systems used in missiles are inertial, command, beam-rider, and homing guidance. In this article the basic functional components of a guidance system.Some of the mare with in the missile, and some are on the launching ship. Then we will discuss briefly some of the parts in the missile's guidance and control equipment and how they work.Finally, we will cover the way specific missiles (the ones you will Work with) are divided into sections or compartments. INTRODUCTION GUIDANCE AND CONTROL Before we go on to discuss any particular type of guidance system, it is necessary to consider first the overall operation of an entire missile guidance and control system; to divide it into convenient groups of units; and to indicate the general function of each major group so that the operation of the particular units may be understood in relation to the operation of the guidance and control system as a whole.Also, in the interest of terminology standardization and to assist common understanding, we shall call the complete system with in a missile that steers and stabilizes it a guidance and control system. Depending on your experience with missiles, you may take exception to this designation.And if you do,there is good reason for it.Thereas on is shown in figure4-1.For example, if you have worked on the Tartaror Terrier missiles you will consider the system that guides and controls a missile to be its steering system.On the other hand, aTalosGMM would call it a guidance and control system.We will stick with the latter designation –not because we favor Talos but because most manuals,and many Navy publications, use this term.

Recent Russian-Western tension has been of much focus.  Following the annexation of Crimea, increased interests in the causes of division between Russia and the West have resulted in numerous explanations.  This paper aims to add to the debate by explaining the impact of the termination of the Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the role of ballistic missile defense in the American-Russian strategic relationship. After reviewing relevant the role of strategic deterrence and missile deference, it then surveys a chronology of key events involving the AMB Treaty; including the Cuban missile crisis, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Strategic Defense Initiative, and the emerging debates and threats following the Cold War that led to its dismissal. By highlighting defining moments of crisis and cooperation, it attempts to show the historic importance of the Treaty in defining and stabilizing the behavior between these two states. To further demonstrate the Treaty’s weight this study then reviews recent areas of cooperation following its dissolution like that of the NATO-Russian Council and how these efforts have been complicated by Russian objections to American-led missile defense programs like that of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). In doing so, it hopes to add a new layer in the debate concerning explanations for the current crisis in relations by reviewing the Georgian and Ukrainian conflicts. It contends that the strategic implications of the ABM Treaty’s abandonment have been underestimated, and that the EPAA contributes greatly to the bifurcation of European security. The hope is that by identifying key areas of contention and their role in state relations, future areas of cooperation can be illuminated to mitigate the current crisis between Russia and the West.

25 Kasım 1956 sabaha karşı, içinde Fidel, Raul, “Che”, Camilo, Juan Almeida dahil 82 devrimciyi taşıyan emektar “Granma” teknesi Meksika sularından ayrıldı. Tekne açık sularda yol almak için yetersizdi. 30 Kasım’da “Santiago de Cuba” kıyılarına varmaları gerekiyordu. Fakat yükü nedeniyle çok ağır seyrediyordu. Bu yüzden çıkartma ile eşgüdümlü başlaması gereken ayaklanma yarım kaldı. Plan açığa çıkmıştı. 2 Aralık gece yarısı Granma karaya oturdu. Yardım botu su aldığından mühimmatın bir kısmını çıkarabildiler. Üçüncü gün kuşatılmışlardı. Yoğun bombardıman altında dağıldılar. Yirmi biri orada hayatını kaybetti ve büyük kısmı ele geçirildi. Tekrar bir araya gelmeyi başardıklarında 12 adam ve sadece 7 silahları vardı. Fidel perişan durumdaki adamlarına baktı ve şöyle dedi: “İşte şimdi savaşı kazandık!”. Raul, yıllar sonra, o an abisinin delirdiğini düşündüğünü itiraf edecektir.

Günümüz sistem yapısının karmaşıklığı elbette ki geçmişle bağlantılı ve bir şekilde devamı gibi gelmektedir. Çalışmanın ana konusu Ekim 1962 tarihli Küba Krizi'nin hegemonya yarışı bağlamında değerlendirilmesi ve diplomasinin yükselişinin en üst düzey olduğu 1945 sonrası diplomasinin kazandığı en büyük ve kesin zaferlerden olan Küba'yı stratejik hegemon diplomasisi bağlamında incelemeye çalıştım. Bir gece yarısı dünya yok olabilirdi lakin diplomasi etkisini hissettirmeseydi. Hegemon devlet olma mücadelesi ve hırsı buna sebep olabilirdi. Küba bir dünyaya mal olabilirdi. Zafer için kelime belliydi; diplomasi.

This interdisciplinary, team-taught module offers students the opportunity to study the 1960s, widely regarded as
one of the most complex, contradictory, and controversial decades in twentieth century American life, as reflected
in the prevailing historical, political, literary and cultural climate. The decade began with high hopes for a more
democratic United States under John F. Kennedy, with liberal triumphs and civil rights gains, yet ended in discord
and disillusionment, as many Americans, shaken by urban unrest and assassinations, and divided by the escalation
of the war in Vietnam, believed the fate of the nation’s institutions and ideology hung in the balance. Starting by
analysing the consensus that existed in the 1950s, the module will contour America’s break with cultural conformity
during the 1960s, examining such topics as the major domestic achievements of Kennedy’s New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society; Cold War politics and the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Civil Rights movement from sit-ins to
voting rights activism to Black Power; Vietnam and the anti-war and youth counter-cultural movements; liberalism and
the revival of conservative partisanship; the roles of intellectuals and artists, and literary and cultural responses to the changes and challenges of the decade. Drawing on the central developments of the decade, and the competing uses
to which 60s narratives have been put, this module will offer students the opportunity to study many hotly debated
issues, critically engaging their nature and their significance, and making ample use of a fantastic variety of original
sources and visual material, including works of history, literature, art, photography, media, popular music, and cinema.

My contributions to the module were lectures and seminars on the Civil Rights Movement from MLK to Black Power, and Popular Music in the 1960s. The seminars concerned significant primary documents for both topics - MLK's "I Have a Dream" oratory and Malcolm X's pivotal "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech from 1964 for the Civil Rights seminar; and crucial essays and reportage from the frontline of American popular music for the music seminar, particularly John Sinclair of the MC5's  “Rock and Roll Is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution,”
The New Yorker, “A Fleeting, Wonderful Moment of ‘Community,’” and Michael Lydon's account of the Altamont Speedway concert fiasco, “The Rolling Stones – At Play in the Apocalypse”.

The relatively unknown Canadian involvement in the Cuban missile crisis, and why it has remained so for the past almost sixty years, is a dilemma. After President John F. Kennedy’s television address to the world on October 22nd, 1962, the United States (US) went to alert, DEFCON 3.  Canadian Minister of National Defence (MND) Doug Harkness, went to Prime Minister (PM) John G. Diefenbaker to request the comparable alert ‘Ready State of Military Vigilance’ for Canadian Forces, and was denied. Harkness subsequently advised his Chairman (CCOS) and the three service military chiefs (COS) to ‘quietly’ prepare, as he continued for the next two and one-half days to seek authority to match the US alert. Diefenbaker agreed to match the US alert, DEFCON 2 on October 24th, 1962, but only to match DEFCON 3.
Since then, Harkness has been continuously accused of putting the military on full alert without authority. There is little to substantiate a breach of CMR here, other than at the highest levels of military leadership.

Canadian Naval Review,  Vol.16, No. 2, (2020),  Pages: 15-20.

The Cold War International History Project is pleased to announce the release of CWIHP Bulletin, Issue 17/18, “The Global Cuban Missile Crisis at 50.”

Timed for publication on the 50th anniversary of this most dangerous Cold War crisis this October, this issue continues the Project’s mission to enrich scholarship and public policy debate through new archival evidence from inaccessible (or less easily accessible) archives around the world. Containing over 500 newly declassified and translated documents from international sources, this issue is the most extensive collection ever presented of original, never-before published, non-US primary sources on the Crisis.

Săptămâna care a trecut a fost marcată pe plan internaţional de publicarea deciziilor liderilor politici supremi ai S.U.A. şi Federaţiei Ruse referitoare la denunţarea de către ambele părţi a „Tratatului privind Forţele Nucleare cu Rază Medie de Acţiune” – semnat la Washington, la 8 decembrie 1987, de preşedintele american Ronald Reagan şi de Mihail Sergheevici Gorbaciov, secretar general al Partidului Comunist al Uniunii Sovietice. Opţiunea „dublu zero”, propusă de liderul politic american, a fost acceptată în anul 1987 de către cel sovietic şi, astfel, s-a ajuns la interzicerea instalării în Europa a oricăror tipuri de rachete cu rază medie de acţiune (echipate cu focoase nucleare şi capabile să atingă ţinte aflate la o distanţă de 1000-5500 km), precum şi a tuturor rachetelor cu rază scurtă de acţiune (care aveau posibilitatea să detoneze focoase atomice la distanţe cuprinse între 500 şi 1000 km). Rachetele care existau deja în Europa au fost retrase de ambele părţi şi distruse.

This investigation focuses and evaluates the significance of the role of Fidel Castro during the months before the Cuban Missile Crisis, from April 1962, and on the thirteen days during the crisis, from 16th October 1962 to 28th October 1962. This investigation shall evaluate the question; ‘To what extent did Fidel Castro have an impact on the decisions made by the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis?’ The method that shall be used to evaluate the impact Castro had on the decisions made by the USSR will be by using several sources and mainly looking at the two books, My Life by Fidel Castro, which gives first hand information on Castro’s view of the crisis and We now know: Rethinking Cold War History, by John Lewis Gaddis; this is a book that analyzes the missile crisis from a new angle with the use of recently reopened Soviet archives.

The world of diplomacy started in the 20th century at the times where monarchs and dynastic empires used to rule the world. The realm of authority resided exclusively within the monarchical, hierarchical, and political structure of ruling kings over their territories and beyond. Democracies at that time were not prominent, not well-established, and diplomatic negotiations were conducted and restricted solely to the sphere of reliable power. Treaties and international duties also stayed within the ruling power of King’state supremacy and were not as broadly exploited as what it is today called the democratization of democracy on a global scale. The democratization of diplomacy has created foreign policy reforms in its policy-making process by attracting interest groups, allowing public opinion to be engaged international affairs, and legislature works at formalizing its relations to domestic, national, and international politics. The nature of the diplomatic setting exists in at both the national and international level. In this research paper, I will conduct one of the most critical diplomatic negotiations of all times which were the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis between the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the United States. That intense diplomatic negotiation, communication, and cabling were about the prevention of a nuclear war attack on the United States and the Soviet withdrawal of its nuclear arsenal stationed on the island of Cuba. It was the most intense two weeks where nuclear explosions could have obliterated humanity entirely. A power of play and chess game between the Communist Soviet Union, Communist Party of Cuba, and the capitalist United States demonstrate the levels of delicate intricacies that employs in conducting diplomacy at the highest level for establishing world peace and avoiding nuclear war at all costs.