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Thirteen Days- A Look at the Cuban Missile Crisis


It is easy to understand Khrushchev's perception that Kennedy was weak.
             RFK's book offers that the Intelligence Community in 1962 gave JFK reports that the Soviet Union would not make Cuba a military base, " the risk of retaliation from the United States would be too great to take the risk in this case- [p.6]. Although we held strategic and tactical superiority in the Caribbean, the Bay of Pigs was a disaster. Why would the Intelligence Community think it out of the question that the Soviets wouldn't use Cuba as a base? The culture of paranoia during the Cold War should have been enough to at least suggest to the administration that this scenario was possible. Cuba was terrified that the U.S. would invade again, maybe successfully. This fear created the perfect opportunity for a mutualistic relationship between Castro and Khrushchev. Castro would gain security, and Khrushchev would shift the balance in the arms race because his shorter-range ballistic missiles would be capable of hitting the United States. Kennedy's measured restraint regarding the Berlin Wall and Laos was meant to avoid crisis. In reality, the administration's inaction caused the Soviets to gamble that they could pull off the installations without U.S. retaliation. .
             In fairness to both sides, the Cold War was full of deceptions and misjudgments on both sides. When JFK met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko before the discovery of weapons in Cuba was exposed, JFK didn't tip his hand. He let Gromyko lie, claiming that the only reason the Russians were there was to "give bread to Cuba in order to prevent hunger in that country- [p.19]. If it is true that Kennedy was nave to think that the Soviets would not place weapons in Cuba, then it is also true that Gromyko was nave to think that the U.S. would believe that their only role in Cuba was for humanitarian purposes. On Tuesday October 23rd, the day after President Kennedy made his speech to the American people explaining the crisis, CIA Director John McCone reported that the Russians were beginning to camouflage the missile sites [p.


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