Crisis of 1962
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The second half of October, 1962, was possibly the most dangerous period in the history of the world: the Cuba Missile Crisis, when for a week and a half the United States and the Soviet Union stood closer to the brink of nuclear war then ever before or since. In the aftermath of the crisis, much study has been given to two fundamental questions: how did the superpowers stumble so close to nuclear war, and perhaps even more important having come to the brink, how did they back down and succeed in avoiding a nuclear exchange? The latter question is the principal focus of this study. Until recently, the efforts of scholars in the West to understand the events of October, 1962, suffered from a structural onesidedness. American policymakers were readily available for questioning, but Soviet policymakers were not, and the little published Soviet material on the subject could not be regarded as reliable. With the "opening" of the Soviet Union in the Gorbachev era, this has begun to change, and we are now increasingly able to fill in the Soviet side of the picture. Soviet changes also mean that the danger of a future confrontation of the superpowers is greatly reduced, but other nuclear crises will undoubtedly recur in the future, especially as nuclear weapons proliferate into the Third World. The problem of defusing nuclear crises thus remains as critical as ever. To understand how the crisis ended, it is obviously necessary to have some understa
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sile Crisis: October 1962 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 18990.
The hawks' Cuban missile crisis was relatively
understandable, predictable, controllable, and
safe. The doves', on the other hand, was
inexplicable, unpredictable, uncontrollable,
and above all, dangerous ... They differed,
in short, on power, perception, and policy.4
Briefly, the "hawks" felt that the U.S. had in fact overwhelming nuclear superiority, and that therefore the U.S. could freely take a hard line towards the Soviets. The "doves" were doubtful that "nuclear superiority" meant anything in the real world, given that the Soviets did have some deliverable nuclear weapons.5 The doves' anxiety was sharply increased by their inability to comprehend Krushchev's motives for making such a risky move; they were seriously concerned that he was irrational and unpredictable.6
Kennedy's essential response was to "escalate" the U.S. response slowly to give Krushchev and the Kremlin leadership plenty of time to absorb the implications of U.S. actions and U.S. resolve.7 If in fact Krushchev was irrational, nothing could be counted on to work (save perhaps cooler heads in the Kremlin). The on
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Approximate Word count = 1956
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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