This paper will discuss the Cuban missile crisis and the involvement of John F. Kennedy's administration in the crisis. The purpose of this paper is to explain what the Cuban missile crisis was as well as how John F. Kennedy and his administration handled the crisis. This paper will also address the following issues: how the Bay of Pigs invasion related to the crisis; how Kennedy and the Democratic party played an important role in the crisis; how Kennedy delegated authority during the crisis; and how Kennedy waited until after the Bay of Pigs before making a public announcement about the crisis.
Although many Americans refer to the Kennedy administration's fiasco as either the administration's fiasco as either the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Cuban missile crisis, those names are somewhat confusing. The Bay of Pigs invasion actually occurred well before the Cuban missile crisis. The Cuban missile crisis began as a Soviet response to the U.S. decision to base missiles in Turkey and, to a lesser extent, in Italy and Germany("Celebration" 1962). Nikita Khrushchev was uncomfortable with the closeness of U.S. missiles to the Soviet Union, so he responded by formulating a plan to locate some Soviet missiles close to the United States. Apparently, he had also decided to discuss this idea with Fidel Castro.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was organized by Kennedy and his administration. It was a secret plan that called for American-armed Cuban emigres to attack Cuba. But it was really the Eisenhower administration that initiated the Bay of Pigs invasion. According to the book, Cuban Crisis of 1962, "the Eisenhower administration began to recruit and train Cuban refugees to return and try to overthrow Castro" (Larson 3). Kennedy inherited this plan and decided to proceed with it. But he failed to tell key players in his administration about the plan until just before the invasion, and, even then, he did not fully disclose all of th...