The United States policy towards Cuba.

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For a long time, the Soviets thought that they were years a head of the United States in terms of intercontinental missiles. After all, they had put 'Sputnik' into orbit, well before the United States had dreamt of such an act. Most of the Soviet organizations did not believe that there was a necessity to build more intercontinental missiles. This laxity made it harder for the Soviets to understand and deal with the fact that they had been surpassed. As it was not possible to build more intercontinental missiles, a group within the newly created Strategic Rocket Forces proposed the using of Cuba as a missile site. The Soviet premier Nikita S. Khrushchev who believed that the future of wars would involve strategic nuclear rockets backed such a move. The Soviets, thus, decided to place medium- (MRBM) and intermediate-range ballistic (IRBM) missiles in Cuba (as well as other weapons). Forty-two MRBMs (300-1200 miles) and twenty-four IRBMs (1200-3500 miles) were sent to Cuba. Some 22,000 Soviet soldiers and technicians escorted these missiles to Cuba. The Soviets started the shipments in early 1962.  It was only on October 14, 1962 that the US discovered the presence of a ballistic missile on a launching site.

On October 22, 1962 president Kennedy declared that the island of Cuba was under quarantine. It had not been easy to make this choice.  The other choices had been surgical air strike and doing nothing. Surgical air strike had been ruled out because the US Air Force did not believe that it could guarantee success. Doing nothing was also dismissed, as it would not go 'well' with US credibility, besides there was no guarantee that the Soviets would not introduce more missiles to Cuba. Kennedy also announced that the US forces would confiscate "offensive weapons and associated material" entering the quarantined zone. None of the Soviet ships that entered the quarantined zone were carrying such cargoes; most of the Soviet ships bound for Cuba stayed well clear of the zone. After a tense week, during which many messages were exchanged and the parties started to prepare for war.  Khrushchev announced, on October 28, that the construction of the sites had stopped. Khrushchev also recognized that the missile placed on the island were of offensive nature.  

Although the Soviet premier declared that a UN agency could verify his promise, such a UN inspection never took place. The US government, following its U-2 flight inspections, lifted the quarantine on November 20.  An inspection of the Soviet installations on Cuba show that while defense might have been on the minds of the Soviets, it was not the real reason. The weaponry sent to Cuba included medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. These missiles were clearly of offensive nature and were sure to provoke the United States. Instead of sending missiles, Soviet troops would have been sufficient to deter the United States from trying to succeed where the Bay of Pigs Operation had failed. Also, the support for Cuba was only newly emerging in the USSR which till then had seen it as a US lackey.  Missile power parity seems to be the real reason. A tiny section of the Soviet Armed Forces noticed that the US had surpassed them in terms of intercontinental missiles. They wanted to reach, at least, parity and had the firm backing of Khrushchev.  As there was not enough resources, nor the support of the entire military institution, to build more intercontinental missiles, they decided to use the IRBMs and MRBMs. These missiles had a smaller range but using Cuba as a 'launcher' would have solved this problem.  Also, they were much cheaper.

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Cuba is the largest Caribbean Sea-area country, larger than nearly all of the islands within the Caribbean Sea-area combined, and with nearly one-third of the combined populations. Nearly as large as the State of Pennsylvania and approximately as long as the State of Florida. With 11 million citizens, the population is approximately the same as the State of Illinois, the home of Chairman Crane.  If Cuba were a state within the United States, it would rank 7th in population.

Cuba, like the United States, was a founding signatory of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Cuba, like the ...

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