Kennedy made every attempt during the crisis to prove to the American people that he was reacting to a genuine threat and was treating it in a way that was most probable to end in a nonviolent outcome.e.g
photographs of missile sites being built in Cuba.
Throughout the crisis, Kennedy chose the most tactful course of action and the one least probable to escalate into nuclear war. Kennedy decided to blockade Cuba rather than permitting military action against Cuba. This decision kept open the chance of a peaceful outcome to the Crisis. Also at the height of the crisis Kennedy received two letters from Khrushchev, one aggressive and the other more appeasing. Kennedy again made a good decision to ignore the more hostile of the two letters and only respond to the more reasonable one which prevented the crisis from escalating further.
By looking at Kennedy’s choice of response to Soviet aggression, we can see why people held their view of Kennedy as being the saviour of the western world because Kennedy really did establish a restraint and a real concern to protect world peace. Kennedy believed that the way in which he handled the crisis and the way in which he avoided the growing risk of nuclear war as his greatest achievement.
The Cuban missile crisis destabilized and damaged the position of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union however. Khrushchev’s decision to back down and his agreement to dismantle Russian missile sites on Cuba allowed the American media to portray the outcome of the crisis as a triumph for Kennedy.
. Russia’s relationship with China suffered as a result of the cold war. China criticized Khrushchev’s attitude towards the crisis and said that he was unfit to be a world communist leader. Khrushchev was then forced to resign. People held their views because they wanted Kennedy to be seen as the victorious winner of the crisis. Many people did not know the entire story of the facts that had occurred and instead thought that Kennedy was both strong and resolute which eventually destroyed Khrushchev’s reputation and forced him to back down which left him discredited.
The Cuban missile crisis stunned Kennedy and made him determined to protect world peace for the future. Kennedy took many steps to ensure that something like the crisis would never occur again. Kennedy set up a direct telephone line between Moscow and Washington in order to give the superpowers instant communication to one another and pursue détente. A Nuclear Test Ban treaty was signed in 1963. People thought that Kennedy really did care about the preserving of world peace because in Kennedy’s speeches he expressed his desire and concern to ‘Assure the survival and success of liberty’. Because of Kennedy’s desperate steps to preserve world peace, in the eyes of America he was the savior of the Western world.
However Historians are now critical of Kennedy’s unrealistic attitude towards Cuba and hold him responsible for pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union. Kennedy failed to see that Castro was extremely popular with the Cuban people. Akexeyev quoted that ‘At least ninety per cent of the people were for Fidel Castro’ and that the Cuban people ‘Idolized him. Every home had graffiti saying Fidel, this is your home’.
Another criticism is Kennedy’s support for an attempted invasion of Cuba at ‘The Bay Of Pigs’ in April 1961. By backing the Cuban rebels, Kennedy had caused Castro to move closer to the Soviets. People believed that Kennedy’s actions had caused the Crisis to occur. Kennedy continued to threaten Cuba. In November 1961, Kennedy authorized ‘Operation Mongoose’ which involved sabotage. One act of sabotage was presenting Castro with a cigar soaked in the drug LSD to make him talk nonsense during one of his long speeches. This pushed Castro even closer to the Soviets resulting in the building of Soviet missile bases in order to defend Cuba if needed. People thought that Kennedy was responsible for the construction of missile sites in Cuba because of his threats which pushed Castro into a strong friendship with the Soviets.
However Kennedy refused to listen to Khrushchev’s peace propositions because he wanted to appear strong and resolute for future elections. Kennedy has been criticized for prioritizing America interest ahead of world security and for disregarding Khrushchev’s claim that Soviet Missiles were placed on Cuba only to defend and give the Soviets nuclear equality. An extract from one of Khrushchev’s speeches shows him in a different light as he explains that the missiles on Cuba were there only ‘As means of deterring the aggressors, and not as means as attack’. He blames Kennedy for being ‘Inhuman’ by blockading Cuba which he labels as ‘An attempt to starve a whole nation’.
An extract written by a British Journalist in 1992, on the anniversary of the crisis labels Kennedy as an attempted murderer, ‘The day President Kennedy tried to kill me’. Hitchen stresses that Kennedy had the opportunity to sort out the crisis but instead ‘Brought the world to the edge of destruction’. People thought Kennedy cared more about elections than the restoration of peace because Kennedy had many opportunities to end the crisis but instead opted for the approach that made him look strong and resolute.
Due to the release of new documents, Kennedy is seen very differently from the resolute and strong image perceived by contemporaries during the crisis. Kennedy appears less clear sighted and calm at handling the events than people first believed. Kennedy was trying to avoid another humiliation caused by the catastrophic ‘Bay Of Pigs’ and elections were looming. Also a tape from one of the first Excom meetings shows that Kennedy was primarily in favor of using military force against Cuba (bombing). The proposition of blockading Cuba was not his. People held the view that Kennedy was not as clear minded as he made people believe because many of the important factors that he was praised for such as blockading, were not even his own ideas. Kennedy led people under false pretences by creating this perfect calm image of himself when in actual fact he was tense and constantly stressed.
Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy’s brother, played a major and crucial role in the ending of the crisis. Robert Kennedy suggested that the president disregard the second, more aggressive letter and reply instead to the first more appeasing message, resulting in the Soviet ships turning back. Kennedy was not as strong and unyielding as American propaganda suggests because behind the scenes Kennedy was conferring and indulging with the Soviets. The crisis ended when Kennedy unofficially agreed to remove the missiles in Turkey thus preventing an escalation into nuclear war. People thought that Kennedy lied throughout the crisis and held crucial information back from the people for his own good because Kennedy chose to hide the fact that the deal had been made for twenty – five years.
Kennedy’s way of dealing with the Cuban missile Crisis destabilized world peace by damaging the Americans affiliation with Cuba and France. America’s relationship with Cuba was worse than ever. By expelling Cuba from the Organization of American states, Cuba became more reliant on the Soviet Union. The European Allies of the USA felt stunned at how little they were consulted throughout the catastrophe and felt insignificant.
I feel that contemporaries were wrong to regard President Kennedy as the savoir of the Western world because although Kennedy successfully stopped the Crisis from escalating into nuclear war, if it were not for his actions towards Cuba in the beginning then the Cuban Missile Crisis would never have occurred.
Kennedy’s threats towards Cuba pushed Castro into a strong relationship with the Soviets and many things that Kennedy was praised for such as blockading Cuba were not even his own ideas. The cold war and super power rivalry continued until the Soviet president Gorbachev initiated peace proposels.
By Charlotte Bool 11south
