Cold War Primary Source assignment: To what extent was dtente a result of the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

P08254387 Mark Hardcastle Dr Kenneth Morrison

Cold War Primary Source assignment:

To what extent was détente a result of the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962

Introduction:

On the 17th of April 1961 the United States conducted an invasion upon Cuba by US trained Cuban exiles and despite the skirmish ultimately becoming a failure, it lay the foundation for the Cold War’s most major flash point; the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

It was the opportunity for the Soviet Union to stage nuclear warheads within striking distance of the United States, in response to the United States placing Jupiter IRBM’s in Europe, Italy as well as in Turkey.

Whilst there are many contributing factors towards détente, most of which are intertwined in one way or another, the Cuban missile crisis and the potential mutually assured destruction (MAD) that could have followed, is considered by some as the

Key factor for the the super powers agreeing terms of mutual acceptance and relatively peaceful coexistence, Détente.

Through out this assignment I shall be assessing the impact the Cuban Missile Crisis and the events that culminated in the Cuban Missile crisis had on Détente and the significant reduction in international tension between the superpowers throughout the 1960’s.

Détente: Détente is the easing of strained relations, politically and in terms of military force.

Political Background:

Prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, Cuba was still one the focal points of Cold war anxiety. Off the back of the Cuban revolution where Fidel Castro and his 26th of July Movement other throw Bastista, the US backed Cuban dictator. A movement that was widely backed apart from the upper classes who generally prospered under Batista’s regime due to the economical relationship shared with major US corporations, mafias and the government itself.

It was possibly the fact that Castro was now the stumbling block between these US corporations and the land they owned in Cuba, that fast tracked US intervention on a military level. The US corporations, whom under Batista’s regime had free reign now faced, Castro’s regime captured and nationalized former US owned utilities and land such as the oil refineries and sugar mills, which ultimately forced the hand of the United States into officially severing ties with Cuba.

This lead to the US severing all ties with Cuba internally on a trade/economical level and placing a trade embargo upon Cuba, now an isolated ‘satellite’ state, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union in an attempt to gain support.

Less than two years later, 1961 and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained Cuban exiles and together with US forces invaded the south of Cuba in an attempt to other throw Castro. The Cuban military forces that defeated the US trained forces were supplied with equipment and trained by Soviet controlled Eastern bloc nations.

It was initially Dwight D. Eisenhower who gave the go ahead for the operation to go ahead at a National Security Council meeting, however it was his successor, John F. Kennedy who was president during April 1961 during operation Pluto who oversaw the operation and ultimately had to deal with it’s failure and the socio-economic and political fallout of it at the same time.

Kennedy’s first tasks as leader of the United States had been to oversee the Bay of Pigs invasion, operation Mongoose; the covert attempts to disposes Castro of power and in some cases assassinate the Cuban leader; all of which failed and culminated in the most tense period of the Cold war, a 13 day period during which the possibility of nuclear war occurring was greater than in any other period of history. Global democracy had seen a stalemate over the past two US presidential tenures, first of which, the Truman administrations containment policy failed to quash any tension and secondly, Eisenhower’s ‘Massive retaliation’ policy failed to bring victory of failure to either sides. The Cuban Missile Crisis gave Kennedy a platform to disarm the nuclear time bomb that threatened world peace.

Cuban Missile Crisis:

At 8:45am, October 16th 1962, A US Lockheed U-2 Aircraft on a surveillance mission, captured images, photographic proof of Soviet Missile sites that were under construction in Cuba.

In published, document 18, United States foreign relations meeting from the evening of the 16th of October 1962, which records a meeting between Kennedy, Dean Rusk (secretary of state) Robert McNamara (The secretary of Defence) and McGeorge Bundy (National security advisor) met to discuss the findings of the U-2 aircraft, earlier that same day. Less than 12 hours had passed since the U-2’s discovery before this major ...