For a better understanding of the exigency that occurred during that period we must take a look at the events that took place before the crisis itself. One major contributor to the crisis which helped raise suspicion was caused by the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April of 1961. (Allison, 1971) This unsuccessful CIA trained invasion force set up concerns for the nations involved, some which have still to be resolved. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an attempt of the United States to overthrow the Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro without appearing to have influenced the coup’. Cuba itself was the closest Communist country to America which was Capitalist. The United States wanted to insert a more US friendly leader into the country, thus kicking the Soviet influence out. This attempt of the US to overthrow Fidel Castro obligated the dictator to ask the Soviet’s for protection. At the same time it gave the USSR the excuse to ship ‘defensive’ weapons to Cuba.
In his speech, the president offered seven points to the American people to help recover from this crisis. First point was to create a blockade around Cuba so as to control what weapons may be entering or leaving the island. The second point Kennedy made was to continue and increase surveillance of Cuba. This gave comfort and knowledge to the people that they would be able to know exactly what was occurring in Cuba regarding the weapons of mass destruction. In his third point, the president stated that ‘any missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union against the United States’(Kennedy, 1962). By doing this, Kennedy clearly defined that the Soviet’s were the enemy to anyone in the western hemisphere. In his fourth point, the president regarded that they have reinforced the United States base at Guantanamo and ordered military personnel to be on stand-by. Therefore, Kennedy showed that America was ready for any type of action taken by the Soviets. In President’s fifth point, Kennedy identified that Cuba was not only an enemy to the United States, but to all of our allies in the western hemisphere. When Kennedy did this, he made the point that it was not just America in danger, but any nation in the western hemisphere. This way, the president used an identification appeal to his international audience that put everyone on a common ground. This created a common bond between America and others in the west that may have been struck by the missile. JFK reinforced, this in his sixth point, with the statement that they needed to take action against ‘this latest Soviet threat to world peace’ (Kennedy, 1962). His October 22nd speech openly addressed not only to the American citizens, but also countries of the ‘Western hemisphere” and ‘Peoples to whom we are committed.’(Kennedy, 1962) In Kennedy’s seventh and final point, he asked that Khrushchev ‘halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations…abandon this course of world domination… by refraining from any action which will widen or deepen the present crisis’(Kennedy, 1962). This was Kennedy’s attempt to make public the effort on his part to get the Soviet Union to peacefully end this crisis.
At the end of his address to the nation, the president made public the US ‘ideals’ which were being threatened by the Soviet’s. ‘Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right, not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved’ (Kennedy, 1962).
The crisis ended with the US withdrawing the WMD from Turkey and USSR form Cuba (US intended to remove them, before the crisis occurred). Although it did not ended in a catastrophically manner, the tensions still remained and the Cold War ended in 1991.
To sum up, the speech had a significant impact upon people at the time. Not only it informed the citizens of the United States about the imminent danger that was threatening them, but it was also an open call made upon the soviets to stop their ‘offensive’. It also made clear for the nation and even for the captive people of Cuba, the position the United States was going to adopt and the plans made in order to prevent the tripping of World War Three.
Bibliography
- Allison, G.T. (1971), Essence of decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 40 - 132
- Haas M.L. (2001), Prospect Theory and the Cuban Missile Crisis, International Studies Quarterly, Volume 45, p. 241-270
- Hale, J.E., Hale, D.P., & Dulek, R.E. (2005). Crisis response communication challenges. Journal of Business Communication, 42(2),
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Kennedy J.F. (22, October, 1962), Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation.
- Kennedy, R.F. (1971), Thirteen Days. A memoir of the Cuban missile crisis, New York-London: W• W Norton & Company