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| The truth about the missle crisis was that THE INFIDELS that is the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, were supressing the needs of all | |||
| ] ] ] ] | |||
| The '''Cuban missile crisis''' was a conflict between the ] and the ] over the Soviet deployment of ] in ]. The crisis began on ], ] and lasted for thirteen days. It is regarded by many as the moment where the ] was closest to becoming a real war. | |||
| ==Prelude== | |||
| ===Soviet Strategy=== | |||
| The Soviet government realized in ] that any future war would be largely nuclear, and in that same year the ] were founded. The Soviet government became increasingly militaristic in the face of ]'s rearmament program. In response, the Soviets decided to install nuclear weapons in Cuba, a Caribbean nation off the coast of Florida which had recently established a Soviet-backed Communist regime under President ]. Soviet reasoning was two-fold -- first, to defend this new Communist state from American or American-sponsored invasion, and second, to shift the nuclear balance of power away from the US. | |||
| ===American Missile Sites in Turkey=== | |||
| The US had recently begun to deploy missiles in ], which directly threatened the western sections of the Soviet Union. Soviet technology was well developed in the field of medium-range ballistic missiles (]s), as opposed to ]s. The Soviets did not believe they could achieve parity in ICBMs before ], but saw that a certain kind of equality could be quickly reached by placing missiles in Cuba. Soviet MRBMs on Cuba, with a range of around 1,000 miles, could threaten ] and around half of the US ] bases with a flight time of under twenty minutes. In addition, the US radar warning system was oriented towards the USSR and would provide little warning of a launch from Cuba. | |||
| ] had devised the plan in May of ], and by late July over sixty Soviet ships were en-route to Cuba, with some of them carrying military material. ], director of the ], warned Kennedy that some of the ships were probably carrying missiles but a meeting of John and ], ] and ] decided that the Soviets would not try such a thing. | |||
| <div style="float:right">] | |||
| <br> | |||
| Picture of one of the Soviet missile sites in Cuba | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==The U-2 Flights== | |||
| A ] flight in late August photographed a new series of ] missiles sites being constructed, but on September 4 Kennedy told Congress that there were no ''offensive'' missiles in Cuba. On the night of September 8, the first consignment of ] MRBMs was unloaded in ], and a second shipload arrived on September 16. The Soviets were building nine sites, six for SS-4s and three for longer-ranged ]s (up to 2,000 miles). The planned arsenal was forty launchers, an increase in Soviet first strike capacity of 70%. | |||
| A number of unconnected problems meant that the missiles were not discovered by the Americans until a U-2 flight of ] clearly showed the construction of an SS-4 site near ]. By October 19 the, then almost continuous, U-2 flights showed four sites were operational. Initially, the US government kept the information secret, telling only the fourteen key officials of the executive committee. ] was not informed until the evening of ]. | |||
| ==The American Response== | |||
| The officials discussed the various options - an immediate bombing strike was dismissed early on, as was a potentially time consuming appeal to the ]. The choice was reduced to either a naval ] and an ultimatum, or full-scale invasion. A blockade was finally chosen, although there were a number of ]s (notably ], ] and ]) who kept pushing for tougher action. An invasion was planned, and troops were assembled in ] (although with over 40,000 Russian soldiers in Cuba, complete with tactical nuclear weapons, the proposed invading force would have been in trouble). | |||
| There were a number of issues with the naval blockade. There was legality - as ] noted, there was nothing illegal about the missile installations; they were certainly a threat to the US, but similar missiles aimed at the USSR were in place in Britain, ] and Turkey. Then there was the Soviet reaction to the blockade - would a conflict start out of escalating retaliation? | |||
| Kennedy spoke to the US people (and the Soviet government) in a televised address on October 22. He announced the naval blockade as a quarantine zone of 500 miles around the Cuban coast, warned that the military was "prepare for any eventualities", and condemned the Soviet "secrecy and deception". The US was surprised at the solid support from its European allies and also from much of the remaining international community. | |||
| The case was conclusively proved on ] at an emergency session of the ], during which US ambassador ] showed photographs of Russian missile installations in ], just after Soviet ambassador Zorin had denied their existence. | |||
| The Soviets had delivered two different deals to the American government. On October 26, they offered to withdraw the missiles in return for a US guarantee not to invade Cuba or support any invasion. The second deal was broadcast on public radio on October 27, calling for the withdrawal of US missiles from Turkey in addition to the demands of the 26th. The crisis peaked on October 27, when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and another U-2 flight over Russia was almost intercepted. At the same time, Soviet merchant ships were nearing the quarantine zone. Kennedy responded by publicly accepting the first deal and sending Robert to the Soviet embassy to accept the second in private - the small number of ]s in Turkey would be removed. The Soviet ships turned back. "We went eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just blinked". | |||
| ==Aftermath== | |||
| The crisis was a tactical victory for the Soviets but a strategic loss. They had been seen backing down, and the attempt to gain strategic parity had failed, to the anger of the Soviet military commanders. Khrushchev's fall from power a few years later can be partially linked to ] embarrassment at both Khrushchev's backing down from the Americans and Khrushchev's creation of the crisis by deciding to install missiles in Cuba in the first place. | |||
| American military commanders were not happy with the result either. ] told the President that it was "the greatest defeat in our history" and that they should invade today. But the event brought much needed stability to the US-USSR strategic relationship. | |||
| The events of the Crisis are dramatized in the ] '']'' (]), directed by ] and starring ], ] and ]. | |||
| == External link == | |||
| * | |||
Revision as of 10:15, 21 October 2003
The truth about the missle crisis was that THE INFIDELS that is the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, were supressing the needs of all