government about them the missiles were only discovered by U.S. The Soviets conducted their missile deployments in secret and lied to the U.S. President John Kennedy considered such a new threat intolerable and outrageous, as well as a complete surprise. So Khrushchev decided to position medium-range nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba, increasing the threat to the United States and thus strengthening the Soviet ability to deter American actions-such as invading Cuba-that worried Soviet leaders. That perception was reinforced by the failed invasion of Cuban exiles at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs, reinforcing Soviet views that the United States would invade the USSR’s one ally in the Western Hemisphere. nuclear bomber bases within allied countries around the USSR’s perimeter, the Politburo in Moscow believed it needed to take a dramatic step. advantage in nuclear weapons, especially those that could strike the Soviet homeland, and ringed by many U.S. In the fall of 1962, the Soviet Union, led by Premier Nikita Khrushchev, saw itself in an increasingly precarious strategic situation. What was the Cuban Missile Crisis all about?īased on what we now know-as more and more previously closely-held information from both sides has become available-we can see that the United States and the USSR were coming from quite different perspectives. MacDonald has also served at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Security Council, the staff of the House Armed Services Committee and the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Earlier, he was senior director of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, a bipartisan body headed by former Defense Secretaries William Perry and James Schlesinger. In this capacity, MacDonald developed and leads instruction of 21st Century Issues in Strategic Arms Control and Nonproliferation, a series of courses for USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, and advises on issues related to nuclear, space, and cyber strategy and policy as well as missile defense, arms control and nonproliferation. Institute of Peace’s Office of Special Initiatives. MacDonald, senior adviser to the Nonproliferation and Arms Control Program with the U.S. The crucial role of diplomacy in peacefully resolving this historic test of Cold War wills is described here by Bruce W. President Kennedy signs Proclamation 3504, authorizing the naval quarantine of Cuba (Wikimedia) This iconic crisis has left us a legacy of lessons and insights for the future, many only recognized in recent years as previously classified materials have become available. Fifty years ago this month, world attention was fixed on a U.S.-Soviet confrontation over the placement of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba, probably the most dangerous and perhaps the most studied moment of the Cold War.
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