The Cuban Missile Crisis

The United States’ conflicts with Russia have been an ongoing struggle since the end of World War II. The two counties fought other countries to keep communism from spreading or not in the Vietnam and Koran wars, and raced to be the first country to land on the moon. This time period is known as the cold war because the two countries never exchanged a single shot directly. However, the cold war almost turned hot when Russia threatened the United States with nuclear missiles positioned in Cuba in an event now known as the Cuban missile crisis.

The crisis began in 1962 when an American spy plane took pictures of a Cuban airfield that appeared to have launch pads and missiles. When the pictures were sent to Washington the government immediately sent battle ships too block incoming Russian ships from delivering more deadly weapons. When Russia retaliated by saying that America was using unnecessary force, the government’s spy plane pictures were then used as evidence to justify the United States actions.

This event was kept secret from the public for a while as the government searched for solutions to avoid a possible attack, but was eventually released to the public in order to warn and prepare the US citizens. At this point, the United States had already been preparing for this situation by building underground bunkers and issuing bomb drills in schools, but now the threat was real and people began panicking.

This crisis lasted for 13 days until John F. Kennedy, the president at the time, negotiated with Russia to remove the missiles from Cuba as long as the United States removed their missiles from Pakistan. This decision saved millions of lives in both Russia and the United States.

Since then, the threat of nuclear war has been low until the conflict in Ukraine began in 2014 when Russia tried to reclaim land lost in the cold war. The United States has tried to stay out of the conflict because Russia has threatened to bomb the US if we interfere. Although we are not directly threatened, the US citizens fear getting bombed anyway because of our support for Ukraine.

Thompson, Joseph T. “THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS IN CONTEXT.” RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL 6.1 (2010): 12. B.A. Program in Independent Studies, Rivier College. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.rivier.edu/journal/ROAJ-Spring-2010/J389-Thompson.pdf&gt;.

~Cassidy