President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis

Analyse the extent to which President Kennedy was responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Indicative content It can be argued that President Kennedy was largely responsible for the onset of the crisis. The US people had been misled by his administration about the military imbalance between the superpowers. In the 1960 election campaign, he had spoken of a ‘missile gap’ in the Soviets’ favour whereas in fact it was to the US advantage. He had also ordered the largest peacetime expansion of US military power including nuclear forces. This included deploying, from 1961, intermediate-range Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey which could be regarded as provoking the USSR. Moscow suspected that Washington, with its nuclear superiority, was attracted by the idea of a nuclear strike first. Kennedy’s deployment of the Jupiter missiles was the main reason why Khrushchev sent missiles to Cuba. Kennedy and his civilian advisers understood that the missiles in Cuba did not alter the strategic nuclear balance but still attempted to force their removal. The president issued an ultimatum to a nuclear power which immediately created a crisis that could have led to catastrophe. He ordered a blockade on Cuba, an act of war which brought the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation. The Cubans willingly accepted Soviet weapons, so the Soviet’s deployment of the missiles was in accordance with international law. The blockade was illegal. Kennedy contemplated an invasion of Cuba to attack the Soviet missiles there. He also attempted to resolve a crisis he had largely created. According to the version of events propagated by the Kennedy administration, Washington refused Moscow’s offer of 27 October for both sides to remove their missiles and instead forced a unilateral Soviet withdrawal. However, in the late 1980s the truth revealed that the crisis was resolved by a secret deal to remove both the Jupiter and the Cuban missiles. Kennedy in fact threatened to renege on it if the Soviets disclosed it. He did so for domestic politics and the maintenance of America’s image as the indispensable nation. Khrushchev was also responsible as he miscalculated the effects of his actions and underestimated Kennedy who he believed was weak and inexperienced after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. He believed that Kennedy wanted to destroy the Castro regime. The Soviets wanted to deter US attacks, but they could have installed conventional weapons. It seems likely that Khrushchev wanted to appear to have greater military strength than the United States, particularly when U2 spy flights had shown that there was a missile gap in the US favour. Domestically, Khrushchev was under pressure to adopt a more hard-line approach to the West, and he needed to be successful to silence his critics. Appearing to defend the Cuban Revolution gave Khrushchev the opportunity to try to score a nuclear success over the Americans. He felt justified in his actions as the United States had stationed Jupiter missiles in Turkey. However, he underestimated the US reactions to threats in their own backyard and he also underestimated Kennedy. Kennedy did not want to be accused of weakness at home nor to be seen as weak in deterring the communist threat. Many contemporaries praised him for standing up to the USSR. His insistence that Soviet missiles be dismantled and taken away from Cuba earned him widespread support. Those nuclear weapons were a direct threat to American cities. Some historians have admired Kennedy's restraint in ruling out the options of an air strike against the missile bases or a military invasion of Cuba.