The Cuban Missile Crisis The United States - 1339 Words

â€Å"The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day political and military standoff between the United States and Soviet Union officials. The confrontation was over the Soviet army putting nuclear weapons on Cuban soil, only ninety miles from the United States coast. On October 15, 1962 a United States U-2 Spy Plane discovered the missiles and this started the crisis itself. On October 22, 1962 President John F. Kennedy addressed the United States and told the country about the missiles and also stated that the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary. The world was on the verge of nuclear warfare, but the U.S. and Soviets came to an agreement when the Soviets said they would take the missiles off of Cuba if the United States agreed†¦show more content†¦He states that we survived the Cuban Missile Crisis purely by luck because neither Kennedy nor Khrushchev made the decision to bomb the opposing territory. â€Å"The most enduring phrase summing up the Cuban Missile Crisis—the climax of the Cold War and the closest the world ever came to nuclear Armageddon—belongs to Secretary of State Dean Rusk: We re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked. Thus was born the myth of calibrated brinkmanship—the belief that if you stand tough you win, and that nuclear superiority makes the difference in moments of crisis. This myth, midwifed by the Kennedy family and its hagiographers, had untold consequences for the planning of the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race.† Historian Martin J. Sherwin writes, â€Å"It is the most devastating event in history†¦ that didn’t happen.† He says this because during the Cold War, a normal life was nearly impossible to have because there was always a fear that nuclear warfare was coming. President Kennedy told Soviet officials that the missiles either are removed or the United States will set up a blockade in Cuba as an act of war. Some Historiographers say that the blockade would have prevented the thirteen day conflict from the start, but others make the counter argument that by setting up the blockade we would’ve been asking for a war that we stood almost no chance in. Another highly