Crisis as Robert Kennedy Reveals

¶ … Crisis

As Robert Kennedy reveals in his memoir, the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis was on October 16th, 1962 -- and it had everything to do with the Central Intelligence Agency's "interpretation" of aerial photographs, which (it had "become convinced," according to President Kennedy) were emplacements for "missiles and atomic weapons in Cuba" (Kennedy 3). Robert Kennedy's Memoir provides an in-depth analysis of a crisis that indeed was as much a crisis between the office of the President of the United States and the offices of the Intelligence Community as it was a crisis between the U.S. And the Soviets. This paper will analyze the terms of the Cuban Missile Crisis, summarize the antecedents that led to the crisis and the dramatic events that transpired during the crisis as well as show how the President eventually resolved the conflagration without igniting World War III.

The Crisis did indeed have its antecedents: Tension between the Soviet Union and the United States had been growing for some time due to the ongoing "arms race" between the two super powers -- which was really no race at all: it was Khrushchev attempting to make the Soviets look like they had more firepower than they actually had. The only real threat to the world lay in the hands of the American Empire -- and it had already been demonstrated in total war in Japan -- twice. By 1962, it was evident that the Soviets were desperately behind in the race due to the fact that their missiles were only capable of an intermediate-range attack on Europe. The Soviets had nowhere near the kind of technology that the U.S. had (and was capable of sustaining in the event of a third World War). What Khrushchev actually desired was American disarmament -- and his way of getting it was through Cuba.

The Bay of Pigs fiasco in which CIA-trained anti-Castro Cubans failed to topple the revolutionary government in 1961 only helped exacerbate the issue of governmental control. Kennedy surely saw that his role as President of the United States was not the only power in the American government with a dog in the fight. The CIA had been running black ops -- off the books operations -- for years, in conjunction with other interests, whether corporate or political: the example of United Fruit lobbying to have a new dictator installed in Guatemala in the 1950s for its own economic gain is just one in a long series of government agency/corporate operations that has secretly guided American foreign policy (Perkins 112). The Cuban Missile Crisis was the outcome of just such an operation -- only Kennedy was now not willing to let the corporatocracy and the CIA get away with it. They wanted war. Khrushchev did not. Nor did Kennedy. Nor did Castro -- he had already fought his.

Kennedy had already been fooled by the CIA with the Bay of Pigs invasion and had no plans of being tricked into a war that could easily be avoided. The United States was still engaging in military exercise uncomfortably close to Cuba and was also conscious of negotiations between Cuba and the Soviets. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine to keep the foreign power out of the West, but Khrushchev responded with a letter in which he outlined the West's arrogance: the U.S. wanted Europe to respect its boundaries, but had no intention of respecting Europe's:

Imagine, Mr. President, what if we were to present to you such an ultimatum as you have presented to us by your actions. How would you react to it? I think you would be outraged at such a move on our part. And this we would understand…Our ties with the Republic of Cuba, as well as our relations with other nations, regardless of their political system, concern only the two countries between which these relations exist. And, if it were a matter of quarantine as mentioned in your letter, then, as is customary in international practice, it can be established only by states agreeing between themselves, and not by some third party. Quarantines exist, for example, on agricultural goods and products. However, in this case we are not talking about quarantines, but rather about much more serious matters, and you yourself understand this. ("Khrushchev Letter to President Kennedy")

Kennedy, of course, did not want to attack Cuba, which is why he proposed quarantine to Khrushchev -- a proposal which resulted in the letter quoted above. The thirteen days of Crisis over (in which Cuba was only a pawn) was actually intensified by the CIA, which had its own ulterior motives in invading Cuba. Robert Kennedy, however, attempts to make it seem as though his brother showed ultimate tact and consideration in his negotiation with Khrushchev. The reality was that the CIA showed the most skill -- it nearly convinced Kennedy that Cuba was a threat when it actually was not.

Secretly Kennedy offered to remove missiles from Italy and Turkey in exchange for Khrushchev's removal from Cuba: since this was what Khrushchev had wanted all along -- and since it is very likely there were never really any missiles in Cuba anyway (only the CIA desire for there to be), it appeared that war might be averted. Castro, however, remembering Bay of Pigs, feared another invasion by the U.S.