Cuban Missile Crisis

by bernardobeiriz

Hey! I'm doing a OEA Model about the Cuban Missile Crisis and I'll be representing the USA! It's a very hard position and it'll be good if you could help me on some topics, such as:

  • What was the USA's government actions just after the news about the missiles arrived
  • If Kennedy decided not to take the missiles from Italy and Turkey, a war could have really happened?
  • If Kennedy decided not to take the missiles from Italy and Turkey, would it have been something really far from their foreign policy at the time?

I have some more questions, but I'll think about them a bit better.

Thanks for the attention,

Bernardo Beiriz

matt_dot_txt

I believe that after the first missile sites were spotted, comprehensive surveillance was needed in order to gauge how many missiles there were, how soon they would be ready to launch, were they all long range weapons (or were there tactical missiles as well?) and other strategic information.

JFK convened his advisers and the national security council in order to come up with a plan.

For the other questions, this is speculation, but I don't see how the missiles in Cuba would have been removed without making some sort of concession. Removing the missiles in Turkey made the most sense. I'm not aware of any other possible concession that could have been offered, maybe someone else here with more knowledge can speculate.

The other idea floated (supported by the military, LBJ and others) was to attack Cuba before they had a capability to launch (or before all the missiles would be ready), though this would have surely started a war. From what I've read, the US didn't find all the missile sites in Cuba and there were tactical nuclear weapons which would have been used to defend in case of a US attack.

Luckily cooler heads prevailed.

Most of my knowledge of the Cuban Missile Crisis comes from One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs.