Cuban Crisis Reflection Paper

Yangyi (Ethan) Su

Reflection Paper

Professor David Mitchell

Cuban Missile Crisis

        From this movie, we understand that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal moment in the Cold War. In 1962, the president of United State John F. Kennedy was informed of a U-2 spy-plane’s discovery of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. Over the 13 days, Kennedy and Russia president Khrushchev confronted each other “eyeball to eyeball”, because both of them have the power of mutual destruction, that 13 days was described in the movie as “the most dangerous 13 days of mankind”. Each nuclear bomb could kill hundreds of thousands of people, if there is a nuclear war, it would have meant the deaths of 100 million Americans and more than 100 million Russians.

        Two presidents have totally different personality, John F. Kennedy is young and he is the son of millionaire; while Khrushchev is over 70 years old, and a son of former Soviet Union president.

        In this crisis, President Kennedy and a group of advisors evaluated a number of options. After one week of discussion, Kennedy has announced the discovery to the world and imposed a naval blockade on further shipments of armaments to Cuba. Neither of the group backed down during the second week, so there were only two options left for president Kennedy, one is allowed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, second is attack Cuba, but Kennedy reject both of the options. Khrushchev wrote a personal letter to Kennedy for asking a way out, he realized the full impact of the missile, he felt personal responsible for the cause of this event. At the meantime, with the help of the Crisis management team, they crafted the third option. This option contain three components, a public deal which United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a private threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer was rejected; and a promise to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months. And the crisis was resolved at the alst minute when Khrushchev accepted the U.S. offer.