Cuban Missile Crisis

During President John F. Kennedy's presidency, the administration discovered that the USSR was placing missiles in Cuba. A large part of the United States was in range of the missiles and they became a threat to national security. President Kennedy and some members of his administration wanted to resolve the Soviet Union's missile threat peacefully so a nuclear war could be avoided, but many problems arose that had to be solved in order for a peaceful solution to be arrived at. Some members of the administration wanted to use military force to get rid of the missiles such as the joint chiefs and the general, but the problem with this was it would cause a war. If the U.S. ordered an air strike on Cuba to get rid of the missiles, we would invade Cuba after in order to make sure all the missiles were gone. The administration predicted that this course of action would cause the Soviet Union to retaliate by invading Berlin, and a war would begin. President Kennedy's alternative to this plan was a blockade and quarantine of weapons to Cuba, which they agreed to follow through with. This caused another problem to arise, the sudden appearance of offensive weapons that was the blockade was noticed by the press. If the news were to get out to the public, it would cause panic and the possibility of a surprise attack on the missiles in Cuba wouldn't be a surprise. The President didn't want word to get out before he could announce to the public his course of action. His solution to this problem was to call the publisher of the magazine that was going to publish the news and ask him to not print it, the reason was because it would save lives if he didn't. The publisher agreed and the threat of public panic was gone.

The general and joint chiefs' desires to enter a war to redeem themselves for the Bay of Pigs invasion was a big problem for arriving at a peaceful solution. When air force pilots had to conduct low-flight trips to Cuba to take pictures of the missiles to prove their existence, the administration knew that if the planes were attacked at all it would give them an excuse to start a war. To solve this problem, the President and his advisors ordered the commander to not tell the general they were shot at. The commander obeyed them and that problem was solved.

When the quarantine of Cuba was initiated, this provided those in favor of a war another possible excuse to start one. If the ships to Cuba that were thought to carry offensive weapons did not stop or attacked our ships, we would have a reason to