To What Extent Was the Soviet Union Responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis on October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the very moment when the two superpowers came closest to a nuclear conflict which could have had devastating effects on the entire planet. In fact, the Soviet Union was responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis just as much as the US did.

On the American side, Cuba was of immense importance because of its proximity to the US coast. The US could not accept the takeover of Castro on the Cuban island in January 1959 since it strengthen Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union and was considered as a Russian invasion to the US backyard. The US then made repeated and useless attempts to overthrow the Castro regime. In summer 1960 it imposed an embargo on Cuba and in January 1961 president Eisenhower officially ceased US relations with the Castro regime. When Kennedy came into power he was still young and unexperienced and he gave the green light to the "bay of pigs" operation which attempted to overthrow the Cuban government. The US then faced international ridicule after the operation failed. In 1962, the tension grew again as American spy planes provided evidence that soviet nuclear missiles were being shipped into Cuba. By September 2nd, it was published in the Guardian that "Russia has agreed to deliver arms to Cuba to help it meet threats from aggressive imperialist elements".

On the Russian side, As Cuba was the only communist state in the Western Hemisphere Khrushchev could not have allowed an American invasion into it and the Soviet Union demanded that "the United Nations should call for an immediate halt to the aggression against Cuba" (the Guardian on 16th April 1961).

Khrushchev, in fact, had never considered that the presence of missiles in Cuba would be a huge threat to the United States nor had he realised that The US would not tolerate the massive blow to its prestige that would result if the weapons were allowed to remain. After all, the Russians managed to build a wall in the middle of Berlin without any disturbance and in fact those weapons would make very little difference to the strategic balance that was massively in America’s favor. He actually only wanted to achieve some Russian presence in the region that would give the appearance of a weakened America, and in the Cold War appearances were vital. Kennedy however gave no thought to Khrushchev’s motives and decided that the missiles had to be removed.

On the Cuban side, Cuba was from 1898, after the Spanish were defeated, under an American influence. When Castro came into power, the Cuban relationship with the Russians got stronger but still there was no real danger to the US. However, in aftermath of the 'bay of pigs', Castro had declared his commitment to communism for the first time and in Moscow, as in Havana, there was a growing conviction that Kennedy was prepared to invade Cuba. The Russians then offered to protect Cuba just as they protected any other of their allies and Castro who agreed to this protection allowed them to bring in their missiles into Cuba. The Russians themselves were surprised that he had agreed to this extreme measure since everyone knew that if revealed it can provoke an extensive war. Still the Russians went on and brought their missiles for their own personal motives.

Luckily both sides later came to their senses. Kennedy who Initially favored air strikes and an actual invasion to Cuba, gave up on that idea and decided to only enforce a quarantine on Cuba to prevent more weapons from being shipped in. He called Khrushchev to "halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace". The Soviet ships on the other hand, although getting closer to their destination in Cuba received instructions from Moscow to turn back without resisting the US blockade. This restraint on both sides actually prevented the war that could have began at any moment. A few days later, the deadly game of nuclear threats between the two nations ended when Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message that the Soviet missiles would be taken back as long as the US committed