The Cuban Missile-Historiography, Orthodox, Revisionist and Post Revisionist.

The Cubans had just had a revolution against their American back government where a new socialist republic was proclaimed, this republic was under the rule of Fidel Castro. The Americans didn’t take kindly to the thought of a socialist republic so close to American soil, in response the CIA sent anti-communist Cuban to recapture Cuba, the Americans expected a victory this didn’t happen the anti-communist forces were crushed and were sent fleeing. The attack forced Cuban to attack each other which is sad because Cuban just wanted freedom to self-rule and to an extent this is true, the communist fighters forced an American backed government to fall and then they built a Cuban nation. Even after the war Cuba is still communist this shows that the system can work if unaltered. (The Armchair Historian, G 2021, Cuban Missile Crisis from the Cuban Perspective | Animated History)

From Historian Graham Allison’s perspective, the soviet’s placing in Cuba gave them a new location for nuclear missiles to counter the American’s huge number of missiles all around the world. The humiliation of the Soviets during the Berlin Blockade made them not want to be humiliated again. (In Class Notes)

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sent his head nuclear scientist and his deputy Anastas Mikoyan to meet with Cuba ’s leader Fidel Castro. Castro was asked if he would take Nuclear missiles that would be pointed at the United States, Castro original decline but he gave the idea some afterthought and decided to take the missiles from the soviet and place them in Cuba. Instead of placing the missiles in the trees which was where the original idea they decided to place the missiles in a flat area which means they would be spotted easier. Which in 1962 the first American sighting of the missiles happened, a U2 spy plane was doing a routine check of Cuba when the pilot spotted something different and photographed an interesting sight which of course was the missiles being built in Cuba. This finding scared the Americans, the pentagon’s military analysts figured out that the missiles being built were medium range ballistic missiles which when finished could hit Miami, Washington and even New York, these cities were major target since if Washington and New York the country could fall apart. The president at the time John F Kennedy was informed four days later, by the end of the same day John had formed an executive committee called EXCOMM which was comprised of 13 high ranking officials. These where officials were of course John himself his brother Robert Kennedy, his vice president Lyndon B Johnson these were the main ones, but the others were Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, Douglas Dillon, John McCone, General Maxwell Taylor, Llewelyn Thompson, Theodore Sorensen and McGeorge Bundy. (Coleman, D n.d., NSC ExComm Meetings, 1962-1963, US) These men sat meeting all over the next few days, they agree that the Americans shouldn’t bend the knee to the soviets. (Extra Credits, D 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - The Failed Checkmate - Extra History - #1)

The Soviets placing missiles in Cuba was a retaliation for the American only months earlier placing missiles in Turkey, the soviets felt threatened by the Americans. The difference between placing missiles on an island and having missiles placed in a bordering country is there no room to block the attack without declaring war. This was the position that the soviets were forced into, this perspective blames the Americans for the Cuban Missile Crisis and is the position I hold and so does historian Graham Allison who was a revisionist historian. (In Class notes about Graham Allison)

John F Kennedy decided to quarantine all vessels heading towards Cuba, although what he was doing was a blockade which was an act of war, therefore John called the blockade a quarantine, the Americans didn’t want war against the soviets. Which might seem like the soviets are the aggressors, but this was from the orthodox perspective this seems to be true and since millions of people from that era of thought they will have trouble changing their view. My father was born in the 60’s and his siblings were born earlier in the 50’s and when discussing the cold war, they are becoming a bit defence about the facts that from my perspective the soviets weren’t the aggressors but that the US was hugely responsible as well. They think that the soviets were worse which is interesting but my father in more in the middle excepting that the Americans had some faults as well.

The soviet troops that were sent to assemble the weapons were sent in civilian clothes to hide the fact that they were troops some of the troops were on top of the boat to look such as they were tourists, and the rest were sleeping underneath the deck with the nuclear missiles that weren’t even sitting flat. When the troops arrived, they were given Cuban army uniforms to blend in with the Cuban. This allowed Cuba to hide the building of the missiles. (Extra Credits, D 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - The Failed Checkmate - Extra History - #1) The way the missiles were stored was were stored really wasn’t safe for many reasons since the missiles didn’t quite fit properly, the missiles were at an angle were if there was one fault with the construction there would be hell to pay.

What was intriguing was that both Kennedy and Khrushchev told their families to leave the major cities, although this probably wouldn’t have saved them since nuclear war would destroyed the entire world. The idea if one wrong word had been translated the world would be a very different place. Though the fact that they were worried shows something about their character and that neither side of the cold war really wanted war. Because neither side wanted it, war didn’t accrue on a global level. The concept of Detente was achieved for many years after the Cuban Crisis, Detente meaning a moment of peace and calm heads.

If in a world where one wrong translation can cause nuclear war, this world was ours during the Cuban Missile Crisis, from the future looking back this seems unbelievable. When the lack of communication is real problem, and the American interfering in Cuba. Cuba should have been left alone; the US install puppet government in many countries. Marxist-Leninist governments were better than Fascist governments, this is one very annoying American move. Some interference was okay but invading newly formed countries just to replaced Marxism with Fascism, this is my revisionist take.

On October 22nd President John F Kennedy starts streaming live on tv and proclaims that the soviet’s build-up of missiles in Cuba are a serious risk to the western hemisphere. Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko meets with JFK and claims that the military aid is to protect Cuba which is what Kennedy Claimed was false in his speech. While from an orthodox perspective this would be believed to be true but mostly such as what was true was that the soviet viewed the Americans hostility towards Cuba as a threat of invasion, the defence of communist countries was important to the soviets. Next major point of Kennedy’s speech was that the quarantine of vessels heading towards Cuba was important for the future security of the US and the western hemisphere. To hide the true intents of the US all countries were to be searched for weaponry and military equipment. He claimed that any missiles launch from Cuba against any national in the western hemisphere would be an attack on the United States perpetrated by the Soviet Union which was a big call to make in his position. He stated that this move by the Soviets was a provocative attempt and he called it a threat to world peace, yet the US still had missiles in Turkey which from a certain of view was a massive threat to world peace the missiles placed in Cuba was just an away that the soviets could even the playing field and help in the defence of Cuba. From my revisionist take on this I can see that the Americans caused the Cuban Missile crisis. If the missiles were launch, they would only really endanger the us and not the whole of the west. JFK using a term such as world domination was a use of a propaganda term to trick the US citizens into believing what they were told, this is a problem when proper discussion taking place people start to argue. An American thought process believing that they stand for right and good, this is just a manifest of American arrogance. Freedom isn’t always needed for a society to run Dictators start around the time of the romans their just must be a system that allows for decisions to be questioned. (Major Kong, M 2010, John F. Kennedy - Cuban Missile Crisis speech)

John F Kennedy was a hard-line anti communist this means that the people that voted for him were most likely conversative with Kennedy beating Richard Nixon who was notorious for being anti anything sightly left, although back then both the Democrats and Republicans were both very conservative (this is still very much the case, although now the Democrats have eased up a little and are now centre right leaning left). The Soviets were alt-left which made the Americans worried the red menace as it was nick named by Hollywood. Hollywood during the cold war was very anti-communist which is why from that time there were hundreds of red scare movies from invasion of the Body Snatchers to more obvious movies such as the Red Menace released in 1949. The term the Red Menace is very much a way of using propaganda, this was also the opinion of many revisionist historians in that school of thought.

The US Government go to Defcon 3 two steps closer to war, war would happen if the system went to Defcon 1 it meant it was time for nuclear war. As this happened the clock clicked 1 minute closer to midnight on the doomsday clock. The doomsday clock was designed by the scientists in charge of the first atomic bomb, when an event such as the Cuban missile crisis happens the hands of the clock start to point closer to midnight. Thus, the name the doomsday clock was coined for the nuclear countdown. If it reaches midnight nuclear war has begun, luckily for the world this didn’t happen during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - Eyeball to Eyeball - Extra History - #2)

With Defcon 3 announced the president could release bombers within 15 minutes of an order, with at the same time Fidel Castro calls up 300, 000 troops to defend Cuba, Fidel sends his high official Che Guevara to prepare tactics for guerrilla warfare, guerrilla warfare would be Cuba best method for defence, smaller fighting forces can used guerrilla warfare to eliminate huge numbers of enemy troops. Raul Castro (Fidel’s brother) surrounds Guantanamo bay with artillery while the US was building its military up in Florida, 120,000 service men were stationed in Florida this force was needly as big as the forced used at D-day which meant that the US were taking this very seriously. With the US boarding all ships set for Cuba Khrushchev decided to withdraw his ships and men so the Americans couldn’t capture the missiles and weaponry sent. Although the ships carrying food and supplies weren’t to be stop from moving towards Cuba, Khrushchev ordered the thought behind letting the other ships continue was that the Americans would search the ships and find nothing and would be forced to let the ships go, this would be embarrassing for the Americans which made Khrushchev chuckle. (Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - Eyeball to Eyeball - Extra History - #2)

The submarines being used as escorts would stop at the quarantine point so that if war was to break out the soviets would have an advantage against the Americans, one freighter should be sent ahead with missiles because Kennedy had pushed the quarantine back one day to gain more support from the International community. The ship sent ahead made it to Cuba at the break dawn soviet troops quickly moved into position. With this delivery Cuba ’s missiles were finally complete in the process fully arming Cuba against the United States. Tension is made worse when six fighter jets rip through Cuban air space, the Cuban fighters were unsure whether they should strike back or stay put. (Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis – Black Saturday - Extra History - #3)

At 19:06 23rd of October the Quarantine act was signed and was put into use against the Soviet Union. The navy was confused about how to stop every ship they devised a plan if the ship didn’t stop, they will fire star shells if they continue then it would be forced to fire and disable the engine and if a submarine was spotted, they will force it to the surface. Kennedy is described as going white in the face since he was disgusted with the plan and said there was to be no firing of any weapon since that would be an act of war. Kennedy in response to hear this plan dispatches the secretary of defence to watch over the war room and demands that there is no shooting to be done. The idea that Kennedy had used was not to sink ships but to communicate with Khrushchev basically sign language with destroyers. Later that day Robert Kennedy snuck into the soviet embassy to ask the soviets question about incoming soviet vessels surprisingly the ambassador had no new orders from Moscow he proclaimed they would not and stopping them would be an act of war. (Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis – Black Saturday - Extra History - #3)

The fact that the ambassador had no new information really shows how unprepared the soviet leader was, a fact that even John Gaddis agreed. He called it a characteristic of Nikita Khrushchev that he never really thought things through. Khrushchev was an interesting fellow due to his misunderstanding of leadership and need to out do America. (In Class Notes)

On October 24th at 10:00 the first supposed ship carrying missiles equipment was on it way to the quarantine point, ExCom awaited on news from the quarantine, they were shocked when soviet vessels started retreating and returned to Moscow. This would be the first act on a list of events leading towards the soviet pull out of Cuba most boat returned to Moscow a few ships lost contact with the gremlin and started to act despite on such incident happened where 2 out of the 3 officials on the submarine decided to launch a nuke at the US but the head officer choose to surrender this officer name was Vasilli Arkhipov, this officer save the world from nuclear war luckily around the same time the Soviets and Americans decide on an agreement were the Americans would pulled the missiles out from turkey and the soviets would remove the nukes from Cuba under UN supervision, the soviet pulling the missiles out of Cuba made the Cuban felt betrayed by the soviets although part of the agreement was that the Americans wouldn’t invade Cuba so they didn’t really betray them. A proper line of communicate was set up between the white house and the gremlin. (Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis – Black Saturday - Extra History - #3)

Historians such as Arthur Schlesinger promoted the idea that the Americans were the coolly headed ones and that the soviets hadn’t placed missiles anywhere else, he was an orthodox historian. He propelled the idea that the Americans were in the right even though this is a completely one-sided view of the situation. While new historians such as John Gaddis who was a post revisionist which blamed neither global powers instead blamed the start of the cold war on many factors that both sides did during the early years. he stated that maybe the reason for missiles placed in Cuba was to deter the Americans from invading Cuba. Which seems like a decent reason for the soviets to place the missiles. The soviets weren’t nearly as bad as the Americans made them out to be. Stalin was terrible but every leader from that point made the Soviet Union better. (In class notes about Historiography)

Inconclusion the Soviets and Americans finally came to their senses and a period of detente followed for many years. The protection of Cuba was secured, and a proper communication system was set up this would help each leader call each other if necessary, communicate is most important in situations such as these. This proves that with good communication any issue can be sorted out. From orthodox thought to a better revisionist or post revisionist thought the percept by most has changed through out the years. The important events from the quarantine of soviet vessels to the telephone line properly set up during this time.

Bibliography:

The Armchair Historian, G 2021, Cuban Missile Crisis from the Cuban Perspective | Animated History, online video, 22 May, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMozubL3Ozg>.

Coleman, D n.d., NSC ExComm Meetings, 1962-1963, US, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://historyinpieces.com/research/meetings-excomm-executive-committee-national-security-council>.

Extra Credits, D 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - The Failed Checkmate - Extra History - #1, online video, 16 February, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJBibhR07w>.

Major Kong, M 2010, John F. Kennedy - Cuban Missile Crisis speech, online video, 6 March, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLxgeINIBEM>.

Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - Eyeball to Eyeball - Extra History - #2, online video, 23 February, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQT4Dt82Kz0>.

Extra Credits, G 2018, Cuban Missile Crisis - Black Saturday - Extra History - #3, online video, 2 March, viewed 31 August 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ox9wIZeZYg>.