Success of Kennedy Administrations in the Cuban Crisis - Essay Example

Reasons for the Success of John Kennedy Administration’s Handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis Reasons for the success of John Kennedy administration’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis This crisis is probably the closest the world ever came to a full blown out nuclear warfare. The US military was ready and so were the Soviet field commanders. Luckily, thanks to the intelligent and diplomatic tactics employed by John Kennedy’s administration which averted the war. It was the reconnaissance photographs which exposed Soviet missiles which were undergoing construction in Cuba that triggered the crisis.

President John Kennedy was informed and he immediately called upon the EX-COMM, which comprised of twelve of his most important advisors to help him handle the crisis. President John Kennedy then concluded an imposition of a naval quarantine on Cuba waters to bar entrance of weapons into that island. The president then made a public announcement of the discovery of the Soviet missile installations and his move to quarantine the island. His administration also decided to make it clear that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba will be considered as a Soviet declaration of war on the US, and demanded the removal of Soviet’s offensive weapons from Cuba (Kennedy, 2011).

During the public stage of this situation, low-level reconnaissance missions on a two hour basis were eventually ordered by President Kennedy. Then, on 25, Th the quarantine line was pulled back, increasing the levels of DEFCON’s military readiness. Later on, Khrushchev Soviet’s then Premier wrote a letter proposing the removal of Soviet missiles and personnel only so that the U.S. would assure them that they would not invade Cuba, and this was on 26th. However, 27th October was regarded as the worst day of the crisis because a U-2 which was flying over Cuba was shot down with Khrushchev, making another demand which was the removal of missiles belonging to the US, which were situated in Turkey in return for their missiles in Cuba.

This was also through a letter where the Attorney General Robert Kennedy later on, suggested that they agree with the first letter only. Finally, tensions eased from 28th October when the Soviet agreed to dismantle their missile installations and removal of light bombers from Cuba as long as the US would not carry out a military invasion of the Island (Kennedy, 2011). The US placement of IRBMs (intermediate range missiles) in Turkey is what made the Soviet to place missiles in Cuba. Later on, what solved this was an agreement that missiles would be removed from Turkey by the US, and the Soviets would remove those which belong to them out of Cuba.

Also included in the agreement was the "trust but verify" part which however did not materialize, and the matter became of "good faith". It was both the Soviet’s and the US ability to read certain satellite signals that also helped to fully conclude the crisis. John Kennedy thought it was essential that the US does not put the Soviets in a situation in which she lost the respect of her own people and countries around the globe. His administration employed both military and diplomatic ingenuity and most importantly, it was the bravery of President Kennedy that should be given credit since he handled the matter bravely (Kennedy, 2011).

Reference Kennedy, R. F. (2011). Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton.