Over the past couple days in class, we have been learning about the Cold War and more specifically, the Cuban Missile Crisis. We touched on aspects that led to certain decisions made by Kennedy and Khrushchev during this time, but one thing that was breezed over was how close the world came to a nuclear war just because of the Soviet and American inability to communicate effectively.
While watching one of the documentaries in class, many people chuckled at the fact that Fidel Castro was irate that he was excluded from the communications between the Soviet Union and the United States; he harangued the Soviet Union for going behind his back and removing the missiles from Cuba. What Castro refused to accept was that he was a just a pawn in this game. The Soviet Union really had no interest in Cuba other than to spread communism and have the opportunity to defend themselves if the United States attacked the Soviet Union with their missiles in Turkey. When Castro realized that his leverage was taken away, he started to flounder and the Cuban threat subsided. One could argue that the lack of communication between the Soviet Union and Cuba was actually beneficial and the US strategy of using “back channels” was effective because Castro could not try and dissuade the Soviet Union from removing their bombs in Cuba. The lack of communication between the Soviet Union and the United States, however, could have had devastating effects.
The first misunderstanding spurned from the US’ relocation of nuclear missiles to Turkey(a “donation” to NATO). The Soviet Union perceived this action as threatening because it seemingly gave the United States first strike capability and because of the Soviet Union’s lack of ICBM’s there would be no successful retaliation. In effect, the Soviet Union took precautions and gave nuclear missiles to Cuba which was much closer to the United States and allowed for easy access to Washington, D.C., should the US ever attack the Soviet Union. The United States saw this as an act of aggression, that the Soviet Union was trying to achieve first strike capability when in reality the Soviet Union was trying to protect itself. The Cuban Missile Crisis only heightened tensions and because both the countries intentions were unclear, a result of the lack of communication, the world nearly experienced a nuclear war.
One cartoon in particular demonstrates the necessity for communication during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis accurately:
.JPG)
In this cartoon, a group of kids(obviously reflecting the Cold War parties) have gotten themselves “stuck out on a limb.” It seems that the only way off is by moving single file on the plank toward the safety of the cliff, but the group’s inability to work together ultimately causes the plank to break and all the parties to fall. This symbolizes the importance of communication and “mutual cooperation” in foreign affairs especially when the topic concerns nuclear warfare.
I think it's also interesting to point out that not only Castro was left out of the Missile Crisis to some extent, many European countries were completely unaware of any of it. This created some distrust between the US and these countries, because the Soviets and Americans were extremely close to engaging in nuclear warfare, which could potentially affect all of the world.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing about that cartoon is that its quite applicable throughout history, not just the cold war. One example that comes to mind would be after WW1 in which severe reparations were placed on Germany. Though a stronger Germany would have been more beneficial to the international economy, countries were too absorbed in getting theirs. It is an unfortunate theme in history that we cannot work together across international lines.
ReplyDelete