IB HOA ~ Cuban Missile Crisis

• Objectives: Students will be able to…

1. describe the strategies, goals, fears, & political tensions driving the foreign policies of the U.S. & U.S.S.R. - & the decision-making processes at the highest levels of the U.S. government during the CMC.

2. understand the U.S. government’s response to the CMC.

Agenda:• Submit E. PLO

charts

• Discuss & view background information.

• Move into groups.• Cuban Missile

Crisis simulation + debrief (ppt./notes, reading, discussion…)

U.S. @ DEFCON 2 (during CMC)

• The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness (or states of alert) for the U.S. military, and increase in severity from DEFCON 5 (least severe) to DEFCON 1 (most severe) to match varying military situations.

• DEFCONs are a subsystem of a series of Alert Conditions, or LERTCONs, that also includes Emergency Conditions (EMERGCONs). There is no single DEFCON status for the country, and in fact different branches of the military can be at different levels of DEFCON at the same time. DEFCONs should not be confused with similar systems used by the U.S. military, such as Force Protection Conditions (FPCONS), Readiness Conditions (REDCONS), Information Operations Condition (INFOCON) and its future replacement Cyber Operations Condition (CYBERCON), and Watch Conditions (WATCHCONS), or the former Homeland Security Advisory System used by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Fallout Shelters (1950s/60s):

• an enclosed space, specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures in the U.S. & Europe during the Cold War – in private homes & public dwellings.

• http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/7-creepiest-cold-war-fallout-shelters

• http://blog.estately.com/2013/02/want-to-buy-a-home-with-a-bomb-shelter/

CMC – how it started:• Americans discovered

nuclear missiles in Cuba (via spy plane photography), facing U.S.

• President Kennedy felt a threat and demanded that Russia remove missiles.

– they were too close to U.S. and people feared WWIII.• Cuba just 93 miles from

U.S.

• Tension ensued….

Historical Context:

• On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy confronted earth-shattering revelation: the Soviet Union had placed missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons on Cuba.

• Tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union had been high since the late 1940s.

• For every U.S. president since Harry Truman, this ideological standoff – known as the Cold War – had shaped FP and DP.

• President Kennedy realized that, if launched, these missiles could hit the U.S. in minutes.

• U.S.-Cuban relations had been weak since 1898, tension increased after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion (April, 1961).

• Cuba’s new dictator Fidel Castro had recently aligned himself with Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet Union.

• The U.S. is on the brink of nuclear war…what is the best foreign policy stance for President Kennedy to pursue?– Diplomacy?– Naval Blockade?– Airstrike and invasion?

Further background information:

• Ballistic Missiles → a missile with a high, arching trajectory, that is initially powered and guided but falls under gravity onto its target.

• Brinkmanship → maneuver of pushing a situation w/ the opponent to the limits of safety – or “to the brink” – before stopping.– During the Cold War, it succeeded by forcing

opponents to back down & make concessions (e.g. through diplomatic maneuvers by creating impression that one is willing to use extreme methods rather than concede; threat of nuclear force was often used as such an escalating measure).

“The Loneliest Job”

In the early days of the Crisis one of President Kennedy’s military advisors General Shoup said, “You are in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.”

…To which President Kennedy replied, “You are in it with me.”

Welcome!

• Please move into groups of four.• If this is not possible, you’ll need to

sit in a group of five (but this is not ideal).–Please make sure your groups are

spread out and that you’re facing your group mates (that your desks are touching/facing each other).–The 1st group to do this will earn

extra credit points .

October 16 - 28, 1962

www.youtube.com clips (if time):

• Kennedy address on the CMC – first 3 mins.• CMC documentary clip – 15 mins.• Youtube.com:

→ 13 Days trailer

Simulation Instructions:

• You guys must act as if it’s 1962.• You must argue in accordance w/ your position

papers…get into character!

–Advisors: • Try to be as convincing as you can as you try to

persuade President Kennedy to choose your preferred course of action. Record & paraphrase 4-5 talking points.

–President Kennedys: • Listen, ask questions, nod your head, and ask

your military advisor: “And then what…?”• President Kennedy should ask to hear pros and

cons of the three options he considered.• President Kennedy will deliver his final decision at

end….

Simulation:

• Read your position papers (President Kennedys: meet briefly w/ Ms. Phillips in hallway).– On a separate sheet of paper, take notes

accordingly ↓:

• The three characters with the three different viewpoints must all try to convince the president of his/her position (3-5 mins. each).

Debriefing:

• “And then what?” – Kennedy to his hawkish/jingoistic military advisors.

• At what stage in this activity did you feel the most pressure? Why?

• How does it make you feel to know that in 1962 the world came so close to experiencing a nuclear war?

• Which side, the U.S. or U.S.S.R., do you think was most responsible for causing the Crisis?

• …for ending the Crisis?• What lessons can be learned from the Cuban

Missile Crisis?

What really happened?

• Kennedy → Imposed a naval blockade (“quarantine”) AND used diplomacy.

The Cuban Missile Crisis…what really happened:

• Publically, Soviets agreed to remove missiles from Cuba.

• Privately, U.S. agreed to remove missiles from Turkey (which were facing USSR).

• Publically, U.S. pledged to end quarantine & not to invade Cuba.

• Publically, Khrushchev was able to claim that “American imperialism” had not spread to Cuba – since Castro’s communist government remained.

Outcome of the crisis?

• Cuba remained Communist (but without nuclear missiles).

• Both leaders came away with concessions but didn’t lose face.

• World saw the futility of MAD (mutually assured destruction).

• Supported theory of containment & co-existence because alternatives unimaginable.

Significance?• Among other things, the CMC stands

out as the most dramatic superpower confrontation of the nuclear age.

• LUCKILY, cool heads prevailed as Kennedy, some of his key advisors (to whom he listened), and ultimately Khrushchev, worked together to avert war.

Benefits of the outcome for the U.S./JFK:

• Considered a success in terms of JFK’s FP.• The U.S. did not become the one to fire

the first shot (no one was).– Point: a sneak attack on Cuba would have

discredited the U.S., causing it to lose its moral high ground (this is what the Japanese had done at Pearl Harbor, after all).

• JFK stood up to communist aggression (did not appear weak/soft on communism) AND did not bring U.S. into (nuclear) war.

U.S. imposed an embargo against Cuba due to CMC

(still in effect today).

• President Kennedy asked an aid to buy 1,200 Cuban cigars the day before he signed embargo.

• Embargo = a government-imposed restriction against another country to ban commercial exchanges. – The commercial, economic, and

financial embargo imposed on Cuba by the U.S.

– Began on 19 October 1960 (almost two years after the Batista regime was deposed by the Cuban Revolution) when the U.S. placed an embargo on exports to Cuba (except for food and medicine), and on 7 February 1962 was extended to include almost all imports.