Cuban Missile Crisis

A) Why did the Soviets place their missiles in Cuba? Where they justified in fearing for Cuba's Future? How did they view the United States and its motivations?
There were several hypotheses given unto why the Soviet Union placed the missiles on the Cuban island: the first was that USSR was trying to maintain a position inside Latin America. The second hypothesis was that the Soviets were trying to show that the United States couldn't control their sphere of influence then how are they going to protect the U.S.'s allies. The third hypothesis was that the missiles were simply put on the Island to be a bargaining chip and the Soviet never intend for them to be on the Island permanently. The fourth hypothesis was that the Soviets were trying to gain some strength from the missiles, since the United State had a 2 to 1 military advantage to the Russians. The fifth hypothesis was the Russia wanted the United States to discover the missiles and attack Cuba, which might have the possibility of splitting the allies and fueling anti-American sentiment in the globe.

The main reason for Russia, we would later find out, was that they wanted to protect this new Communist government from U.S. attack and to country the missile disadvantage between the U.S and Russia. The fear for Cuba was not completely without cause, since President Kennedy and the CIA tried to overthrow the government earlier in the Bay of Pigs. The Russians did has some reason for fearing about the future of it only ally so close to the countries greatest enemy, not to mention that the United States already tried once to depose Castro's government in Cuba. The United States since the Spanish American war always saw the Cuban Island as almost part of the country since they were the ones who fought for the freedom from Spanish Rule.

B) Why did President Kennedy go outside the government to recruit men for the ExComm? What personal values of the men affected the deliberation?
Kennedy when outside the government, for the simple reason, that he needed people with intelligence, good judgment, and above all else loyalty. This was a huge crisis that needed people with expertise in the related field in order to best deal with the grave situation. He selected people from all political fields in order to gain the most knowledgeable team to figure out why this was happening and how to solve the situation. This situation had to be kept secrete in the very beginning in order for the United States to present a unified front, so that the country did not appear weak to a problem that was so close to the borders of the country. The personal values did affect how they wanted to handle the situation. For the most part the people inside the military advocate military confrontation, while other people wanted to take a more diplomatic solution to the crisis. The people who advocated military confrontation were called the hawks and the people for a diplomatic solution were called the doves.

C) What was the U.S. willing to trade? Why?
The United States had many things that were of value in order to remove the missiles from Cuban Soil. These option would never be used, since each one had their drawbacks, but could have possible been offered if the situation was not resolved. The two main things that the United States could offer the Russians were concessions related to Berlin and also to remove U.S. military missiles from Turkey. The main bargaining chip that the U.S. could possibly use was Turkey, since the missiles were considered a threat the Russians. The other smaller were the removal of Guantanamo military base from Cuba and the removal of missiles from Italy.

D) Why did Kennedy choose not to take advantage of the situation and attack the island to remove Castro? Why did Kennedy regard the crisis as a matter for the United States and the USSR to resolve without input from Castro?

The main reason that Kennedy choose not to attack the island to remove the missiles and Castro was that the missiles were guarded by Soviet soldiers. The Russian government would not take kindly to the killing of any of the citizens of the country and would have far more repercussions in other parts of the world. Soviet expert Llewellyn Thompson maintained that the missiles in Cuba were completely controlled by the Russians and that any negotiations with Castro's government were useless. The only way to remove the missiles is to talk to the Russians, since they are the ones who placed them inside Cuba and are in complete control of the weapons.

E) Did the missiles threaten the actual security of the United States? Did they present a threat to the Kennedy administration?
The missiles did have some threat to the actual security of the United States, since they could have undermined our security with our allies. The missiles themselves were more of a symbolic threat, since the Russians could simply attack the United States with warhead from the Eurasian continent, it would just take a few more minutes to arrive. The stalemate in dealing with the missiles did however almost cause the actual threat to the United States, since it was highly possible that the United States could go to battle with the Russian either on another battlefield, like Vietnam or Korea, or an actual nuclear war.

2) Analysis in terms of each foreign Policy level of analyses. Which best apply?
The three levels of analysis are an important viewpoint of how a person would look at the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first level of would be the international which in this instance would look at the level of conflict and how it would effect the whole international community. The worst thing that could happen was for the two nuclear powers to go to war with each other, since there would not be anybody left alive on the planet. The other issues that had to be dealt with was the disputes outside the United States and USSR that were disputed between the countries that were minor in implications but major on the world stage. The main focus would be Germany, Turkey, Vietnam, and other countries that were in dispute. While the National level would look into what is making the United States and Soviet have this fight to begin with and how the different players inside the country were thinking. Inside the United State the main players were ExComm and President Kennedy, and Russia would the Kremlin's regime. While the individual level of analysis, would focus on the key people like Kennedy and Khrushchev. The most import level of analysis in this instance would be the National and the International, since they are both just looking on "opposite sides of the coin." Individual level of analysis is just not as important since it dealt with the fate of the whole world, and each side had so many individuals who were apart of this situation and would be difficult to identify all the individual characters who were apart of the crisis.

3) From the perspective of the ExComm's view of the crisis, what issues where uppermost in the minds of President Kennedy's advisors in October 1962? What ideological factors were at play?The ExComm's view of the crisis was the simple fact that the Russians were the aggressors and their only concern is what the best interest of the United States was in presenting a strong and unified front without the result of a nuclear war. Ideologically the group was highly divided into what the best option ending the conflict, and many of them were struggled with what was the best solution. The main ideology in the whole group under Kennedy, was to make the United States and the World more peaceful.

4) What were the political interests affecting the Kennedy administration's decisions - particularly domestic political considerations and public opinion?
The political interests of the Kennedy administration were the ability to look not only strong but not to look rashly at the situation. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the thing usually under looked was that the United States was undergoing elections. Public opinion was a slight factor to the crisis that leads to the President trying to gain an advantage of the ability to correct his mistake in the Bay of Pigs.

5) What were the negotiations like? Which were more effective - secret or public negotiations? How did the secret discussions affect the outcome? What does this form of negotiation say about policy making during the crisis?
The negotiations during the crisis were intense on both sides of the issue, with either side not willing to back down from their stance on the issue. The most effective negotiation tactic taken was the secrete negotiations, since the United States government did not have to deal with the public opinion of the citizens which were probably mixed. More importantly during the private negotiations, the President leaked that the missiles in Turkey and Italy would be removed, the only problem was that he did not want to appear weak on the world stage about this information. The public negotiations were also useful, since they helped to discredit the Russians, when they denied the missiles even being on the Cuban island. The United States soon after release U2 spy plane's pictures of the Nuclear weapon on the Island and made the Russian look offensive in provoking a war with the U.S.

6) What is a "sphere of influence?" Does a nation have a right to enforce its policy preferences in what it considers to be its sphere of influence? What is the relevance of the Monroe Doctrine?
A sphere of influence is when a country states that it has the rights to economically have the advantage over another country, usually from far away. A state does not technically have the right to enforce its policy preferences in what it considers to be its sphere of influence, but that does not mean that they do not do it anyway. The Sphere of Influence does have the right to be enforced when the whole group in the area agrees that the countries have the sphere of influence. This sphere of influence goes both ways, since smaller state then can rely on the larger country to stop any outside invaders from invading the sphere of influence. The Monroe Doctrine's relevancy was that the U.S. declared that the European expansionism would be regarded as dangerous to peace and security of the United States. The Monroe Doctrine is important since it still applied to this situation. Russia was a European power and was trying to expand inside Latin America and endangered the peace and security of the United States, and under this doctrine the U.S. would take any action it deemed necessary.

7) What was the role of the international community? Did the US abide by international norms and legalities, or id it violate international law?
The role of the international community was relatively nothing, since they could not do much against the two superpowers and both had a veto power in the United Nations. The most that the international community could do was try to talk to the larger superpowers. The US and Russia did not abide by the international norms and legalities and both violated international law. The United States effectively declare war against the Cuban government when it embargoed the country and broke freedom of the seas laws in the United Nations rules.

8) What did the US and the USSR both gain and lose from the crisis?
The United States effectively gained the most from the situations since it gained not only its demands on the Russians but also credibility on the world stage. What it lost was the sphere of influence on the Cuban continent, which some might say was already lost, and informed the Russians that the missiles in Turkey were effectively useless and would be removed in the future. The Russian, however, were the biggest loser in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Russians not only had to blink and remove the weapons but also look irrational and lost its credibility when it said that the missiles were not on Cuban soil. The USSR did gain a strong communist government inside the western hemisphere that was now not in danger of U.S. invasion.

9) What conclusions can you draw from this case about US foreign policy during the Cold War?
The main conclusion about US foreign policy during the Cold War was the very real fact that the Russian were a major concern and threat to the United States. Everything the US government had to deal with the Russian government and how to gain a stronger foothold against the other superpower in the world. The government officials had to thing very long and hard on how they dealt with every situation when it dealt with the Soviets directly and how not to start a chain reaction that could lead to nuclear war. The thing they thought was most important to the United States was to try to stop Soviet spread, and the Cuban Missile Crisis just feed into the Domino theory that was put into place at the start of the Cold War.

Source:
The Cuban Missile Crisis: United States Deliberation and Negotiations at the Edge of the Precipice, by Gabrielle Brussel.