Which country is most responsible for the Cuban missile crisis Essay Example
Cuba is the least to blame for causing this crisis, though it still did have a part in causing the crisis due to some of its hostile actions. Firstly, it nationalized all American businesses in Cuba by taking over their businesses for the country instead to receive its profits. Also, it was responsible on behalf of asking for weapons from USSR and not only did it allow shipment of Soviet soldiers, mechanics and defensive weaponry but it also allowed the presence of offensive nuclear weapons in the country.On the other hand, most of Cuba/Castro's actions are justified.
The only reason he nationalized those businesses was because after the corrupt dictator Batista was removed from power, he visited USA to ask them to trade with them and convince them that he was not anti-American, but instead US
...A showed him a cold shoulder and ignored him. Since the USA were not helpful and were instead suspicious of him, he still needed to make some profit for Cuba in order to avoid economic depression, thus he nationalized these companies.Then USA overreacted to the situation instead of renegotiating a new deal and placed an embargo on Cuba by breaking all business ties with Cuba. This now left Cuba with only one option, to find another trading partner, and USSR was interested. This made USA more suspicious of Castro's intentions as his nationalizing of companies move was a very communist move and that now he was trading with communists.USA once again overreacted to the situation by burning all the crops bought by USSR from Cuba, which meant that if there was nothing to trade then they shouldn't trade and no
be partners, an attempt of USA's to end the relationship of Cuba and USSR.
This backfired as in result of this Castro asked the USSR for weapons to protect their crops from any further harm.USA then attempted to somehow remove Castro from power, and they could not directly do this as that would come out as an invasion and then USSR would get involved because it is his trading partner now so that might start war, or nuclear war. So, they armed anti-Castro exiles to land at Bay of Pigs and remove Castro from power. This then backfired again as when Castro waiting at the bay already and vastly outnumbering these exiles, defeated them and stopped an invasion, he was shown to be a hero and made more popular in Cuba. As CIA agents were caught and killed with the exiles in this attack at the Bay of Pigs, it was clear that it was USA's hand behind this. This also encouraged USSR to supply even more weaponry to Cuba for its protection.
The only mistake on Castro's part which gives the one and the only legible reason for saying Cuba was responsible for causing this crisis was that it allowed USSR to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. This can also be justified as USA has already attacked them (indirectly), embargoed them, burnt their only way of making money for the country and even tried to assassinate Castro.Moving on, the reason we can make USSR responsible for this crisis is because it was USSR that chose to become partners with a country almost at the border of USA, it was the USSR that chose to supply
that same country with armaments and nuclear weapons that are clearly offensive and capable of annihilating USA, they chose to spark another argument with the USA after already being involved in numerous arguments that had also brought them closer to war, such as the Berlin blockade, the Korean war and the Berlin wall. So as we can see, USSR chose to start this crisis in the first place by developing good relations and arming a country near the border of USA.On the other hand, this great decision of Khrushchev's is completely justified by the fact that USA has already placed nuclear weapons in Turkey which actually shares a border with the USSR.
So why is it that when USSR supplies Cuba (which isn't even at the border of USA) nuclear arms only for its own protection, they make such a big fuss about it while they have already placed nuclear weapons in Turkey.So the fact that USA had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey already is the biggest reason for saying that USA is mort responsible for this crisis as this encouraged USSR to supply Cuba with nuclear missiles as it did which was made easier for them as that could also be justified by their interferences with Cuba and its relations with the USSR. For example, the Bay of Pigs fiasco was clearly their responsibility as they were the ones who wanted to get rid of Castro, they were the ones who armed those exiles and they were the ones whose CIA agents were caught in the operation.To make it more obvious of how much USA wanted to get rid of Castro, they performed mock
invasions in an island to attack a fictitious dictator called Ortsac, which is Castro spelt backwards.
They did this in hope of scaring Castro and showing him that they had the capability of invading Cuba anytime, instead as we know, this gave clear justification for Cuba to ask USSR for weaponry.It can be argued that the Bay of Pigs attack and the mock invasions were performed because USA was trying to protect itself from danger as it had found out that Cuba was in possession of nuclear missiles, but this can be countered by going back to the fact that they already have missiles in Turkey so why should they be scared, USSR should be scared as USA had the first strike capability of annihilating the USSR and its nuclear weapons before they could attack, USSR placing nuclear weapons in Cuba only made the suicidal game even.In conclusion, we cannot blame Cuba mostly for the crisis as clearly we can see that it was just stuck between two superpowers, we cannot blame USSR as it had done nothing that harmed anyone and it only did something reaction of USA. Finally, we can certainly say that USA is most responsible for the Cuban missile crisis as its actions and overreactions were the reasons of most of the other two countries' actions. Also, we can clearly see from the above essay that USA has involved itself throughout events as the events did not go for the benefit of USA.
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