Anthology of Ideas

The letter was a long-winded appeal by Russian Premier Khrushchev attempting to convince President Kennedy to not invade Cuba and end the United States blockade; in return, Premier Khrushchev promised that the Russians would stop shipments of armaments to Cuba.

The letter is directed to President Kennedy personally and places all the blame for the situation on Kennedy entirely. Khrushchev paints a picture of an evil America threatening the peaceful communist countries of the world and in a very propagandist maneuver describes communists as hard-working peaceful peasant farmers who want nothing more than pleasant diplomatic relations with their neighbors.

Khrushchev claims that the missiles the Russians sold to Cuba were humanitarian aid and sold to them as a way to defend themselves against the American threat the Cubans were forced to live with daily. Although Khrushchev claims the missiles were humanitarian aid they were in fact a way for him to balance out the American missiles in turkey and to position himself for a Public relations victory that would help to take the pressure off of his failed home economic strategy.

This letter inferred that the ending of the crisis would occur with a promise from Kennedy to not use military force against Cuba, however in his second letter he also demanded the removal of all American missiles from military bases in Turkey. It seems that Khrushchev used his first letter to privately tease the American government with the idea of an easy end, but forced his position with a public demand of a much harder bargain in the end. Kennedy responded with a similar smaller public agreement to not invade Cuba but a larger private deal to remove (or consider removing) the missiles the Americans had in Turkey.

The letter also shows how little Castro actually had to do with the Cuban missile crisis all the deals were worked out by America and Russia without concern for Cuban feelings. Future movies and books such as “Thirteen Days” also minimizes Cuba’s role in the entire situation to that of a pawn. Although this may very well be the correct interpretation of events.

The letters did succeed in helping to end the crisis but even though both sides got what they wanted neither side felt they had won anything. Even though the Cuban missile crises publicly lasted thirteen days according to some documents, the crisis started as far back as late 1959 and ended early in 1963.