Analysis Cuban missile crises letter to Kennedy from Khrushchev
Posted on Thursday the 17th of August, 2006 at 6:21 pm in PresidentsThe 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.
Humanitarian aid? Ha! So Cubans not only smoke cigars but they smoke missiles as well, huh? What next? Missile sandwich aside from submarine sandwich? Talk to the hand, buddy, talk to the hand. But that’s all in the past now so why awaken the ghost? It sounds as if somebody wants to talk about conspiracy here…. well, everybody is entitled to his own opinion, right? clarifications please, clarifications!
Reply to Panic Away reviewI’m a proud American, but one thing I don’t understand is why America has to stick their nose in other country’s business, it always ends up against America anyway. So what if a country is communist, it has nothing to do with our freedom, so why threat them and force them to change? If it wasn’t for the Cold War, America and Cuba would probably have good relations. This would benifit America so much, for example many of us, I speak for smokers, love Cuban cigars and find it extremely difficult to get our hands on them. But anyway there is now a way thanks to the internet. For all the Cuban Cigar lovers out there there is a website, http://www.gocubans.com/ , where you can buy all types of Cuban cigars for a very good price. Either go there, or just wait for Obama to work his magic and make peace between Cuba and America.
Reply to Dwayne JohnsonI agree Johnson, alone, I have faith in our Obama. I have a feeling that it may still take some time.one has to wonder what it’s actually going to take for America and Cuba to finally reconcile their differences. In the same way that Americans go to Canada if they want to go to Cuba. Many Americans buy their Cuban cigars through Canada. I used to do the same thing that was until I found http://www.goCubans.com. It is a great place to get your cigars it’s where I buy all my Cuban cigars. I will never buy it anyplace else.
Reply to Luis Rey