Missiles Outside Our Doorstep.

NIU ILAS 100

Missiles Outside Our Doorstep.

Sunday March 1, 2015

Cuba, a country located 90 miles from U.S soil, a country whose practices in government are Marxist in nature a country that at one point allied with the Soviet Union, in the mist of the cold war an astonishing discovery was revealed when in 1962 a U.S spy plane photographed nuclear missile installations under construction later that year the U.S confirmed missiles in Cuba ¹. The Cuban Missile Crisis was an event in history that altered the scene of security in the lives of the people it affected, it was an event that provoked nationwide fear in the U.S, and people were always reminded of the possibility of nuclear warfare.

On October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy addressed the nation about the presence of the missiles, he explained that the United States had to act quickly by enacting a naval blockade around Cuba. This decision was the first sign that the U.S. was prepared to use military force in order to prevent further actions by the Cuban country. (http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis ). After this address the vibes of the American nation went into fear, Cuba is 90 miles away from U.S soil and from that distance a nuclear missile is capable of reaching the U.S in an instance so fear for nuclear warfare was on everyone’s mind. Tensions between U.S and the Soviet Union came to a peek when a U.S plane was gunned down by Cuba, war was on the minds of everyone but on October 26, the Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy that told him that he will remove the Cuban missiles with the condition that the United States would not invade Cuba.  The Cuban missile crisis was coming to an end and two days later, on October 28, 1962 the crisis was resolved. But this event left a lot of consequences.

During the crisis the United States issued an Embargo on Cuba ending trade with the U.S and with allies around the world, trade with Latin America also ended since the United States was influential in the Organization of American States (OAS) this organization are Summits in which the Heads of State and of Government of the Americas meet and issue decisions and recommendations to better their countries. ( http://www.oas.org/en/about/our_history.asp ). It’s basically a way in which Latin American countries exchange affairs and become united. The United States made it even harder for trade to occur in Cuba since they were no longer welcoming ships that entered Cuban ports. The OAS eventually expelled Cuba ¹ which made Cuba even more distant. All that meant that Cuba could only trade with the Soviet Union and this lasted decades. Cuba remains Communist but its tensions with the United States has died down and some of its trade and relationships with the other countries have also been resolved. 

¹ Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. Third ed. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.

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