Public opinion and its effect on decision making

[pic 1][pic 2][pic 3][pic 4]

Cuban Missile Crisis

Public opinion and its effect on decision making

10/29/2014

Research project

Acer

Contents

Introduction:        

Global Concern:        

Conclusion:        

Bibliography        

Sources        

Introduction:

The Cuban missile crisis was a very important historic event. This event took place in 1962 and was a confrontation that lasted 13 days. The Cuban missile crisis was also known as the October crisis, the missile scare in Cuba and the Caribbean crisis. In May of that year Khrushchev agreed with Fidel Castro that they would put missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. The USA secretly photographed these missile sites being built up and the president Kennedy was not to happy to hear about this. Kennedy informed on television, what the problem was and the potential global consequences it would bring so the public was aware of what was happening. The leaders of these two superpowers realized that this nuclear war would be quite dangerous and publicly agreed that the USSR would take these weapon sites down and the USA would not invade Cuba. This event was a very important problem because the cold war almost turned into a nuclear conflict involving the USSR, USA and Cuba. Of course the public opinion during this time was very influential because there was a lot of opinions about this because they were scared of the possibility of having a nuclear war. It was the closest the world ever came to its own destruction. This conflict could have led to the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Russians.

The aim of this work is to focus on the public opinion in this period of time and how it affected and influenced the decisions that the powers agreed to take. It will include public opinion and the way in which people reacted in this situation and how they chose to handle it.

In this investigation I will prove that the public opinion is a crucial topic to take into account when we consider the effects that the cold war had on the people living in these countries as well as the influence it had on the decisions that where taken by the superpowers to take a wiser decision.

Global Concern:

The Cuban missile crisis was caused by many factors. Both of the superpowers had built up a lot of tension due to the nuclear testing, American promoting of anti-communists in Vietnam and Laos, the Berlin Wall among other factors. Fidel Castro taking power in Cuba was very threatening to the USA because of Cuba’s strategic location. Their trade agreement with Russia which consisted in Cuba sending sugar to Russia in return for oil and machines frightened the Americans. The USA was losing power over Russia. The trading had stopped and Cuba made all the American owned companies nationalised. The Bay of Pigs was an embarrassment for the US. It was an attempt by anti-Castro Cuban exiles to invade Cuba but it failed miserably. Castro then asked Russia for weapons to defend Cuba against America. It was on October 1962 when an American U2 spy-plane took pictures of a nuclear missile base that was being built on Cuba. Kennedy´s advisers warned him that he had 10 days before Cuba could fire the missiles at them. This was the beginning of the crisis.

  There was a good reason for global concern, if this war happened there were chances that it would destroy the northern hemisphere. Some even described it as “the most dangerous moment in human history”. For 13 days the world feared of this. Most of the American public did not approve of an invasion of Cuba. Only one quarter of Americans approved an invasion proposed by militarist. Due to Kennedys approaching election he had to take into consideration what the public was suggesting. This event happened so quickly the public had little time to react to it. Kennedy had to go on radio and television explaining this secret attack that the Soviet had and also demanding that they remove the missiles. A lot of people were already planning on building underground bunkers to go in case this nuclear war happened. There was even one made especially for the president. Everyone was ready in case the attack happened. US radio stations were playing adverts with tips on how to survive a nuclear Holocaust. "That was the most frightening time the United States has been through.”

There was a series of events that took place from the day when Kennedy found out about the nuclear missile base. On October 16th the president set up a Committee of the National Security Council to advise him. A few days later he announced that he was mounting a naval blockade of Cuba for defence. This blockade or a ring of ships, around Cuba was aimed to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. Khrushchev tried to justify this by saying that the sites where ¨solely to defend Cuba against the attack of an aggressor¨. He also sent 20 ships to Cuba. Secretly the US government offered to remove US missiles in turkey if the USSR took those in Cuba but Russia was still setting up missile bases and Kennedy started to plan an attack on Cuba. It was until 6pm when Khrushchev sent a telegram to Kennedy telling him that he would dismantle the sites if Kennedy would lift the blockade and agree not to invade Cuba. Before Kennedy could reply to Khrushchev, he also sent another letter demanding that he would also take the American missile base in Turkey. On the same day, a U2 plane was shot down over Cuba and it looked as if the war was still going to happen but Kennedy ignored this incident as well as Khrushchev’s second letter. So he just agreed to simply lift the blockade and agreed to not invade Cuba. He offered secretly to dismantle the Turkish missile base. Khrushchev saw the letter and agreed to this. This is when the crisis actually finished. The Russian bombers left Cuba and Kennedy lifted the naval blockade on November 20th.

As a result of all of this Khrushchev lost his prestige, it seemed as if he had failed in this ¨war¨. As for Kennedy he gained prestige, he was seen as the men who took down the Russians. As a consequence of all of this chaos, fright and uncertainty the two leaders set up a telephone hotline so in case of any future crisis they could talk to each other directly. In 1963 they came to an agreement of having a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons. Although Cuba still remained to be communist, America decided to leave it alone.

...