Who bears responsibility for the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Question

Give the reasons for your opinion. Use historical facts to back you up.

Answer 1

There is never one party responsible for international incidents such as this. They are the result of a buildup of tensions between two or more countries and those tensions date back decades in some cases. In the 1950s and 1960s, as a direct result of WWII, the Soviet Union and the United States were involved in what we call the Cold War, which involved, among other things, a nuclear arms race. Our presence in Europe after WWII, both our attempts and the Soviet Union's to influence world politics in terms of communism and democracy, and the profound differences between the United States and the Soviet Union political systems lead to a huge mistrust on both sides. The United States had missiles in Europe capable of reaching the Soviet Union, so the Soviet Union "retaliated" by installing missiles within range of the United States. A military strike by the United States against these missiles would have triggered military strikes by the Soviet Union against U.S. allies in Europe. Such strikes would have lead to escalations that would have very possibly resulted in nuclear war. Both sides contributed to the arms race and the mutual distrust of each other, and the Cuban Missile Crisis was just one of many of the confrontations that resulted, and probably the most visible and dangerous. Other noteable incidents include the U2 spyplane that was shot down over the Soviet Union, and the U.S. recovery of a sunken Soviet submarine off of Hawaii.

Answer 2

I remember seeing somewhere that the Soviet Premier Khrushchev after meeting with Kennedy remarked that the USA had elected a president who was very weak. It was that outward appearance that gave the Soviets the courage to place the missiles in Cuba.

Ironically it was the same attitude which helped begin the crisis that helped prevent it from becoming a nuclear war. Kennedy was a weak president, the only reason he's so fondly remembered is because he was killed in office.

Answer 3

The Russians were setting up missile bases in Cuba. They were bringing missiles into Cuba. I was there and I saw them!
Our once-in a-while friends,the British, were bring old double-decker buses into Guantanamo city. They were also bringing in large numbers of small boats which strongly resembled the German WWII E-boats. I saw them, too.
It was very frustrating just to have to sit there and watch this happening, and be unable to do anything about it.
* * * *
Castro announced that he was going to take over the Guantanamo Bay Base and also invade the Dominican Republic on February 8th, 1962. We were more than ready for him to try, and were almost hoping that he would.
We did not need any more practice shooting at fake targets.

Answer 4

The Cubans and The Russians

Answer 5

Khruschev and his enormous ego. Castro decided to get in bed with him and Cubans have been paying the price ever since.

Answer 6

The Cubans and the Russians initiated it. The United States was concerned that they would use the weapons to destroy us, so we went to block their efforts witho our ships.

Answer 7

Alexander Cornswalled is the sole person to blame

Answer 8

America really screwed this one up when we didn't send them help. If kennedy wasn't so worried about his looks and sent us in we wouldn't even know who Castro was !

Answer 9

John Kennedy in his speach to the nation... But I blame it on the generals who decided what time to do it... Oh well its over and we got caught with our T---eis in the wringer....