JFK and the Blockade of Cuba
On October 22, 1962 (49 years ago today) President John F. Kennedy went on radio and television to inform the nation about his order to send U.S. forces to blockade Cuba. The blockade was in response to the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island. I've found a Youtube video of that announcement which I've embedded below. It's about three minutes long.
The blockade was part of a very tense incident known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In August 1962, after the US was unsuccessful in its attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime (in a failed attempt to support the anti-Castro Cubans known as the "Bay of Pigs"), the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (IRBMs) with the ability to strike most of the continental United States. Years earlier in 1958, the US had installed Thor IRBMs in the UK and Jupiter IRBMs in Italy and Turkey in 1961. More than 100 US-built missiles had the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14, 1962, a United States Air Force U-2 plane on a reconnaissance mission captured photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba.
The United States considered attacking Cuba via air and sea, and settled on a military "quarantine" of Cuba. President Kennedy announced that the US would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons. The Kennedy administration and the nation prepared for a military confrontation. On the Soviet side, Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote in a letter to Kennedy that his quarantine of "navigation in international waters and air space" constituted "an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war".
The Soviets publicly balked at the US demands, but in secret back-channel communications initiated a proposal to resolve the crisis. The confrontation ended on October 28, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US agreed that it would dismantle all US-built Thor and Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Europe and Turkey.
Two weeks after the agreement, the Soviets had removed the missile systems and their support equipment, loading them onto eight Soviet ships from November 5–9. A month later, on December 5 and 6, the Soviet Il-28 bombers were loaded onto three Soviet ships and shipped back to Russia. The quarantine was formally ended at 6:45 pm EDT on November 20, 1962. Eleven months after the agreement, all American weapons were deactivated (by September 1963). An additional outcome of the negotiations was the creation of the Hotline Agreement and the Moscow–Washington hotline, a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C.
To this day the United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba and has maintained an embargo which makes it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba. I'm curious as to whether you believe the United States should maintain or end its embargo with Cuba.
The blockade was part of a very tense incident known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In August 1962, after the US was unsuccessful in its attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime (in a failed attempt to support the anti-Castro Cubans known as the "Bay of Pigs"), the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (IRBMs) with the ability to strike most of the continental United States. Years earlier in 1958, the US had installed Thor IRBMs in the UK and Jupiter IRBMs in Italy and Turkey in 1961. More than 100 US-built missiles had the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14, 1962, a United States Air Force U-2 plane on a reconnaissance mission captured photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba.
The United States considered attacking Cuba via air and sea, and settled on a military "quarantine" of Cuba. President Kennedy announced that the US would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons. The Kennedy administration and the nation prepared for a military confrontation. On the Soviet side, Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote in a letter to Kennedy that his quarantine of "navigation in international waters and air space" constituted "an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war".
The Soviets publicly balked at the US demands, but in secret back-channel communications initiated a proposal to resolve the crisis. The confrontation ended on October 28, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US agreed that it would dismantle all US-built Thor and Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Europe and Turkey.
Two weeks after the agreement, the Soviets had removed the missile systems and their support equipment, loading them onto eight Soviet ships from November 5–9. A month later, on December 5 and 6, the Soviet Il-28 bombers were loaded onto three Soviet ships and shipped back to Russia. The quarantine was formally ended at 6:45 pm EDT on November 20, 1962. Eleven months after the agreement, all American weapons were deactivated (by September 1963). An additional outcome of the negotiations was the creation of the Hotline Agreement and the Moscow–Washington hotline, a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C.
To this day the United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba and has maintained an embargo which makes it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba. I'm curious as to whether you believe the United States should maintain or end its embargo with Cuba.
Should the United States end its embargo with Cuba?
Yes
8(80.0%)
No
1(10.0%)
I'm not sure
1(10.0%)