In my view, the most important legacy of the 1960s was the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. This appears to be the most important legacy of the 1960s because it led to heightened tensions between the two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition, is appeared to be being one of the major causes of the cold war (Schlozman, 2010). It was a 13-day confrontation between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet about the issue of missile deployment in the Italian and Turkish states by the United States versus the Soviet Union deployment of missiles in the state of Cuba. It is considered as one of the Cold War that heightened tension among the two states that escalated into a nuclear war. It took place for 13 days before it came to an end. A tension that emanated from the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 in addition to the stockpiling of missiles in Italy and Turkey forced the then Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev to collaborate with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro to stockpile missiles in the Cuban nation. In a secret meeting between the two leaders, they reached a formal agreement that Russia would stockpile nuclear missiles at the island to prevent a future invasion by the United States.
During that time, planning of the United States elections was in place. The White House denied charges of ignoring serious Soviet missiles that had been stockpiled at a distance of 140 Kilometers from the State of Miami in Florida. Afterward, the United States Navy established a naval blockade on the Cuban island in a bid to prevent the deployment of more missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union military cartels. President John. F. Kennedy issued an ultimatum to the Soviet Union so that they could immediately dismantle weapons and missiles deployed in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union. Long periods of tension ensued and even though bids for negotiations were attempted, there was still heightened tension that could lead to actual war between the two Super Powers. Fortunately, an agreement was reached between the United States leader, President John F. Kennedy, and the Soviet Union leader Khrushchev. This followed obey of the order by the Soviet state as they publicly dismantled all weapons in Cuba which were returned to the Soviet state. In line with the United Nations requirements, consequently, the United States vowed not to invade Cuba and also agreed to dismantle all weapons that it had stockpiled in Turkey so as to attack the Soviet people. The official ending of the Cuban missile was on November 21, 1962, when all dangerous missiles were withdrawn from the Cuban nation. This was followed by a series of negotiations meant to ease any emerging tension between the two parties (Black, 2014).
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Impacts that emanated from this legacy of 1962 affected both parties. On the part of the United States felt that victory was on their side after the Soviet Union dismantled all offensive weapons that were stockpiled in the Cuban state. President John F. Kennedy managed to take off the threat from the nation as Cuba borders the United States. The threat of possible destruction of their country and armed forces never let the Soviet Union catch the USA in the arms race and therefore widened the differences between the forces of both Super Powers. This clearly shows how the United States emerged as the winner in this whole heightened tension event. Furthermore, the United Nations kept its guarantee in terms of security to the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by forcing the Soviet Union to dismantle weapons and offensive missiles from Cuba. Robert McNamara stated that “If the US were not to respond to Soviet deception, how would this influence the attitude of our NATO allies?” (Coleman, 2016, p. 49). President John F. Kennedy refused all attempts of being manipulated as this would have put the allies of the United States in danger in case it fell under the attack of the Soviet Union from Cuba.
Furthermore, due to the Cuban influence by the Soviet Union, and the conformation of terms between Fidel Castro and President John F. Kennedy, Cuba tends to adopt communism. In contrast, the United States was a capitalist country. As a result, plans were put in place by the authority of President John F. Kennedy so that they could overthrow President Fidel Castro and manipulate Cuba towards capitalism (Coleman, 2016).
On the other side, the Soviet Union also felt the impact of this crisis. In the first place, the Soviet Union also claimed that they were victors in the crisis as they were the key role players in the maintenance of Cuba as a communist state. Despite the attempts of manipulation by the United States, Cuba firmly retained it status quo of socialism. Nonetheless, Khrushchev stated in his autobiography that they started the whole crisis to protect Cuban communism. Motivated by the fear of losing Cuba to the to the American capitalism influence, Khrushchev had to protect Castro from being overthrown so that socialism would not be blown out of the Latin America and generally in the Third World countries who were allies of the Soviet Union and communism. Consequently, through the protection of Cuba from invasion, the Soviet Union was cleared of the danger of a nuclear attack that could arise from Turkey as the USA agreed to withdraw offensive weapons from the territory (Hughes & Scott, 2016).
Even though China was a communist, after the withdrawal of missiles from Cuba by the Soviet state, they broke off their alliances and relations with the USSR as they felt that the decision made by USSR in the crisis was a weak stance. Likewise, Cuban relationships with the Soviet Union weakened as they felt that they had no protector from their enemy, the USA. Cuba also felt isolated as it was not involved in the process of reaching an agreement although they were assured of non-invasion by the United Nations (Hughes & Scott, 2016).
In conclusion, the genuine reason why the Soviet Union stockpiled weapons in the Cuban territory is not clear. Did they want to protect Cuba from United States invasion? Or was it an attempt to reduce the arms race gap between the two superpowers? Or was it a combination of the two reasons? (Editors, 2018). According to the United Nations which played a vital role in the prevention of a deadly nuclear war between the two parties, both nations were victors as no harm to mankind occurred. The heightened tension that could lead to a serious encounter between the superpowers was prevented through negotiation that was an advantage to the human race and their property as they didn’t suffer mass destruction. In any case, the USA managed to eliminate a threat, despite the fact that the intent of the stockpiling of missiles was, and most importantly, they managed to dismantle them off Cuba before being operational. Heightened tensions like the Cuban invasion could have caused one side to start the war first followed by retaliation from the other, culminating with a complete war.
References
Black, M. (2014). The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Very Brief History. Crisis War Journal, 1 (1), 13-14.
Colman, J. (2016). The Cuban Missile Crisis: Origins, Course and Aftermath. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Editors, C. R. (2018). The Cuban Missile Crisis: 13 Days that Brought the Cold War to the Brink. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Hughes, R. G., & Scott , L. (2016). The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal. Abingdon: Routledge.
Schlozman, K. L. (2010, October 31). A Legacy of the 1960s . The New York Times , pp. 14A-16B.
