The Cuban Missile crisis refers to the conflict that took place in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and the United States over the positioning of nuclear weapons in Cuba by the Soviet Union. The Cuban missile crisis threatened an outbreak of the nuclear war in the world. However, an agreement was reached whereby the Soviet Union would remove their weapons from Cuba, and the US would launch an attack on Cuba as well as they withdraw similar missiles from Turkey (Colman, 2017). The Cuban missile crisis was Nikita Khrushchev's idea of bringing a peaceful coexistence by a creating a balance of fear with the United Nations (Sherwin, 2012). However, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a failure for Nikita's reign; thus an analysis of the extent to which the crisis weakened Khrushchev’s leadership.
The Cuban missile crisis played a significant role in weakening the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Firstly, by withdrawing missiles from Cuba, Khrushchev damaged the reputation of Moscow regarding its commitment to its friends such as China. As a result, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union worsened with China outrightly expressing anti-Soviet opinions. Trade between the countries disappeared, and China walked out of Sino-soviet talks. Such consequences led to distrust and hatred of Khrushchev; hence, weakening his leadership (Roeschley, 2011). Foreign leaders like Zedong of China felt that Khrushchev was underestimating the western imperialism. In attempting to promote peaceful coexistence, Khrushchev was trying to achieve respect for communist powers and achieve superiority. However, the agreement did not yield anything he expected, and other communists such as Zedong disliked his seriousness in dealing with political matters from a communist perspective (History.com staff, 2009).
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Secondly, the Cuban missile crisis damaged the reputation of Khrushchev beyond redemption when he yielded to the agreement. The US portrayed the deal as a success for itself rendering Khrushchev weak which was considered embarrassing for the Soviet Union. Domestically, Khrushchev lost support as the people felt he had humiliated the Soviet Union making it appear subject to US (Kocho-Williams, 2013). In the eyes of the world, both Soviets and foreigners, Khrushchev failed with the objectives of the Cuban missile crisis. Although Khrushchev views the crisis as a win for the Soviet Union and himself, some felt that it was a fix for Cuba psychologically and militarily yet it overlooked those aspects. Cuba’s defense system was forced into the bluff, and the US gained control over the type of weaponry Cuba would hold. This played against the deal with Castro in regard to the relationship with the Soviet Union creating enmity with an ally country (Wingrove, 2012). Evidently, it meant that Khrushchev had lost support and trust in his leadership both within and without the Soviet Union. Without the support of other political influence both domestic and foreign, Khrushchev's leadership was weakened.
In conclusion, Khrushchev as a leader of Soviet Union undertook several steps that failed and weakened his leadership. Domestically, Khrushchev had attempted to implement a "de-Stalinization" which aimed at getting lead of his predecessor Stalin ideologies but failed. Having failed domestically, the Cuban crisis was a risky attempt to his already deteriorated reputation. Therefore, when he withdrew the missiles from Cuba at the request of the US, it appeared as another failure and this time around in foreign policy which damaged even the international relations. After the Cuban missile crisis, Khrushchev’s credibility was damaged beyond repair, and in two years he was resigned as the leader of the Soviet Union. Both the Soviets and foreigners considered Khrushchev incapable of leading. Therefore, the Cuban missile crisis only served to worsen the opinions on Khrushchev’s leadership and took the disregard for the leadership beyond Soviet boundaries to damaging foreign allies and friends thus weakening the leadership on a greater scope.
References
Colman, J. (2017). The Cuban Missile Crisis . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
History.com staff. (2009). Nikita Khrushchev. A+E Networks . Retrieved on 10 March 2018, from https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/nikita-sergeyevich-khrushchev.
Kocho-Williams, A. (2013). Russia’s international relations in the twentieth century . Unidentified location: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Roeschley, J. K. (2011). Nikita Khrushchev, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the aftermath. Constructing the Past, 12 (1).
Sherwin, J. M. (2012). One step from nuclear war. T he U.S. National Archives and Records Administration . Retrieved on 10 March 2018 from https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/fall/cuban-missiles.html.
Wingrove, P. (2012). Cuban missile crisis: Nikita Khrushchev's Cuban gamble misfired. The Guardian Media Ltd . Retrieved on 10 March 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/22/cuban-missile-crisis-nikita-khrushchev.
