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Brinkmanship and the Cuban Missile Project
3
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Brinkmanship: The Cuban Missile
Crisis
CUBA
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is a term used to describe when two nations push one another to the absolute limit. Dangerous events are pursued to the brink of active warfare, usually in order to achieve an advantageous outcome. An example of this is the Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962, in the midst of the Cold War.
The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War
The Cold War
The Cold War (1945-1991) was a battle of ideologies between the democratic liberalism of the United States and the communism of the Soviet Union. It was titled the "Cold" war due to the fact that there was no active battle directly between the two superpowers. Instead, it involved prestige and proxy wars, among other tactics. The climax of the war, that is the series of events that could have created two vastly different futures, was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Rising Tensions
Castro's Revolution and Rule
Rising Tensions
Fidel Castro, Cuban lawyer and nationalist, led a socialist revolution in Cuba, overthrowing the current government (1953-1959). Cuba became a communist country. Castro's dictatorship brought horrible conditions to Cuba, with torture, violence, and censorship being prominent tactics used to gain and keep power.
The Bay of Pigs
Cuba became allies with the Soviet Union in way of oil trade, breaking industry ties to the United States and centralizing all formerly American-owned land. Exiles of Cuba were sent to the United States, where, funded by the US government, they made plans to invade Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion. Unsuccessful due to poor planning and inadequate support from the United States, the invasion had impacts contrary to the desired outcome. It actually increased Castro's popularity in Cuba and solidified Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union.
The Aftermath
After the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Soviet-Cuban alliance, the American government, led by Kennedy at this time, was unwilling to trade with Cuba. A trade embargo was imposed. During this time, the Soviet Union supported Cuba's economy, built missile bases on the island, and sent ships across the Atlantic filled with nuclear warheads. Each of these steps brought the United States and the Soviet Union(by way of Cuba) closer and closer to the brink of nuclear warfare and worldwide devastation.
Case Study: What Happened on Soviet Submarine B-59?
Case Study
B-59
The B-59 was a soviet submarine that was stocked with nuclear warheads. During the peak tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, B-59 was stationed underwater near Cuba. American forces sent smaller submarines to coax the B-59 up to the surface in order to procure proper identification. These alerts were never received by the B-59 and, misinterpreted, this pursuit sent the submarine deeper underwater to avoid the USA boats. Unfortunately, this led to the B-59 being too deep to receive any radio signal. Radio silence lasted days.
During this communication failure, the captain of the B-59, Valentin Savitsky, thought that the 'hot war' had started. Therefore, he wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. This launch, however, needed to be approved by three personnel on the ship. Captain Savitsky and the political officer Ivan Maslennikov were both in favour of the launch. On most submarines, this would have been enough to approve the action, but detachment commander Vasily Arkipov was of equal rank to the other senior officers. He opposed the launch, and persuaded the captain to resurface and await orders from headquarters.
Two Against One
NAY!
AYE!
The actions of this one man potentially saved the world from the biggest war ever seen.
Vasily Arkhipov
The End of the Crisis
Conclusion
October 16-28, 1962, were full of tension. The hands of the two superpowers were on their respective detonators. They pushed one another to the edge of where safe, 'cold' war would end and dangerous, destructive war would start. They were daring one another to take the first step off the precipice. Thankfully, American President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev opted for diplomacy instead of combat. Diplomatic negotiations called for Kennedy's agreement to not invade Cuba and to withdraw American missiles from Turkey. Khrushchev was to withdraw Soviet missiles from Cuba.
The following quote accurately describes the brinkmanship brought about by the Cuban Missile Crisis:
"We were eyeball to eyeball, and the
other fellow just blinked"
-Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, 1962
The nations were facing off, forcing one another to the edge of battle. It was only when one side showed its willingness for diplomacy to avoid mutually assured destruction, the aforementioned "blink", was the tension resolved.
Conclusion
The end of the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a time of detente between the United States and the Soviet Union. After seeing how close they came to the brink of mutually assured destruction (MAD), there were measures taken to reduce the tensions. This time of peace lasted for about 15 years, until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, there was never another time during the Cold War when the superpowers were pushing one another so close to the brink of nuclear warfare.