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85726219075The Cuban Missile Crisis Analysis Objective Why did the United States and Soviet Union come to the brink of nuclear war in 1962? Contextualization: Review the historical and geographical context below. Answer the analysis questions that follow each. Historical Context: 1947 - 1962 Following World War II, intense peace negotiations began. During these negotiations, tensions that had already existed between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified. By 1947, the distrust heightened between the United States and USSR leading to a conflict we now call the Cold War. The early Cold War was dominated by the United States following a plan of containment, as outlined in the Truman Doctrine. One of the key programs of this policy was the Marshall Plan for European Recovery.While the threat of nuclear warfare hovered over the Cold War, the Cold War rarely became “hot” (an exception being the Korean War from 1950 - 1953). In September 1962, United States planes flying over Cuba discovered the presence of several ballistic missiles. Throughout the month of October, the United States and the Soviet Union came the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Historical Context - Analysis Questions: Which two major superpowers were at odds during the Cold War? Define / identify the following terms mentioned above: Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Korean War What happened in September 1962? Geographical Context: Below are two maps of the Western Hemisphere & North American nations. Geographical Analysis Question: According to these maps - where is Cuba in relation to the United States? -30479957150Primary Source Document Analysis - Watch: JFK’s Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Soviet Arms Buildup in Cuba, October 22nd 1962. After watching the speech, read the excerpts below and answer the analysis questions that follow.Speech Analysis - Excerpt 1 (0:38 - 1:10, 1:37 - 3:00) This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet Military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. ...The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations. Several of them include medium range ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for a distance of more than 1,000 nautical miles. Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area….In addition, jet bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are now being uncrated and assembled in Cuba, while the necessary air bases are being prepared. ...The size of this undertaking makes clear that it has been planned for some months... Analysis Questions - Excerpt 1 Close Reading: According to President Kennedy, are these missiles capable of reaching the United States if launched? Cite evidence from the text to support your claims. Analysis: Why do you think President Kennedy says to the American people “...The size of this undertaking makes clear that it has been planned for some months”? What is he suggesting to the American people? Analysis: How would you describe the tone and word choice of President Kennedy in this excerpt? Keeping in mind the audience and purpose of his speech, why do you think he made these choices? Speech Analysis - Excerpt 2 (5:40 - 8:15) ...Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace. For many years both the Soviet Union and the United States, recognizing this fact, have deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great care, never upsetting the precarious status quo which insured that these weapons would not be used in the absence of some vital challenge. Our own strategic missiles have never been transferred to the territory of any other nation under a cloak of secrecy and deception......But this secret, swift, and extraordinary buildup of Communist missiles--in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy--this sudden, clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil--is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe. Analysis Questions - Excerpt 2 Close Reading: According to President Kennedy, does the buildup of missiles indicate a threat to the United States from the Soviet Union? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer. Contextualization and Analysis: Keeping in mind historical context of 1962 - the Cold War, Space Race, and the diplomatic relationship between the Soviet Union and United States - do you agree with President Kennedy that the “secret, swift, extraordinary buildup of Communist missiles…” is a threat to the safety of the United States? Why or why not? Analysis: How would you describe the tone of this section of President Kennedy’s speech? Cite textual evidence to support your claims. Speech Analysis - Excerpt 3 (9:25 - 11:40, 12:45 - 14:00) Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere... I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately: First: To halt this offensive build up, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life...Second: I have directed the continued and increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military buildup. ... Should these offensive military preparations continue, thus increasing the threat to the hemisphere, further action will be justified...Third: It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union. Fourth: As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of our personnel there, and ordered additional military units to be on a standby alert basis. ...Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations. I call upon him further to abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race and to transform the history of man. He has an opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction--by returning to his government's own words that it had no need to station missiles outside its own territory, and withdrawing these weapons from Cuba--by refraining from any action which will widen or deepen the present crisis--and then by participating in a search for peaceful and permanent solutions....Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right- -not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. Analysis Question - Excerpt 3 Close Reading: In the first four steps, President Kennedy outlines the American plan to respond to the build up nuclear missiles on Cuba. In your own words, what is America going to do in response to the buildup of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba? How could this potentially impact Cubans? General Speech Analysis Questions: Answer the general analysis questions below by thinking about the speech overall. Contextualization: As an American in 1962, what might have been your reaction to the information that Soviet nuclear missiles were found on Cuba? Geographical Contextualization: Do you think that the reaction of American citizens to the news that Soviet nuclear missiles were found on Cuba would vary depending on which state they live in? Why or why not? Analysis: In 1962, television addresses were still new to the media, American citizens, and the Presidency. Many Americans still got their news from the radio. After viewing, listening, and reading parts of this speech, do you think whether or not Americans listened to it on the radio or watched it on tv might have impacted their response to this news? Why? How? The Cuban Missile Crisis 9525166676Analysis Objective Why did the United States and Soviet Union come to the brink of nuclear war in 1962? Directions: Using information from the documents above, please respond to the following task. Task: Read the prompt below. Using the sources provided, the documents above, and your knowledge of US history, respond to the prompt below: Why did the United States and Soviet Union come to the brink of nuclear war in 1962? Attached here are four additional primary sources related to the Cuban Missile Crisis. They include: Letter from President Kennedy to Chairman Khrushchev - Oct 22 1962 Telegram from Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy - Oct 23 1962 Letter from Fidel Castro to Chairman Khrushchev - Oct 26 1962Letter from Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy - Oct 27 1962 After reading these four primary sources, and using corroborated evidence from the four sources and President Kennedy’s address to the American people on October 22nd 1962, complete the following task: From the point of view of EITHER President Kennedy OR Chairman Khrushchev, discuss why the United States and Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war in 1962. You may use additional outside information regarding the events of the Cold War from 1947 - 1962 to support your claims In developing your answer, be sure to keep this general definitions in mind:discuss means “to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argument; to present in some detail” ................
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