Corrigé du sujet n°1

The document we are presented with is made up of two parts : source 1 is a cartoon representing Kennedy and Khruschev engaged in a trial of strength and source 2 acquaints us with two excerpts , one from a letter from Khrushev to Kennedy on 26 October 1962 and the other from a book published by Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother and advisor during that crisis.

Let us start with the cartoon:

Both leaders are sitting on nuclear missiles, which tends to focus on what is at stake: a nuclear war. We have here a very good example of brinkmanship. The arm wrestle represents the struggle for power between two statesmen, two regimes, two powers. Kennedy’s finger is even close to the lethal switch, which might trigger the launching of an atomic bomb. In fact it makes us aware of the real and immediate danger of a nuclear war which could destroy both the USA and the USSR. Everything seems to depend on who is the stronger.

This cartoon obviously refers to one of the reasons why Russia set up those missiles on Cuba : to test the new, young and seemingly inexperienced American president. The official version given by the Russians was to help Cuba and the new communist regime of Fidel Castro to protect itself from another American aggression. Indeed, following the invasion of the Bay of Pigs ( see Lesson II)B), Cuba must have felt threatened and therefore asked for the Soviets’help. However, as this invasion was a fiasco, thus showing the weakness of the American government, we may doubt the real reasons which pushed the Soviets to set up those missiles on Cuba. Apart from testing the new president, the Soviets might also have wanted to… ( see lesson II)C)

Let us now focus on the written documents of source 2.

The first excerpt refers to Kruhchev’s first proposal to Kennedy in which he offered to destroy the bases on Cuba if America promised it would not attack Cuba and demanded the lifting of the blockade. We know that the following day he made a second proposal in which he asked America to remove its missiles from Turkey. On 28 October Kennedy chose to accept Khruschev’s first proposal. The question of the missiles in Turkey was to be solved later on, as indicated in Robert Kennedy’s comment on the crisis: the reason why Kennedy could not agree to an immediate withdrawal of the American missiles in Turkey was that he did not want to act under Soviet pressure and did not want to show any sign of weakness. Moreover his distrust of the Russian policy was deeply rooted : it started with the beginning of the cold war in Eastern Europe, in Asia and in Berlin where a wall was built in 1961.

However, he was lucky Khrushev did not push further and agreed to remove the missiles from Cuban against a lifting of the blockade and a promise not to attack Cuba.

To conclude, we must emphasize the fact that a major crisis was solved thanks to the two leasders’common will to avoid a nuclear war ( in 1963 they even signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty limiting tests of nuclear weapons), and to Kennedy’s sound appraisal of Krushev’s psychology : he managed to show America was strong while leaving a way out for the Soviets without losing face. One positive consequence of this crisis was the setting up of a phone hotline which made communication between the White House and the Kremlin easier and which was the sign of a better relationship.