Table of ContentsInvestigationReflectionWorks CitedThis investigation will explore the question: To what extent was John F. Kennedy responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963 ? The years 1962 & 1963 will be the focus of this investigation, as well as any post-crisis or pre-crisis evidence that can be used in this investigation to better answer the research question. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The primary source shows President John F. Kennedy speaking to members of Congress about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Its origins come from a channel called "Universal-International News", which can be seen on the title card at the beginning of the film. One of the advantages of this source is that it comes directly from John F. Kennedy, who was then President of the United States and as such knew a lot about the conflict. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, questions have been repeatedly asked whether members of the United States government intentionally withheld information that they feared would fall into Soviet hands, and we must then assume that what President John F. Kennedy said in his speech may or may not be the whole truth of the story. So one could argue that this is also a source limitation. The purpose of this source is to inform the American people firsthand about the conflict that has erupted in Cuba and how the United States will respond to it. A limitation of the purpose is that because the speech is addressed to the American people, President John F. Kennedy may have found it necessary to omit certain information that he believed should not be known to the public. The content of this speech indicates that John F. Kennedy did not want nuclear war and, at the end of the speech, asked Kruschev to end this race for dominance and maintain friendly relations between the two countries. One value that can immediately be seen is that Kennedy did not want the two countries to go to war, much less a nuclear war, but he also saw the situation dangerous and was forced to take action against it. , before further offensive pushes were detected. The secondary source is a Guardian opinion article explaining how the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred and how well the United States government, and particularly John F. Kennedy, handled the situation. The origin of this source is an online article published by a reputable media outlet. This is a source value because we can be fairly certain that most, if not all, of the information in the article is true and based on factual evidence. However, one limitation of the origin is that it is an opinion piece, which means the author may include their own biases in the story, which may not be good for any purpose analytical and can introduce an outlier into the information. The purpose of the article is primarily to educate and give people an introductory explanation of what caused the Cuban Missile Crisis and how it was avoided. One advantage of this is that there is not much difficult terminology understood only by professional, well-trained historians. The limitation, however, is that the terminology may be too simple to obtain satisfactory information at this level of teaching. Finally, the content shows many images and diagrams relating to the article. This is yet another value because the reader can relate the texts to images and diagrams and betterunderstand using visual pointers.InvestigationThe Cuban Missile Crisis can be described as one of the pivotal moments in human history. The Cuban Missile Crisis was part of the Cold War between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which were the two greatest superpowers of their time. World War II ended abruptly and violently with the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the United States with the use of atomic bombs. These bombs were the most violent bombs ever created, and the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are to date the only nuclear-capable weapons that have been deployed in war; with very good reason. After the end of World War II, the USA and the USSR created nuclear-capable missiles, capable of being deployed on overseas territory close to the enemy and hitting them with relative precision. The political leaders of the United States and the USSR continued to threaten each other with these missiles until the climax in June 1961. On June 1, 1961, the United States signed an agreement with Turkey for the deployment of 15 nuclear missiles. -capable missiles on their territory, which would give the United States the advantage of being able to use them on the USSR with minimal delay. Nikita Kruschev, the Soviet Premier at the time, did not want to be threatened by Turkey and needed a place where he could place nuclear-capable missiles on America's doorstep, thus having an advantage during negotiations for a territory like Berlin. The most logical choice was Cuba. It was close to the United States and had a communist leader; Fidel Castro. About Castro, Anastas Mikoyan said: “Yes, he is a true revolutionary. Completely like us. I felt like I was back in my childhood! On an unknown date, Fidel Castro met with the head of Soviet special forces in Havana. The head of the special forces outlined their plan and formulated it in such a way that it was actually a plan to protect against the American invasion of Cuba. Castro spoke with his advisors and agreed. This overseas development is something that was completely beyond John F. Kennedy's control and something he could not have stopped or delayed in time with the information he had. Since the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba was to remain a secret until they were ready, the missiles along with 42,000 Soviet troops were secretly shipped to Cuba in large wooden cargo ships. The soldiers were disguised as Cuban civilians or Cuban soldiers so as not to arouse the suspicion of an American spy stationed or not in Cuba. They (the United States) saw the deployment of missiles in Cuba - which they did not know about until mid-October 1962. Kennedy was in a bad position, because the Soviet buildup in Cuba had been known for a some time and his political rivals were capitalizing on the fact that Kennedy was taking no action against it, even though Soviet weapons and 42,000 troops were only 90 miles from Florida. The reason was that Kruschev and Kennedy had been in contact privately, and Kruschev told Kennedy that this intensification was only defensive and that he would not deploy nuclear missiles to Cuba. Knowing this, Kennedy said the defensive buildup was a good thing, but that he would act if he found nuclear missiles in Cuba. He said this thinking that Kruschev would never launch nuclear missiles at Cuba. This is a key factor in the analysis of Kennedy's responsibility. He relied too much on his trust in a Soviet leader, which in retrospect wasclearly inappropriate. When Kennedy realized the deception, he not only had to worry about the Soviet Union launching missiles at the United States, but he was also convinced that he would be impeached if he did not act. Government leaders met at the White House to discuss possible plans for retaliation. Kennedy had told Kruschev that he would act if he wanted to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, and that not keeping his promise would be a sign of weakness, giving Kruschev the freedom to place nuclear missiles in other strategic locations under the false defensive nature of their deployment and the reinforcement of the plans to impeach Kennedy. The three options Kennedy had were diplomacy, a naval blockade, and an airstrike. Diplomacy was, of course, the option with the least risk of losses, both military and civilian; However, it was unlikely to work and it would take far too long to reach any compromise. A naval blockade therefore seemed to have the greatest chance of success. Block access to Cuba, while leaving room for possible negotiations. On October 22 at 1 a.m. Moscow time, Kennedy and Kruschev communicated, 1 hour before Kennedy's public statement at 2 a.m. Kennedy issues ultimatum; he knows that 14 Soviet cargo ships are heading to Cuba and that one of them is carrying the most powerful medium-range nuclear missiles in the world. In the Caribbean, the US Navy created a "quarantine" around Cuba, and Kennedy threatened to use warships to prevent cargo ships from reaching Cuba. Kennedy and Khrushchev reached agreement on a settlement that led to the removal of the missiles, which allowed Kennedy to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. All in all, we can conclude that John F. Kennedy was not entirely responsible for triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis. the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he made the problem worse with the constant threat of impeachment if he did nothing. So we can say that the decisions Kennedy made ultimately saved the world from mutually assured destruction, but they might have been better if he had not been under so much pressure from the entire American people who demanded his dismissal if he did not resolve the current problem. For all practical purposes, one could also argue that Eisenhower played a role in triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis, since he was the president before Kennedy who stationed nuclear-capable missiles in Turkey. It is very likely that the Soviets saw this as a threat from the Americans and therefore wanted to retaliate by conveniently placing their own nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayReflectionIn my investigation, I wanted to highlight the differences in reliability between different sources, especially in an investigation into a topic that, by its very nature, was full of lies, truth, cover-up and espionage. Finding the right sources for the investigation proved quite difficult, but due to the more open nature of the American government compared to the Soviet government of the time, I chose the speech given by John F. Kennedy as my source main. Primary sources from the Soviet perspective certainly exist, but when considering the Soviets' history of concealing the truth and trying to present themselves as a superior state, the limitations of such sources would have been substantial. Additionally, Soviet sources on this subject are likely to be written in Russian,, 1999.