The Cuban Missile Crisis was made so memorable because of the frighteningly near possibility of the start of the world's first ever nuclear war. It was and is the nearest the world has ever come to nuclear war, having the possibility of multiple sides employing the use of nuclear weaponry. The US at the time of the Crisis had missiles positioned in areas including Turkey, Italy, and Britain, the closest missiles to the Soviet Union being 150 miles away , meaning the US had a clear first-strike capability over the Soviets. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought a greater sense of equality in terms of military force, since before the installation of Cuban missiles the Soviets had no missiles capable of striking any parts of the US. The building of missile sites in Cuba levelled the field between the two superpowers, as the US was compelled to deal with the Soviets with a greater degree of caution and wariness as they recognized the capability of the Soviets to attack their own soil. This meant that the Soviets were in a position to negotiate in terms of arms control because of their elevated status due to the Crisis. However, the US was still clearly ahead of the Soviets in weapons in terms of quantity, so after the withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba by the Soviets, the missile gap again prevailed, with Khrushchev's main ambition of closing the missile gap failing. At the time of the crisis, the US had 8 times as many nuclear weapons as the Soviet Union, with 27,297 warheads to the USSR's 3,332 . In this way, the Crisis had no effect on the long-term nuclear parity between the US and the USSR; however during the Crisis the Soviets had succeeded in reaching more of a military equanimity because of the fact that they had installed missiles capable of striking the US. The near-parity of the two countries' nuclear capability meant that nuclear war was an even greater possibility, as previously, second-strike capacity for the USSR was not great enough to begin a nuclear war--however with the addition of the Cuban missiles, the Soviets' first-strike capability had increased 70% . The crisis was brought to a head on October 27th, 1962, where the beginning of a nuclear war seemed entirely possible. Kennedy had raised the US military's Defensive Condition status to DEFCON 3 on October 22nd. On the 27th, an American U-2 plane over Western Alaska accidentally flew in Soviet airspace, causing Soviet MiG fighters to attempt to intercept the spy plane, which left the airspace in time to avoid a conflict. When news of this incident was reported to the Whitehouse, Defence Secretary McNamara exclaimed "This means war with the Soviet Union!" He believed the Soviets would interpret the U-2 plane as a recon mission precluding a nuclear first-strike, and act accordingly. Later that day, another U-2 plane was shot down over Cuba. Kennedy's advisors believed the shooting to be an act of planned escalation of the situation of the Soviets; it was not known the the command to shoot was given by a Soviet commander in Cuba rather than Moscow. Kennedy's advisors pressured him to attack and invade Cuba "no later than Monday, the 29th", however Kennedy chose to wait for further hostile action on the part of the Soviets. Had Kennedy not chosen to wait out the situation, the Cold War would indeed have turned into a "hot war", a nuclear one. The situation was further intensified by the Chiefs of Staff and their respective commands and their statuses; for the first time in history, the US had raised their Strategic Air Command forces to the Defensive Condition DEFCON 2 on October 24th , meaning they were at a heightened state of alert poised to strike targets within the Soviet Union. The events played out during the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in the closest the world has ever come to a full-out nuclear war, which would have been catastrophic had it not been for the actions of the leaders of the US and the USSR.
The Cuban Missile Crisis also directly affected the images of the leaders in the Cold War, which proved a large factor in the events of the War, by improving Kennedy's image in the eyes of his people and his opposition, lending further importance to the Crisis as a landmark in US and Soviet history. Four months after Kennedy took the office of President of the US, the catastrophic Bay of Pigs incident occurred, observed by historian John Gaddis to be "a monumental disaster for the United States". Kennedy had given his approval for the operation to be carried out with pressure from his advisors and the previous Eisenhower administration, who had concocted the invasion. The Bay of Pigs incident was a blow to Kennedy's image, portraying him to Khrushchev as young, inexperienced, and lacking courage. Kennedy's administration, especially his Chiefs of Staff, most notably General Curtis LeMay, also shared the same views as Khrushchev to an extent and believed military force would be the resolution to the crisis, which Kennedy was opposed to. This difference in ideologies within the administration itself brought further discord to the decision-making process during the crisis, with Kennedy facing much resistance to his determination to keep military intervention as a last resort. Kennedy's dealing with the crisis, including his secret dealings with Robert Kennedy involving the Turkish missiles, proved to avoid a potential nuclear holocaust. Post-revisionist historians applaud Kennedy for his insistence about the dismantling and withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba, and his firm stance in dealing with the USSR and Khrushchev, especially after the demeaning Vienna Conference with Khrushchev in June of the previous year. Kennedy, because of the Cuban Missile Crisis, was also admired for his restraint and careful action in eliminating invasions and air strikes as options to deal with the situation, despite constant pressure from his generals to employ military action. However, some historians claim that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a direct result of Kennedy's rash decisions during the Bay of Pigs incident, as Khrushchev and the Soviets believed him to be weak and inexperienced and so accordingly took advantage with the Cuban missiles. Other criticisms include the proximity of the mid-term US elections in November, meaning that throughout the crisis, Kennedy kept in mind the garnering of domestic support by putting on a tough face for the Soviets, perhaps over-dramatizing the entire matter. Nevertheless, in the end, Kennedy's image improved greatly and he proved to be one of the most popular US presidents in history, leaving an entire nation in mourning following his assassination the next year. However, it must be noted that Kennedy was allowed his rational decision-making procedures due to the other side's response as well. Had Khrushchev and the Kremlin acted differently and played with less restraint on their part, Kennedy would not have been able to take the credit for avoiding military intervention, which may have been necessary in a different scenario where the Soviets used force in response to the US' demands. The Soviets' actions are often ignored when relating the Cuban Missile Crisis, when in fact they were equally essential to the development of the Crisis as Kennedy's actions and decisions. The Cuban Missile Crisis was an essential milestone in Cold War history, as it improved the tarnished image of the leader of the two most important players of the Cold War.
The Crisis also greatly affected the Cold War by resulting in the diminishing of Khrushchev's image to his own administration and his allies. Khrushchev fell from power shortly after the Crisis concluded, a mere two years later in October 1964. For the Soviet Union, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Caribbean Crisis, as it is known by the Soviets, was more of an embarrassment than a victory--few of their aims were fully achieved. Firstly, hard-line generals saw the overall backing down of the USSR over the missiles as a complete humiliation in itself, including the fact that the missile gap between the US and the USSR had prevailed, since the brief period of nuclear parity had terminated when Khrushchev withdrew his Cuban missiles. Furthermore, the second deal proposed by the USSR in a formal letter to the US on October 27th demanded that the Jupiter missiles the US had in Turkey would have to be removed. The deal that was pushed by the US involved Attorney General Robert Kennedy meeting secretly with KGB representative in Washington Anatoly Dobrynin to discuss the proposal that the US would accept the terms of the letter, but that the missiles would be removed six months in the future, and not made public, or else the US would withdraw the deal. This was promised by the US along with the promise not to ever invade Cuba, which followed along the lines of the first, more informal letter sent by Khrushchev on October 26th, the day before. The secrecy involved in the withdrawal of the Turkish missiles, and the fact that Khrushchev accepted these terms further dropped him in the eyes of his domestic political enemies, as well as his own hard-line administration. Even more curious was the actual penning of the two different letters; US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara described the first letter of the 26th as an impassioned proposal most likely written by Khrushchev himself, probably in an inebriated state . He also speculated that Khrushchev did not screen the letter through his administration, and it was sent to the US without others' approval or input. The message contained within this letter simply demanded that the US would promise to stay out of Cuba, and nothing more. However, the following day, another contradictory letter emerged, this time with much more formality, and with hard-liner demands. This sequence of events leads to conjecture that Khrushchev's political advisors discovered his soft-line transmission to the US, and quickly maneuvered, in their eyes, to rectify the situation and the damage inflicted by a possibly drunk Khrushchev. This could possibly indicate the future ousting of Khrushchev from his seat of power, as his action were considered to need correction by his own administration, who believed he was acting too softly. Not only did his own government develop doubts about him because of the Crisis, but his allies were questioning his authority as well. China, who was at this time doubting the USSR's commitment to dealing with "imperialists" such as the US, witnessed the backing down of Khrushchev to US demands, which later led to Chinese propaganda movements that contributed to his fall from power. The entire world was witness to this supposed loss of face for the Soviets, however, the Soviets could have turned the situation in their favor in terms of global support, by demonstrating that the USSR was heroically "saving the world" by not demanding that nuclear equilibrium was restored after being stripped of a significant portion of their arsenal from Cuba. Furthermore, the USSR failed to emphasize the unjustified demands on the part of the US; the US had offensive missiles directed towards the USSR, however they claimed the USSR was in violation when they simply followed the US' lead. Furthermore, blockades, as defined under international treaties, are illegal acts of war; however the US thinly disguised their blockade of Cuba by renaming it as a "quarantine". Khrushchev himself emphasized that his actions in Cuba were not illegal, but simply a reflection of the US' own, when he questioning "Why shouldn't the Soviet Union have the right to do the same as America?" Had he pressed these points to the international community and taken a firmer stance towards the actions of the US, emphasizing the fact that the US itself was engaging in a poorly veiled illegal act of war, Khrushchev would have possibly improved his image in the eyes of his contemporaries. The Cuban Missile Crisis had a direct impact on the image of Khrushchev in the eyes of his own government and in the eyes of the rest of the world, which contributed to his fall from power.
Finally, the Cuban Missile Crisis had a great impact on negotiations between the two superpowers after the conclusion of the Crisis, especially its impact on the treaties that were agreed upon as a result of the crisis. First of all, the Cuban Missile Crisis saw the first direct communication line formed between the Kremlin and the Whitehouse. Because of the communications problems encountered during the Crisis, since messages took several hours to be delivered, Khrushchev and Kennedy saw a need for a proper means of contact. In 1963, a Hotline was established, which connected the Whitehouse and the Kremlin via telex. This completely changed the nature of the Cold War, as previously a scenario that could have occurred with the current state of communications was that Khrushchev could have agreed to withdraw the missiles, however because of the seven-hour delay, Kennedy ordered an invasion as Khrushchev was apparently delaying his reply. The establishment of the Hotline ensured that the risk of a war starting over poor contact was eliminated. Furthermore, nine months after the end of the crisis, both sides, plus Britain, signed the Test Ban Treaty, which banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, and in outer space. This treaty was a result of both recognizing how close they had come to nuclear war, and the necessity of ensuring that the development of nuclear weaponry did not spiral out of control before it became too late. However, the treaty did not include other countries, such as France and China who rejected it. Another treaty resulting from the lessons learned by both sides from the Missile Crisis was the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, where it was agreed that states would not transfer nuclear weapons to other countries or to aid other states in their manufacture. In short, the Cuban Missile Crisis instilled the desire in the US and the USSR to limit the spread of the nuclear weaponry. The end of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the beginning of a long period of détente in the history of the Cold War, as the two main players had been exposed to a scare, and both were ready to begin changes in their negotiations. This period was known as the "long peace", where both superpowers had it in their interests to seek détente in Europe. Because of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a concerted effort by the US and the USSR to improve relations between the two nations and monitor the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world, ultimately resulting in a period of relative reprieve.
"Eyeball to eyeball....and the other fellow just blinked" has long been touted as the Cuban Missile Crisis' main description; however it is astounding to speculate how easily it could have gone the other way and resulted in a full-out world war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was significant in the Cold War for a number of reasons, mainly being the closest to nuclear war the world has ever seen, the benefits it had to Kennedy's image, the consequences it had for Khrushchev's image, and finally what it led to in terms of negotiations and peace settlements between the two superpowers.
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