JFK

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade January 2002

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Was JFK truly the hero of the Cuban missle crisis? For thirteen days the world was held in suspense while two super powers were on the brink of war with casuallities possible of over a hundred million.. When two countries as in the US and Russia meet head to head a compromise has to be made that does not make either country look like they have backed down. In the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis one wrong move by either side would have sparked a war. In the end the conflict was worked out, but it was closer then anybody would have liked it. Was JFK the true hero of the war? The United States would like to think so, but the facts that will be provided will tilt in the favor of the Soviet Union leader Khrushchev.

The reason this whole situation happened was because the United States would not recognize Cuba as it's own country.

For most of the 1950's America had a strong political and economical foothold, supporting president Fulgencio Batisa. But in 1959,Castro, rallying behind nationalism overthrew the president and made it a communist government. America devastated, tried to retake the island with operation Bay of Pigs on April 17,1961, but failed. Castro then urgently sought help from fellow communist power Soviet Union, who sent soliders, military equipment, and arms to Cuba. America alarmed by this warned the Soviet Union that there should not be any offensive weapons, but on October 16, 1962 JFK was notified that the Soviet Union was setting up missile sites.

As soon as the white house was informed, the president set up a committee called the ExComm. When the committee met they started coming up with a conclusion of an all out attack on Cuba, not considering the possibility...