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  • Essay / Cuban Missile Crisis: Perspectives on Mad

    By examining the three perspectives of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it can be argued that the Cuban Missile Crisis was in fact an example of MAD. The reason is that a nuclear war was avoided. due to both superpowers' knowledge of the possible consequences their actions could have had on the world. The term MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction was created during the Cold War, when the USSR and the United States had access to nuclear weapons. Due to this destructive power, neither the United States nor the USSR were able to fight directly against each other, but instead participated in proxy wars. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Cuban Missile Crisis can be considered an example of MAD due to a series of negotiations conducted in 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis is described as "the closest the world has come to nuclear war." American history describes the Cuban Missile Crisis as “the clash of the superpowers and the shifting of the balance of power.” The balance of power was stationary at the time because the United States held great superiority with its 159 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and approximately 2,500 strategic bombers capable of attacking the Soviet Union. While the Soviet Union only had 24 ICBMs. The United States and the USSR had an obligation to protect their allies, regardless of their distance or importance. Although Cuba had become to the Soviet Union what West Berlin was to the United States: "a small, useless piece of land, deep in hostile territory," Nikita Khrushchev felt obliged to protect it from another invasion. sponsored by the United States. His solution was to send a diplomatic signal to the United States by placing “intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba.” At that time, both superpowers had nuclear weapons near their enemy's territory: the United States had nuclear weapons in Turkey and the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons in Cuba. Tension increased between the superpowers when United States President John F. Kennedy learned of the installations in Cuba on October 16, 1962 through “reconnaissance photographs.” Negotiations were conducted by the two superpowers until it was decided that Khrushchev would dismantle the missiles and return them to the Soviet Union if the United States did not invade Cuba and remove its missiles from Turkey. The reason these negotiations were conducted was because the United States and the USSR were aware of how quickly the crisis could have escalated into nuclear war. It was through these negotiations that the Cuban Missile Crisis was an example of the fact that the President of America at the time, President Kennedy, had constantly spoken and knew that they had more missiles than the Soviet Union, but for strategic reasons he went on to say that there was a missile hole. After the 1960s elections, Khrushchev began testing the new president. When the wall was built in Berlin in 1961, the government decided to reveal to Khrushchev that there was no missile gap and that the United States had more missiles than the USSR. At that time, the Americans and the Soviet Union were aware that there was no missile deficit. For this reason, we can say that the MAD could end up being compromised because the Soviet Union knew that the United States had more missiles and created tensions between the two countries. It is for this reason that the..