Opinions

Cuban Missile Crisis anniversary could offer valuable insight

Today marks the 51st anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that nearly catapulted the U.S. into a war with the Soviet Union.

While U.S.-Russian relations are now a large improvement from what they were five decades ago, it’s clear that both sides could glean lessons from the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Insight from how diplomacy was used effectively in the Cuban Missile Crisis could help lawmakers resolve the government shutdown today.

On Oct. 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba and discovered the presence of medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the National Security Archive.

According to the BBC, the shipment of Soviet missiles to Cuba was evidence that Russian First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev had lied to then-President John F. Kennedy.

Sending armed missiles to Cuba, for Kennedy, was a sign that action should be taken.

U.S.-Soviet relations were especially poor at the time, following the 1961 failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.

According to History.com, the Bay of Pigs involved U.S.-trained Cuban refugees who failed in their attempt to overthrow then-First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro.

Following Kennedy’s discovery that Khrushchev had lied, a quarantine was put in place surrounding Cuba, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

According to the BBC, Kennedy announced to the world his recent findings and ordered a blockade to be formed surrounding Cuba to prevent future missiles from arriving.

“Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive of missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island [Cuba],” Kennedy said in his national broadcast on Oct. 22, 1963.

Near the end of the month, Khrushchev broadcast to the Soviet Union that he would remove the weapons from Cuba if the U.S. also removed its nuclear arsenal from Turkey, according to the BBC.

Through diplomacy involving Robert Kennedy, a compromise was reached that allowed the Soviet Union to remove its weapons from Cuba in exchange for the U.S.’s promising to not invade Cuba, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

It was later discovered that Kennedy had indeed agreed to remove U.S. nuclear weapons from Turkey, a deal that would have likely lessened his image as a tough negotiator.

Although the Cuban Missile Crisis related more to war than politics, its lessons are no less applicable to the government shutdown today.

Instead of partisan bickering, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Barack Obama should reach a compromise like Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy did.

If nuclear war can be averted through diplomacy, then re-opening the government should be a cakewalk.

Regardless of what is achieved in Washington, D.C., it is important that the anniversary of such an event like the Cuban Missile Crisis be remembered.

Without real and honest diplomacy, the chances of a World War III would have been much greater.

Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor at the Daily 49er.

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