‘the Cuban Missile Crisis Was The Most Sig FP In The CW Between 1945-1962’ Flashcards
Sc
Irreversible tensions, closest the west and east had come into direct conflict, source of conflict, tp
CMC
Closest the west and east had come into direct nuclear aggression and confrontation. Broken blockade- declared as an act of war- soviet ships on the 24th October were close to breaking the blockade and were clumsy to even impose brinkmanship that could’ve escalated the outbreak of an all out hot conflict if the blockade was broken. Hawks- pressuring jfk saying that they were running out of time and attack could be necessary and jfk ‘between 1 in 3 even chance of escalating to a hot war’, shooting down of u2 spy plane and the pilot Rudolph Anderson was killed. It’s a fair assumption that this was the last straw as this was an irreparable situation and provided the hawks with further justification as to why they have to engage in an attack immediately. Submarine could’ve started the nuclear warfare as they were unaware of the situation bc they were underwater and a simple flick of a switch air strike would be launched = tensions, Vasili arkhipov did not vote.
Ca- nuclear aggression seen in Korean War with the prospect of the nuclear corridor and in the second Berlin crisis where fear of the Americans putting icbms in west Germany to destabilise east Berlin was a very sensitive issue to khr. Test ban treaty and hotline and nuclear non proliferation all toned down tensions and tensions were reparable , jfk still said no to hawks and removed the source of conflict of nuclear missiles in Cuba by khr withdrawing them on sun 28th= success.
Nevertheless, the spike in tension throughout the whole 13 days was persistent and agression and pressure from the hawks fostered an atmosphere of hostility that still lingered after nuclear missiles were withdrawn.
Korean War
First proxy conflict and ‘boots on the ground’ paves way for future conflicts. Test ground for nsc-68 that warned that the cw was a real war in which the survival of the free world was at stake- transformed tensions into a clear conflict and further accelerated the divide of Korea. Nuclear corridor MacArthur warmonger and soviet pilots secretly fought us pilot disguised as Chinese, china also posturing on the world stage and resented the fact that Stalin did not fully commit to war, sing-soviet split 1960= conflict. Tp in the cw and set the style of Asian intervention and Asia first policy that did not relieve tensions and showed how tensions were irreversible at this point bc it did not resolve the conflict in Korea with the status quo returned- unsettled conflict at a vey high human and economic cost.
Ca- military force had long been a presence in the cw e.g nato and threat of arms in Berlin.
Was not a tp but rather and intensification of militarisation after Truman’s loss of china and to neutralise the accusation that he was soft on communism.
Second Berlin crisis
Sensitivity to the stationing of nuclear missiles, did not calm nuclear anxieties, right next door to each other, could’ve threaten soviet security and West Berlin. Strengthened nato, ultimatum really stretched diplomacy andconciliatory relations, check point Charlie standoff source of military conflict, aggression and confrontation - 100yards of nuclear tensions.
Ca- result of the unresolved tensions from the first Berlin crisis and td, ultimatum rather than direct military action and the inaction of the west showed a degree of recognition of the gdr that the hallstein doctrine failed to recognise making it an irrelevancy. Wall= prevent direct confrontation and released tensions, better alternative than war
