The Cuban Missile Crisis

The relationship between the West and Russia has gone through a lot of stages, and most of it includes a lot of hatred between the two sides. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 is one of these stages. While Russia’s reason according to Vladmir Putin is to have the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine, the U.S, along with Europe, sees this invasion as a crime, a crime that would oppress Ukraine’s people. When Afghanistan was invaded by Russia (also known as the Soviet Union) in 1979, the U.S and Europe opposed this idea, as they thought that the Soviets would just oppress the Afghan people. 

You see, the Russians and Americans had a lot of hatred between one another, especially back then. American opposition to Russia is partly because of its human rights violations, it’s very controlling nature, and its idea of communism. The Soviet Union on the other hand, viewed the United States as greedy capitalist pigs, only taking advantage of the poor, and just ruling by force and fraud, with corruption filling up in their government. These views easily caused conflict around the world, and as the two became more and more powerful, conflict became more and more harsher. One of these conflicts almost ended the world.

According to Britiannca, the Cuban Missile Crisis was an event that almost ended the world. To put this simply, on October 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane observed the presence of ballistic missiles on a launching site in Cuba. These missiles were capable enough to reach almost the entirety of the United States in mere minutes if launched from Cuba. When briefed on this, U.S. president John F. Kennedy was struck with what to do with this revelation. If he makes the wrong decisions, he will cause the end of the world. One single mistake, all life will be lost, and we wouldn’t be here today.

After thinking over some solutions, which included a full-scale invasion of Cuba, he set a blockade on Cuba. A blockade is an act or means of shutting off a place to prevent anything from entering or leaving a place. He installed the blockade on Cuba in order to not let any more Soviet missiles/shipments enter Cuba, and warned that the U.S. would take any material that the Soviets take to Cuba. During the following days, Soviet ships going to Cuba turned back. A good precaution, just to not have any more destruction. 

As it seems that the world was on the brink of nuclear war, talks between JFK, and Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time, were exchanged, even with extreme hatred between the two sides. Finally, on October 28, 1962, Khrushchev basically said to JFK, “Hey, if you take out your missiles from Turkey, we’ll take ours in Cuba.” JFK agreed, and over the following weeks, both leaders began to fulfill their promises. And in the end, the world took a deep breath of relief.

The Cuban Missile crisis is remembered as an example of how two superpowers almost ended the world. All of this conflict, all because of ideological differences, all because of how the two sides viewed each other as an “evil empire,” all because they’re different. Differences divide us as humans. Differences are the reason why we fight each other. And it should stop.

Well, I guess at the end of the day, conflict like this will never end. Who knows, maybe there could be a next World War, or nuclear armageddon. But hopefully, we can survive to see another day.