The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban nuclear disaster of 1962 brought the world close to a nuclear war between the Americans and the Soviets. The political stances adopted by the two sides almost thwarted any kind of a resolution, although at last, a concession was found and the war was prevented. On 29th August, a U-2 spy jet which was scouting Cuba brought back confirmation that surface-to-air projectiles were being set up at sites in Cuba (Holmes, 2012). Although they were not themselves offensive weaponry, their institutionalization signified the strong desire by Cuba to secure those areas. Later, another U-2 plane discovered the presence of intermediate-range ballistic projectiles that would be able to strike almost anywhere in America. The Strategic Rocket Forces’ major role was to shoot down American Strategic Air Command fighter jets if they infiltrated Soviet airspace. The other target was American air exploration plane (Allison, 2012). The 43rd Guards of Strategic Rocket Forces of Soviet protected the nuclear weapons while in Cuba. Strategic Air Command is a military command that acted as the assault arm of the American Air Force and played a major role of preventing nuclear attack by the Soviets.
If Kennedy had decided to implement the military advice and attack or invade Cuba, these weapons may have been used. If the Missile disaster escalated into a universal nuclear war the world could have been completely destroyed. The nuclear missiles were planned to either detonate high in the atmosphere, just like Nagasaki, maximizing level of blast impacts, or in the soil, so as to wipe out missile silos buried in the soil (Allison, 2012). The lasting effects of a worldwide nuclear war would be felt even today as the world could have been completely destroyed.
References
Allison, G. (2012). Cuban Missile Crisis at 50: Lessons for US Foreign Policy Today, The. Foreign Aff., 91, 11.
Holmes, R. (2012). A Spy Like No Other: The Cuban Missile Crisis, the KGB and the Kennedy Assassination. Biteback Publishing.