NationStates Jolt Archive


Who won the Cuban Missile Crisis?

L-rouge
23-01-2005, 22:50
Ok, this isn't "who won the Cold War", just the crisis itself and the immediate aftermath.
Popular history at the time said the US won, but what do you think?

(This isn't a flame the USSR/Commies/USA thread, intelligent discussion only please, thank you!)
Andaluciae
23-01-2005, 22:52
Well, seeing as the US got it's goals accomplished (in the form of Soviet missiles from Cuba) I'd say that the US was more successful.

This isn't an incident of total victory though, the US had to make compromises. And throughout the entire cold war, up entil the very end, there were no total victories.
Andaluciae
23-01-2005, 22:55
And while both nations won in the fact that there was no nuclear war, there was far more to it than that. So, while both sides had elements of victory and defeat, the US had more victory than the USSR.
Roach-Busters
23-01-2005, 22:58
Cuba did.
Soviet Narco State
23-01-2005, 22:59
The Earth won, since it wasn't destroyed in a firey nuclear apocalypse.
Pubiconia
23-01-2005, 23:00
Both did , sort of...

USA confirmed to their own people that they were invincible.
USSR confirmed to their own people that they could play ball with USA.

CUBA is ofcourse the big loser, still is btw.
North Island
23-01-2005, 23:01
In a sence America won, they got the missiles out without going to war.
Vonners
23-01-2005, 23:06
what is the point of this thread?
Salchicho
23-01-2005, 23:07
Is it even possible to win a crisis?
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:07
what is the point of this thread?
What is the point of most threads on here?
There is no particular point to the thread apart from I would like to see what popular opinion on a historical event is within the confines of this board, no more, no less.
Fernhach
23-01-2005, 23:08
Everyone won, as an all-out nuclear war was averted.
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:08
Is it even possible to win a crisis?
As both sides declared themselves the winner, I guess the answer would have to be yes.
Conceptualists
23-01-2005, 23:09
In a sence America won, they got the missiles out without going to war.
Russia also got enemy missiles removed from a country close to their borders though (with as much fanfare though)
Keruvalia
23-01-2005, 23:09
Florida
Salchicho
23-01-2005, 23:10
So, who is winning the AIDS crisis?
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:12
So, who is winning the AIDS crisis?
AIDS? Slightly different though really, I mean are we going to declare war on a virus?
Refused Party Program
23-01-2005, 23:13
So, who is winning the AIDS crisis?

Islamic Terrorists.
Conceptualists
23-01-2005, 23:31
AIDS? Slightly different though really, I mean are we going to declare war on a virus?
Well at least a noun is a step up from a verb
Vonners
23-01-2005, 23:32
What is the point of most threads on here?
There is no particular point to the thread apart from I would like to see what popular opinion on a historical event is within the confines of this board, no more, no less.

fair enough...was wondering if you were looking for help with some study or something....

its just the subject matter is...well if not exactly esoteric then definatly odd I guess....
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:35
fair enough...was wondering if you were looking for help with some study or something....

its just the subject matter is...well if not exactly esoteric then definatly odd I guess....
It's just soemthing I've got an interest in. I covered it when I studied at University and I know a lot of new secret documents have been released relatively recently from both the US and Russian archives, so I was just wondering what people thought of the outcome.
I have my own ideas, I just wondered how they compared to others.
Theologian Theory
23-01-2005, 23:40
No-one won anything in the Cold War. That's why it was Cold. :rolleyes:
Vonners
23-01-2005, 23:41
It's just soemthing I've got an interest in. I covered it when I studied at University and I know a lot of new secret documents have been released relatively recently from both the US and Russian archives, so I was just wondering what people thought of the outcome.
I have my own ideas, I just wondered how they compared to others.

New documents?? Do you have a link? Sounds interesting....

You know that Castro first approached the US to give legitamacy to his government before he embraced the Soviet Union?
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:42
No-one won anything in the Cold War. That's why it was Cold. :rolleyes:
Thats why we're only looking at one part of the Cold War, not the whole thing.
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:48
New documents?? Do you have a link? Sounds interesting....

You know that Castro first approached the US to give legitamacy to his government before he embraced the Soviet Union?
Relatively new, it was a few years ago now (about 3 I think...). Trying to find a link to them, most of its from repro copies we had in the Uni archive (one of my lecturers was big on Cold War history).

I read that. He wanted to keep the close economic ties with the US that Cuba enjoyed before the revolution, but didn't like what many in Cuba thought was the idea of being the US's playground. The US, for its part, didn't like the then Communist leaning regime (not really Communist, in name only...)
L-rouge
23-01-2005, 23:50
Heres a link to alot of source evidence, though I think most of them have been available for a while.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba.htm
Enchanted Toasters
24-01-2005, 00:17
Is it even possible to win a crisis?

"Congratulations, you averted a possible disaster, and won $10,000 and a brand new car!" *Audience cheers and applauds*
The Scots Guards
24-01-2005, 00:44
Well, seeing as the main difference between the situation beforehand and the situation afterwards was that the US pulled a load of missiles out of Turkey, I would say that the USSR won. The USSR didn't have any missiles there beforehand, so not having them there later means that their position didn't change. Khrushchev was a very clever man, you know. So clever was his ruse that people still don't realise what he achieved even now. He let JFK lap up all the glory but he must have been a pretty smug bunny himself, because only the USSR improved its position.

Of course, the victory wasn't exactly a stunning one. It's not like he removed the nuclear threat from the USSR. But I guess it was a start for them.
MNOH
24-01-2005, 00:52
Castro won: Hooray! Finally people are paying attention to me!
L-rouge
24-01-2005, 00:56
Ok. My position on this is as follows.
Within the confines of the question posed in the thread, the USSR won. Why? Simply because they got the two conditions that they wanted for removing the weapons from Cuba to be agreed by the US.
1) The US would remove their nuclear weapons from Turkey. Though the USSR agreed a non-disclosure agreement with Kennedy's government that they would not release the information of US weapons removals from Turkey, the fact that it happened as per Khruschevs request was a victory.

2) The guarentee of no US backed invasion of Cuba. This is less known, but Khruschev also demanded that the US not directly invade Cuba (Cuba of course being very concerned about this after the recent Bay of Pigs affair). This was also never released to Castro, as per agreement with Kennedy, hence why Castro was always so concerned with the US. The US for its part never removed the trade embargos they had with Cuba, but no direct US led invasion of Cuba has occured.

Both Khruschev and Kennedy were, luckily, the right people at the right time and both acted as calming influences within their governments. Though the US were able to save face with the rest of the world, it was the Soviets who gained the most from the Crisis, though history has proven (?) that the US and the West were the final victors of the Cold War.
Ashmoria
24-01-2005, 01:04
the military-industrial complex won

as usual
Corneliu
24-01-2005, 01:40
Ok, this isn't "who won the Cold War", just the crisis itself and the immediate aftermath.
Popular history at the time said the US won, but what do you think?

(This isn't a flame the USSR/Commies/USA thread, intelligent discussion only please, thank you!)

Both won!

The USA got the Missiles out of Cuba and the USSR got the missiles out of Turkey.
Eutrusca
24-01-2005, 01:54
Ok, this isn't "who won the Cold War", just the crisis itself and the immediate aftermath.
Popular history at the time said the US won, but what do you think?

(This isn't a flame the USSR/Commies/USA thread, intelligent discussion only please, thank you!)

All of us.