Cuba Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cuba Crisis - Essay Example John F. Kennedy constituted his high ranking team of advisers commonly known as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm). The committee met on several occasions and deliberated on certain measures that were to be taken to end the confrontatio0n over the Cuban missile. The ExComm came up with several options on how to deal with the crisis that was at hand. The first option that they deliberated on was invading Cuba. Secondly they considered ordering an air strike on Cuba which was aimed at destroying the missile sites that were staged in Cuba by the Soviet Union.   The third option they considered was imposing blockade around Cuba in order to counter the undelivered missiles. This was to tighten the blockade and or resulting to air strikes or invasion. The fourth option was to present a sort of ultimatum the president of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. This was on condition that if the missiles were not removed a military action was to be taken. The fift h and the last option that the ExComm considered was to make a trade offer in that the US were to withdraw their missiles from the republic of Turkey and in exchange the Soviet Union were to withdraw and remove their missiles from Cuba.Option one and two which were on invasion and air strike attacks were aborted on the fear of the retaliation by the Soviet Union. Theodore Sorensen, a member of the ExComm and who was also the presidential speech writer thought that the Soviets would retaliate by knocking on their missiles in Turkey.  

The impact of the Cold War on the Middle East Essay

The impact of the Cold War on the Middle East - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the cold war had a lot of effects not only to the participating countries but also the neighboring states: moreover, the effects were both positive and negative depending on the situation. Significantly, when it comes to the nuclear legacies, most of them can be traced back to the cold war, with most of the Middle East states experiencing the availability of new technologies for nuclear power and energy, use of radiation for improving medical treatment and health; moreover, environmental remediation, industrial production, research science, and technology development have all benefited from the carefully managed application of radiation and other nuclear processes. On the other hand, military development and spending have continued despite the end of the cold war especially in relation to the exploitation of defensive systems; furthermore, former superpowers in the Middle East have proceeded to maintain and develop existing weapons and delivery systems. Additionally, with some countries having had overseas military bases and facilities, they have inherited responsibilities and costs especially with the urge of more production and serving facilities (sometimes even military staging and storage); as well, nuclear and conventional forces remain at levels reasonably high for a  peacetime  environment with localized conflicts and tensions having replaced the former bilateral nuclear confrontation. Generally, in the wake of the Cold War, some of the Middle East countries inherited expenses, commitments, and resources for which they were not prepared, and others state also found themselves with contemporary national-security burdens and substantial environmental contamination legacies, all to be financed while new or revised civilian economies had to be instituted. In 1955, Syria aligned with Egypt and Saudi Arabia (Arab Solidarity Pact) to balance against Iraq and the United States sponsored Baghdad pact; still, on the same year, there was a pact between Syria and USSR - Syria was trying to balance against Iraq, Turkey and Israel (went up to1958). Additionally, in 1958 Syria united with Egypt under Nasser (United Arab Republic) to balance against internal communist threats and external superpower pressure; after this, there was the Tripartite Unity Pact - where Syria and Iraq formed an alliance with Egypt, and later on in the year, Syrian and Iraqi Ba’ath united to balance against Egypt to fulfill ideological goals.