Question 3: How far did the Cuban Missile Crisis change relations between the superpowers?

I think that the Cuban Missile Crisis has to the small extent changed the relations between the superpowers, because even though it gave them an opportunity to learn some lessons from the mistakes they’ve made, neither of the superpowers has actually learned much from it.

From the very beginning of the conflict, the Democratic Party, viewed the Soviet Union's actions inside Cuban territory from a true revisionist perspective, and saw the crisis as a fundamental threat to The United States. Before the USSR was leading the arms race and overall was always beyond the USA. Krushchev felt very confident, and this could make him feel relaxed, which had a crucial effect on the USSR, as it lost its positions to the USA. From the crisis the USSR has learned that it was impossible to invest all the money they had into the military development. Krushchev has also learned a lesson, that he shouldn’t have considered Kennedy to be a weak president. The USA has learned that if it had communicated with the USSR, the conflict could have been resolved in a less painful way for both countries and the USA would save its international reputation. This lesson caused both superpowers to make a hotline telephone connection between two superpowers. This was a long term change and was believed to help to prevent any misunderstandings between two leaders and avoid another crisis in the future. With the help of hotline they could discuss the problems quickly, securely, without thinking about the public opinion, whereas before the Crisis they had to send the messages over the Radio, which wasn’t very secure and caused a lot of pressure because neither the USA nor USSR wanted to seem weak in the public eye.

Although there was a hotline between two superpowers, for some reasons it wasn’t used effectively, as the USSR kept supporting Vietnam and, at the same time, was spreading communism during the war between the USA and Vietnam.

The fact that in 1963 two superpowers have signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty 1, suggests that two leaders tried to seem positive and also tried to ensure the public that everything was under control. Although two leaders have signed such pacts as SALT, it didn’t state there that they could not test their missiles underground or use Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicle, which was the most powerful missile at that time. From this we can see that the situation has not really changed in the area of military development between two superpowers. They were still able to test and develop new military equipment and the pacts were made to avoid too much attention from the public side and show that two superpowers were doing something to improve the situation.

Another good improvement which shows that two superpowers have learned some lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis, is the Helsinki agreement. From that stage both leaders of the two superpowers had to tell their military plans to each other, which decreased competition between them. They couldn’t start developing anything else without letting the other countries know. This agreement was seen as a significant step forward reducing the Cold War. From this both leaders have learnt that it would decline the crisis, because the USA would know all the plans of the USSR without spying and guessing what the pictures made by the U-2 planes have shown.

The war in Vietnam has shown that those treaties, which two superpowers had signed recently didn’t work effectively. The USA and USSR were still fighting with each other, but behind the other country, mainly because of the difference in ideologies which kept remaining the same, as it did in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USA has attacked a small country again, which didn’t make them look very positive in the public eye and has ruined their reputation. This suggests that both superpowers didn’t learn very well from Cuba.

Overall, there were many changes over that period of time, but not all of them had an affect on the relations between the USA and USSR. Even though there were some little changes, like SALT pact, Partial Nuclear Test Ban, and Helsinki agreement, there was the same continuity in the relations between two superpowers as in the Cuban Missile Crisis. All the pacts, which both countries have signed, were short term changes and have just caused some limitations, because both superpowers were still developing and testing their new military equipment underground. However, there was also a long term change, such as ‘hotline’ between Kremlin and Washington, which has helped to avoid any misunderstandings between two countries as it was very dangerous at that time and could cause a nuclear war. Both superpowers became more careful, but they still haven’t learned much from the previous crisis, even though they didn’t act very actively, they still carried on with developing of the new weapons. The Cuban Missile Crisis had finished, but then there ware some others, very similar ones in Berlin and Vietnam, which suggest that there was a continuity of the Cold War.

Total: 1891 words.

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