Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a military, diplomatic, and economic crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States, both of whom had specific goals involving global and military power, competition over Cuba, and struggles for superiority. The U.S. faced the problem of the security dilemma, described in the Nye text in reference of states as “…the independent efforts of each to build its own strength and security makes both more insecure” (Nye 16). The Soviets faced opposition from one of the most powerful forces in the world, the United States. Through a series of actions and communications of both sides of this conflict, nuclear war was avoided, and today relations between the two powers remain intact.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States had much at stake during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. had obtained information that the Soviets had placed offensive missiles in Cuba which was not only a contradiction of Soviet pledges that thei...