Why was the Cuban Missile crisis the fault of the US?
971461
It wasn't. The USSR lied about having missles in Cuba aimed at the  United States. We found out about it from spy photos and told the Russians to remove them or we'd nuke them until they glowed.\n\nThey blinked first and removed the missles.
546354
The Cuban Missile Crisis refers to the tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States regarding the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The period of greatest danger started on October 16, 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance was shown to U.S. President John F. Kennedy which revealed evidence for Soviet nuclear missile installations on the island, and lasted for 13 days until October 28, 1962, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the installations would be dismantled. The Cuban Missile Crisis is regarded as the one moment when the Cold War came closest to escalating into a nuclear war. Russians refer to the event as the "Caribbean Crisis," while Cubans refer to it as the "October Crisis."\n\nContents [hide]\n1 U.S. nuclear advantage \n2 U.S. missile sites in Turkey \n3 Missile deployment \n4 The U-2 flights \n5 U.S. response \n6 Aftermath \n7 See also \n8 Further reading on the Cuban missile crisis (Non-fiction) \n9 Further reading on related topics (Non-fiction) \n10 External links \n \n\n\n[edit]\nU.S. nuclear advantage\nVarious estimates indicate that the U.S. had a decided advantage over the Soviet Union in the period leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In Chapter 6 of The Demilitarized Society: Disarmament and Conversion, Seymour Melman describes how "the attempt to emplace medium and intermediate-range missiles in Cuba made solid sense for the Soviets. For their leaders it was a necessary response to a desperate military situation into which the Soviets had been cornered by a series of remarkable American successes with military materiel and military intelligence." For example, by the close of 1962 the United States had a dramatic advantage in nuclear weapons with "more than 300 land-based intercontinental missiles and a fleet of Polaris missile submarines." The Soviet Union for its part had only four to six land-based ICBMs, according to a White House estimate in 1962, and "about 100 short-range V-1 type missiles that could be launched from surface submarines" (Melman, 1988: 118-119).\n\n...also points to a dramatic U.S. military advantage. He writes: "Few in Washington seriously believed that a few dozen ballistic missiles in Cuba could change the essential fact of the strategic balance of power: the Soviet Union was hopelessly outgunned…By the fall of 1962, America’s arsenal contained 3,000 nuclear warheads and nearly 300 missile launchers—far more than the Soviet Union’s 250 warheads (including those in Cuba) and estimated 24 to 44 missile launchers" (Hersh, 1997: 343).\n\nThe military advantage in nuclear arms was compounded by a U.S. breakthrough in espionage. Before his arrest on the first day of the Cuban missile crisis, Colonel Oleg Penkovsky had served as intelligence agent for the Americans and British. He was also a colonel in Soviet Intelligence. Melman notes that "the proceedings of his trial in April 1963 revealed that he had delivered 5,000 frames of film of Soviet military-technical information, apart from many hours of talk with western agents during several trips to western Europe". Melman argues that top officers in the Soviet Union concluded "that the US then possessed decisive advantage in arms and intelligence, and that the USSR no longer wielded a credible nuclear deterrent" (Melman, 1988: 119).\n\n[edit]\nU.S. missile sites in Turkey\nIn 1961, the U.S. started deploying 15 Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) nuclear missiles near İzmir, Turkey, which directly threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union. These missiles were regarded by President Kennedy as being of questionable strategic value; a nuclear submarine was capable of providing the same cover with both stealth and superior firepower.\n\nSoviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had publicly expressed his anger at the Turkish deployment, and regarded the missiles as a personal affr
181530
Neither of the previous posters have a clue what they are talking about.  Here is the right answer.  The United States decided on a blockade of all in-coming Soviet vessels.  When Khruschev saw that Kennedy would not back down he agreed to dismantle aggressive Russian missiles and the entire world took a collective sigh of relief.
628135
Your right the ones who suffered most in the conflict was the third world.  South America and Africa were riddled with ineffective puppet governments put there by the US to keep the "radical" communists out.  However they tend not to teach that in High School history classes so you will find most Americans are oblivious to the effect that the Cold War had on the third world.  Good Luck trying to teach them.\n\nTo:adonrummd\n\nI don't just blame the US I also blame the a**hole "leaders" who would sell out their people for money.  If it was the USSR encouraging ineffective governments then yes I would blame them, but it wasn't.  With great power comes great responsibility.  If you mess up, you have to take responsibility.  America was looking out for its own best interest, I would agree with that.  To think that in doing that they did not have a big part in the underdevelopment of the third world, is naive.
1005166
Probably because the rest of the world saw the USSR as a major threat to their way of lives and the US as protectors.  It's ironic that we are now percieved as the major threat to their way of lives.
529589
Cuba is ninety miles from the US.  Cuba was the only country in the western hemisphere that was communist.  Russia put missiles in Cuba directed at the US,  The wealthy Cubans got out and moved to Florida when Castro took over, became a political force.  Russia was the only other superpower that could challenge the US and in Cuba they were too close for comfort.  Remember the times -  it was early 60s.  Only two powers had nukes, Russia and the US.  School children practiced drills against nuke attacks.  They were taught to hid under school desks. Shelter were set up  and stocked by the govt in case of a nuke strike.  It was not too long after the Red scare congressional hearings and many US citizens being ruined by blacklisting.  A big difference now and then is that the US economy was strong.  Manufacturing took place in the US.  We had the natural resources to  keep the country going.  It was  around 20 years since Europe was torn apart by a World War.  It was around 20 years since the US saw what a nuke could do.  Rmemmber Japan.  Memories were fresh and not yet part of history  that few people are still alive to remember. Items made in Japan were trinkets with a low value.  We had a nice little war going called Viet Nam against the Communist.  How could we say it was OK for them to be in Cuba even though the previous system was a place of extreme wealth and extreme poor.  Corruption was common and then go to war against the same political system in Southeast Asia. War in the past  always helped the US economy. The reason that we don't don't beat the drum against China the way we did USSR is that China holds a huge chunk of the US debt now.  If they called it in the US would be bankrupt.
856230
A the time that the President Kennedy became involved in the war, the United States believed in a "domino theory" where various nations would turn communist, creating more inertia and turning other nations communist until the world became a single communist state.  The nation was in a state of agitation due to the Cuban Missile crisis and Secretary of State McNamara and his people firmly believed that Viet-Nam would become part of a Chinese communist empire, eventually taking over all of Asia.  They operated in complete ignorance of the fact that the Vietnamese had been fighting the Chinese invaders for centuries and would never surrender to Chinese rule.  Even when President Johnson was aware that 80% of the country was against the United States, it became a matter of national pride not to leave.  \n\nFor further clarity I highly recommend the movie "Fog of War.”
652381
Kennedy did a bunch of stuff, including the Bay of Pigs invasion; The Soviet communists were putting their missles in Cuba (spreading their Communism) and Kennedy wanted to get those missles out of there. Although this failed, the Cuban Missle Crisis showed Kennedy's attempts to execute the foreign policy at the time called "containment," where he wanted to "contain" the Communism in Soviet Russia without letting it spread anywhere else. He succeeded in getting the missles out of Cuba, which was a really good thing, because we were close to having a nuclear was with them.
603301
Cuba stopped invading other countries when the USSR ran out of money.  Since they are no longer a threat to anybody but themselves, there's no point invading them.
281855
The USSR was bent on world domination, and we had to maintain a balance of power or face nuclear war.The arms race and space programs and Vietnam,Korea were results. Domestically, anti war and civil rights issues nearly split the country.
539868
Don't know about the U.S., was on the opposite side during the cold war. For us, the opposite side, the effects were unpleasant: because the economy was so militarized, we had deficits of consumer goods. Could have lived better but for the competition with America. Maybe indirectly it caused the disintegration of the whole country and the collapse of the whole economy. In addition, everyone was afraid of any bang - what if that was the American bomb exploding? I know that the same was happening in the West - everyone was afraid of the Soviet bombs that could have started falling any moment.
212321
What in the hell did any of that mean? What did the USA do to Osama bin Laden except become the victim of his plots on at least three different occasions? The USA is not a "victim of its past deeds" it's simply the target of all the hate-filled wackos in the world because the USA is the ONLY country of significance economically and militarily left in the world.\n\nWhen the USSR still existed the same fringe groups that hate the USA hated the USSR just the same.\n\nWhat the USA should do is STOP giving money to the United Nations and stop giving money directly to other countries and see how well they all do without the generous assistance given to them by the American people every year.\n\nBy the way, did you notice how much assistance and money the Taliban and Al Quada gave to the Muslim victims of the hurricane in SE Asia last year - ZERO. And yet the USA was the first on the scene trying to help.
867269
Please give some examples of occasions when the U S A was made a scapegoat ,I can remember times when it certainly was not ,Colonel North .Cuba and the bay of pigs ,Colonel Noriega in panama, their involvement in the assassination of president Allende of Chile and his replacement by the murderous Pinochet. Allende's only sin was that he was a socialist but it was a mortal one in the eyes of the American administration.The list is a very long one I could  carry on,if there are people in the world who find fault with America perhaps America has given them good reason
377216
Russia, then the U.S.S.R., uses graphite based fission reactors, as opposed to the U.S. design.  Human error caused the incident.  The second post to your question is a decent description as to the chain of events.
1029804
Carter tried to rescue the hostages, but the mission went sour because they were not prepared for the sand.\n\nWhy would it be his fault? It was because we aided the Shaw of Iran for decades and he was toppled by the religious and others who didn't like his lifestyle. It was then the hostages were taken.\n\nWhat is ironic is that Carter lost to Reagan but Carter is the one who arranged for their release and they were released on the day Reagan was sworn in!\n\nReagan did nothing until Iran-Contra where he was selling weapons to Iran, the hostage takers, and arming Saddam!
1076403
The USSR invaded Afghanistan, but never captured it as you claimed. That is because the United States assisted the Afghanis against Russia. After all, Russia was our enemy at that time in the cold war and the Afghanis had done nothing to warrant an attack. In return for our assistance, Bin Laden decided to bite the hand that fed him and turn on America in his quest to commit terrorist acts. Is it wrong to try to help someone and be a friend? Is it Americas fault that Bin Laden wanted to commit terrorist acts against us? Just goes to show that you can nothing to help these people. They are the enemy of the world. And you are a stupid jackass!
962061
Bombing civilians,Men ,Women and Children was wrong.It's America's biggest mistake.Nothing could justify that awful act.Had America lost the war Harry Truman would have been tried as the war criminal he was.It was a shameful act.