Lauren Fencl

laurenaddisonfencl@outlook.com

Public Speaking 220

October 18, 2017

Going to the Brink: Brinkmanship of the Cuban Missile Crisis Finding its Way into Modern

Politics

Topic: Brinkmanship

Introduction:

Attention Getter: The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary

art if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost U.S. Secretary of State John F. Dulles

Statement of Thesis: The brinkmanship shown during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is being

used today between two political powers, North Korea and the United States of America.

Statement of Significance: Political powers threatening nuclear war between each other affects

us all, it is important to understand that this is a serious matter.

Statement of Credibility: Through my research I have found similarities between the negotiations

of Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro and Kim Jun Un and Donald Trump regarding nuclear

conflict.

Review of Main Points: The Cold War, which was fought over two competing ideologies,

democracy and communism, led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 where major political

leaders used brinkmanship to escalate the conflict. Today two major political leaders, Kim Jun

Un and Donald Trump are using the same brinkmanship strategies to incite conflict between the

democratic and communist countries.

Body
1. The Cold War was and ideological war between the democratic countries of the West and

the communist USSR (1947-1991).

a. Post WW2

i. Following the end of WW2 in 1945 tensions between the Eastern Bloc and

Western Bloc grew with the signing of the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The

Truman Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy plan to provide military aid to

nations under threat of becoming a part of the USSR.

b. The end of WW2 saw the first use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

i. During the Cold War the United States conducted 1,000 tests.

ii. The USSR conducted 700 tests as a part of the nuclear arms race.

2. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 heightened Cold War tensions and brought the

world to the brink of nuclear war.

a. Kennedy, Castro, and Khrushchev, the three political leaders of the U.S., Cuba,

and the USSR threatened war using brinkmanship by heightening tensions around

nuclear missiles in Turkey and Cuba.

b. Beginning October 16, 1962 President Kennedy was informed that U.S. military

surveillance had taken photographs of Cuba showing a Soviet missile base 90

miles from the coast of Florida. According to the JFK Library President Kennedy

was visited by Andrei Gromyko, a Soviet Foreign Minister, who said that any aid

to Cuba from the USSR was for defensive purposes and not a threat. Kennedy

told Gromyko that the gravest consequences would occur if the Soviets

introduced large amounts of offensive weapons to Cuba. Kennedys main concern

is a naval conflict between a US Navy vessel and a Russian vessel, leading to war.
 Kennedy writes to Khrushchev on October 23rd asking Russia to stop sending

ships to Cuba. Citing from the JFK Library, on October 24, Khrushchev replies

"You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an

ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use

force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to

this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding

oneself in one's relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to

arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us."

Fidel Castro urges Khrushchev to test the missiles against the United States,

fearing an invasion of Cuba. Cody Fuelling of the International Science Review

states Both sides concluded that if the Cold War went hot, it would probably

also go nuclear. They presumed that future war would require coordination of all

arms, nuclear and conventional.. On October 26 Khrushchev offers Kennedy the

removal of the missiles if he lifts the quarantine on Russian naval ships, if the

U.S. promises to not invade Cuba. The next day another letter from Khrushchev

demands the removal of the U.S. missiles in Turkey. The same day an American

U-2 plane is shot down by a soviet missile over Cuba. On October 28 Moscow

announces that the USSR will remove the missiles if the U.S. will not invade

Cuba.

Transition: The back and forth intimidation style negotiations of the Cuban Missile Crisis is what

defines brinkmanship in political terms.

3. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 to eerily similar to events beginning to unfold between

the United States and North Korea.

 a. President Kennedys threat to Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko was mimicked

by President Trumps threat to North Korea on August 8th of this year. Charlie

Campbell of Time Magazine writes that although never before has Pyongyangs

bluster been matched by a U.S. Presidents. On Aug. 8, Donald Trump said the

U.S. would unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen after Pyongyang

vowed to retaliate thousands of times against Washington for new U.N.

sanctions.

b. No one knows where the situation between Pyongyang and the U.S. will lead yet.

There have been many options from the involvement of China, who is North

Koreas biggest trading partner, to a hope that Kim Jong Un will agree on some

form of denuclearization, however this is unlikely as Time Magazine recognizes

North Korean officials repeatedly raised the fates of Iraqi dictator Saddam

Hussein and Libyan Muammar Gaddafi, both of whom were toppled by U.S.-

backed uprisings after abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons. For Kim

Jong Un possessing nuclear weapons could be seen as means of self-preservation

and power. Evan Osnos of the New York Times writes In embracing new

rhetoric and rationale, the U.S. risks a spiral of hostility in which neither side

intends to start a war but threats and intimidation lead to ever more aggressive

behavior. Trump and Kim may goad each other into the very conflict that they are

both trying to avoid.

Conclusion

Brinkmanship as a political strategy, specifically when it comes to deterring nuclear war, is

relatively new. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 saw no conflict as Kennedy and Khrushchev
were able to come to a compromise in the threat of nuclear war. Today as the tensions rise in

Pyongyang and Washington, the brinkmanship strategies of Kim Jong Un and President Trump

have been primarily verbal. And since no one can tell the future, and to take from John Oliver of

Last Week Tonight if everyone is really honest your level of fear over the North Korea situation

is in direct proportion to whether or not they can hit the exact place you live.
 Works Cited

Brinkmanship. Def. 1. Merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster Dictionaries. Web. Oct 2017.

Campbell, Charlie. A War of Fiery Words, for Now, Between North Korea and the U.S.. Time,

vol. 190, no. 7, 21 Aug. 2017, pp. 9-11. Academic Search Premier. AN 124562554. Accessed

Oct 2017.

Fuelling, Cody. To the Brink: Turkish and Cuban Missiles during the Height of the Cold War.

International Social Science Review, vol. 93, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-15, 17. Academic Search

Premier, AN 124988166. Accessed Oct 2017.

Osnos, Evan. Letter from Pyongyang. The New Yorker, vol. 93, no. 28, 17 Sept. 2017, pp. 34-

53. Academic Search Premier, AN 125050505. Accessed Oct 2017.

The World on the Brink. Jfklibrary.org, JFK Library, http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/.

Accessed Oct 2017.