by Jeanine

Created on: August 05, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the most significant breaking point in both the United States foreign policy and the Cold War in general. The Cuban Missile Crisis must first be understood as the closest the World has come to a WWIII. At this time both sides knew the capabilities of their opponent and fear began to grow.

Satellites and planes were used for many years to watch over bomb testing, and by cataloging this activity both the United States and the Soviet Union knew that any war could turn deadly, fast. This is the healthiest moment for the Cold War because from now on there would be an emphasis on better communication. This crisis began with an uprising in Cuba, it was a fight against communism and the Soviet Union began to siphon loads of nuclear missiles into Cuba. Since the capabilities of both sides had been realized, "What kept war from breaking out, in the fall of 1962, was the irrationality, on both sides, of sheer terror."(Gaddis, 80) This was the beginning of the end of the arms race which had characterized the previous decades of the Cold War.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was essential for the turn of the Cold War, the threat of massive destruction made both the Soviet Union and the United States realize that they could not save the world if everyone was dead. The ability for these newly developed super' bombs to wipe out massive amounts of people resulted in the end of the arms race. Some wonder why the Cuban Missile Crisis even occurred, it has been said that, "The best explanation, in the end, is that Khrushchev allowed his ideological romanticism to overrun whatever capacity he had for strategic analysis."(Gaddis, 77)No matter what the reason was, the occurrence of it was important to the development and progress of the Cold War.

The largest significance of this crisis was the fact that the world had realized that there needed to be an agreement on the use of nuclear weapons in order to ensure that the world would survive the Cold War. This resulted in the signing of a series of treaties aimed at reducing arms and restricting their use. The first was signed in 1963 called the Limited Test Ban Treaty, followed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed in 1968, and finally the Strategic Arms Limitation Interim Agreement in 1972. All of these treaties focused on the use and development of nuclear weapons. These agreements are important to the turning of the Cold War because the focus shifted toward peace for the world while still containing Communism.

Sources:
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Books. 2005.

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