The Cuban Missile Crisis was very important because it redefined the military of the United States and the Soviet Union of the Socialist Republics. Before the crisis, the United States was considered to be in a better position to strike the Soviet Union first because it had its nuclear warheads strategically positioned in Italy and Turkey. It meant that in case the two countries went to war, the United States will be in a position to strike first (Part 78).
The United States also had more warheads which were very accurate compared to that of the Soviet Union. However, the growing tension between the United States and Cuba prompted Cuba to request the Soviet Union to station its nuclear warheads in Cuba. The Soviet Union accepted the offer and started constructing nuclear plants in Cuba meant for an offensive attack. For the first time in the history of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union had nuclear warheads station within a range that could strike the United States.
The United States had several options to take in response to this threat. The options included initiating a preemptive attack on Cuba, destroying the plant, and installing a US-friendly government. John F. Kennedy, the then president of the United States, ruled out this option that was considered by the military top brass as the most appropriate. He chose diplomacy instead of military attack (Fink 44). However, this came at a cost to the United States. The agreement that the United States made with the Soviet Union was that the government of the United States had to dismantle its nuclear stations in Italy and Turkey.
This was widely seen as a loss to the United States (Booker 52). It meant that its capacity to strike the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons was significant. The agreement that the United States will not in any way try to interfere with the government of Cuba was another loss to the United States. Bernhard says that the biggest beneficiaries of this conflict were the Soviet Union and Cuba (46). The United States and its allies in Europe were seen to have lost the war.
Significance of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was another big loss to NATO during the Cold War period (Gaddis 85). In this battle, the French Union Forces and the State of Vietnam fought against Viet Minh supported by the Soviet Union, China, and East German. Viet Minh was fighting the colonial power (France) to free Vietnam from the colonial forces (Phillips 62). France, on the other hand, was trying to maintain its control over Vietnam as one of its colonies in the region. Since the United States did not join the war directly, it had shared interests with France given the fact that they were both members of NATO.
The French forces had a clearly defined war plan, but it ignored the fundamental issues about the counterattack plan that Viet Minh had given that it was supported directly by a strong power at that time (Soviet Union) that provided it with artillery and helped in planning the war (Johnson and Part 47). Because of these fundamental mistakes, the French forces were defeated in this war which led to the independence of Vietnam. It was a loss to France and all its NATO allies, including the United States of America.
Works Cited
Bernhard, Nancy. U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947 – 1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.
Booker, Martin. Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American Science Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
Fink, Carole. Cold War: An International History. Boulder: Westview Press, 2014. Print.
Gaddis, John. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Press, 2005. Print.
Johnson, Ross, and Eugene Parta. Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe : a Collection of Studies and Documents. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010. Print.
Phillips, Steve. The Cold War: Conflict in Europe and Asia. Oxford: Heinemann, 2001. Print.