Cuban Missile Crisis Diplomacy

The world will never be the same after the events of October of 1962, now known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States learned that the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile bases in Cuba. Soviet Chairman Nikita Khrushchev wanted to shift the balance of power more favorably towards the Soviet Union. Khrushchev ultimately did not want to go to war with the United States he wanted the Soviet Union to be respected and seen …

…one great super power. Russia attempted to shift the balance of power by means of extended deterrence. Huth’s theory of extended deterrence and Blainey’s theory that war is prevented by balance of power between two nations is in contrast to Kennedy’s diplomatic outcome of the missile crisis. The United States has been the dominant super power since the Cuban missile crisis and so far this has prevented the world from nuclear war.