Cuban Missile Crisis - 1

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a success for U.S. containment. How much do you agree with this agree with this claim.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a part of the Cold War when Cuba had become Communist under Fidel Castro and was under Soviet influence. Cuba was importing arms from USSR and accordingly USSR was setting up a missile base in Cuba – pointing them at USA.

America was a strong believer in the policy of containment – containing the spread of Communism. However, Cuba, which was a part of America, had itself become a Communist country. This was a major fail for the Americans.

The Cuban Missile Crisis saw the backing out of the USSR with its missile base from Cuba. This was successful for the policy of containment because Cuba was no more supplied by another strong communist country.
However, Cuba stayed allies with the USSR, which was a failure for the policy of containment. Cuba remained a Communist state and this was a blow to the U.S.

The U.S. president Kennedy was considered a peacemaker and a good leader and gained a lot of popularity amongst the citizens of America. However, America too had to back out from their missile base in Turkey, which was another reason of failure for the policy. It showed that America had to bow down to the terms of communism.

President Kennedy proved to Khrushchev that he was not willing to let the USSR apply their Communist terms and conditions on a part of America. This was a success for the policy of containment as it forced Khrushchev to back down.
But, America could not break the strong allied force of Cuba and the USSR. Infact, after Cuba, many of the other Central American countries started opting for Communism – the Domino theory. This would have proved a major failure for the policy of containment.

I agree that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a success for the U.S. policy of containment but only with the fact that the USSR had to remove its nuclear base from Cuba and Khrushchev had to step...