Little did anyone know that October 27th would be one of the worst, if not the worst day of the crisis. A recon plane was shot down and one flew off course in Russia, while another was shot at over Cuba (Larson). Khrushchev was also beginning to grow more demanding for an American proposal. He proposed that the Soviets would remove their missiles if the US removed theirs, and he stated this publicly (Hatch). This solution seems much easier than going to war, and the public would also see it that way. Kennedy decided to send a response to Khrushchev’s first letter and ignore the second. This was the proposal of removing Soviet missiles if the US would not invade Cuba. This turned out to be a good idea on Kennedy’s part, and that was the resolution of this conflict. Diplomacy won over warfare, showing that liberal values do work in real life situations. The decline of this situation led to a decline in the Cold War, as the United States and the Soviets began to try and live with each other in some kind of harmony.

This situation could have turned out very different. If Kennedy had listened to the Air Force and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cuba would have been bombed excessively. This would have led to retaliation by both Cuba and the Soviets, and nuclear weapons would almost have certainly been used on American soil. An air strike could not have been guaranteed 100% success, and even 1% without success could have caused millions of American lives to be lost. It would have been the end of the world, as we know it. After a nuclear war, things would never be the same again. Thankfully, Kennedy stuck to his resolution and it turned out peacefully. This was a scary time for the world, but it turned out a learning lesson for everyone in the world.

Works Cited
“The Cuban Missile Crisis, A Chronology of Events.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
nsa/cuba_mis_cri/
Larson, Ben and Wiersma, Kurt. “Fourteen Days in October: The Cuban Missile Crisis.”
http://library.advanced.org/11046
Hatch, David A. and Johnson, Thomas R. “NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis – Full
Length Synopsis.” http://www.nsa.gov/doc

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