Berlin – Cuba: The Interrelationship of the Cold War Crises in the Strategic Assessments of the Superpowers1961–1962

The purpose of this study is to identify real and potential interconnections between the Berlin and the Cuban crises in the strategic assessments of the Soviet and US leadership in 1961-1962. Author demonstrates that the contemporaries (political leaders, diplomats, military and intelligence experts of the two superpowers) saw the two, the most dangerous crises of the Cold War not as separate events but as those ones which could intensify each other. Essay is based on the variety of published and archival evidence on the Soviet and U.S. estimates made in 1961–1962. Article concludes that Moscow and Washington judged the Berlin and the Cuban Crises as interrelated in many ways. The Kremlin, being vigorously determined to solve the “Berlin question” before August 1961, changed the tactics after the construction of the Wall and tried to use the situation around the West Berlin as a means to camouflage the Soviet actions in regard to Cuba. For the White House, the August 1961 wasn’t the clear termination of the Berlin Crisis. In 1961–1962, there were numerous voices in Washington which speculated that USSR didn’t abandon its attempts to force the Western troops out of Berlin. For a long period of time, the U.S. decision-makers regarded the “Cuban question” through the lens of the Berlin one. Though the relationship between Berlin and Cuban Crises didn’t materialise, it influenced seriously the strategic estimates of the superpowers and, through the estimates, made an impact on the Soviet and U.S. actions at the height of the Cold War.

Keywords

USSR, USA, Cold War, Berlin crisis, Caribbean crisis, JohnF. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, foreign policy, international relations

Acknowledgment

The research was carried out at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-28-00622 “Strategic culture of the Great Powers in the XX–XXI centuries: comparative-historical research (on the example of Russia and the USA)ˮ).

Received

27.10.2023

Publication date

21.12.2023

Number of characters

48413

Cite

GOST	Magadeev I. Berlin – Cuba: The Interrelationship of the Cold War Crises in the Strategic Assessments of the Superpowers1961–1962 // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia – 2023. – Issue 6 C. 136-150 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://nni.jes.su/S013038640026433-4-1 (circulation date: 19.07.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013038640026433-4
MLA	Magadeev, Iskander "Berlin – Cuba: The Interrelationship of the Cold War Crises in the Strategic Assessments of the Superpowers1961–1962." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 6 (2023):136-150. DOI: 10.31857/S013038640026433-4
APA	Magadeev I. (2023). Berlin – Cuba: The Interrelationship of the Cold War Crises in the Strategic Assessments of the Superpowers1961–1962. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (6), pp.136-150 DOI: 10.31857/S013038640026433-4

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