Question by Chess: What were the effects of the miss-communication between Kennedy and Khrushchev?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Will
Both the Berlin wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis attributable to miscommunication.
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Oscar Himpflewitz says
~Actually, JFK and Khrushchev communicate quite clearly with one another.
Khrushchev asked, then demanded, that Kennedy remove US nuclear missiles (which were aimed at and within range of prime targets like Moscow) from Turkey. Kennedy refused.
Khrushchev asked, then demanded, that he US stop interfering in the internal affairs of Cuba. After a number of botched assassination attempts, Kennedy authorized the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Of course, CIA neglected to tell JFK that CIA estimates predicted a total failure of the invasion unless it was supported by US air and naval assets and Kennedy authorized the mission on the express proviso that such assets would not be released in support of the invasion. CIA also 'forgot' to tell Kennedy that the KGB, and therefore Castro, had gotten hold of the invasion plans. Gee, the invasion failed for some reason.
Kennedy understood full well the nature and content of Khrushchev's demands. He ignored them. Khrushchev and Castro responded by installing Soviet missiles in Cuba. Then, Khrushchev offered to pull them out immediately and publicly on the condition that the US missiles be removed removed from Turkey within 6 months under cover of darkness and that the US promise to stop trying to kill Castro and promise to never invade Cuba again. There was no misunderstanding. Kennedy ran a bluff, Khrushchev not only called, but raised, and Kennedy folded.
For his efforts, Khrushchev was removed from power in a bloodless coup. Who knows whether or not the Joint Chiefs and CIA had a hand in Dallas. In any event, had Khrushchev and Kennedy remained in office, the Cold War would have been a far different affair and detente would have been achieved far sooner. Niki and the Kennedy boys had developed a very workable and productive back channel communications system and the two leaders liked and respected one another. That willingness to cooperate was intolerable to both the US military-industrial complex and to the Politburo.
The Missile Crisis was hardly a product of miscommunication. It was a product of gamesmanship gone bad because neither side had the brains to stop playing until the missiles were almost in the air. The Berlin Wall was more of the same. By the time Kennedy took office, Ike and the CIA had already toppled a dozen democratically elected reform governments around the world who had been either neutral or aligned with the Soviets. With the likes of Curtis Lemay and his ilk in the Pentagon screaming to roll the tanks across Germany, and with the Western propaganda running rampant and unchecked in East Germany and Berlin, behind the backdrop of the CIA sponsored coups in places like Iran, Iraq, Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti, Greece, Brazil, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Laos and elsewhere, the East Germans and Soviets did the logical and sane thing. They quarantined the foreign sectors of the city in self-defense. Although the hoi poloi were duped about what was happening, the leaders were well aware and understood what each other was doing.