Question by qwertyu: Why was Nikita Khrushchev removed from office?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Morpheus
Nikita might be credited with having saved the world. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, neither side looked like it was going to back down. As a little kid, I was sent home from school one day – it looked like the end. Kennedy was on the radio saying that we were almost at War – and Atomic War. The end of the world had arrived.
And then the Soviets caved – and they said they’d take their missiles out of Cuba… The world was saved. The guy who took all the heat for this was Nikita – he got fired by the other Communists for caving in to the Americans – but if he had not, god only knows how many millions of people would have died around the world.
Nikita had come through the 2nd WW – he fought at Stalingrad against the Nazis – he knew all about war and what it was REALLY like. And he sacrificed himself so that we could have peace – the Americans were obviously not going to do it.
Then later (perhaps in repayment), Kennedy pulled the plug on the Bay of Pigs operation – the American attack on Cuba. The attack failed… This had all been planned since Eisenhower. Later Kennedy was murdered perhaps by disappointed CIA guys who really wanted a war.
So it could be that BOTH Nikita and Kennedy sacrificed their own lives for peace.
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ammianus says
For the same reason JFK was assassinated.
They didn't save the world, they nearly destroyed it by starting a nuclear war over Cuba – a small, insignificant island whose future one way or the other posed no significant threat to either USA or USSR. As McNamara said at the time, 40 or 50 Russian missiles on Cuba didn't change the overall strategic nuclear balance, or the capability of the USSR to destroy USA with first strike or retaliatory launches.
Both were seen as dangerous loose cannons who had nearly started WW3 and destroyed the planet over something and somewhere that was not a direct threat to their home countries. Khrushchev was therefore removed in a palace coup by other senior Politburo members as soon as a consensus had been arrived at and the opportunity presented itself.
BTW, Bay of Pigs was in April 1961, 18 months BEFORE the Cuban Missile Crisis, and one of the factors that led to Cuba requesting Russian nukes.