Compare And Contrast The American And British Involvement In The Cuban Missile Crisis

How and why did the American, British and Soviet governments react to the Cuban Missile Crisis?
This investigation will analyze the extent of the American, British and Soviet’s governments’ involvement in the Cuban missile crisis. This topic is important since any noticeable difference may give people a better perspective on world politics and how history is affected by who records said history. Britain’s role in the crisis is also usually not covered, so evaluating their influences may also be important. Two sources that will be used in this essay include John F. Kennedy’s speech, Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation, and Macmillan's secret role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Len Scott. These two sources will be evaluated for their
The early warning to the UK and several long phone calls with British Prime Minister Macmillan alone point towards the British being involved. Although they were previously not very interested in Cuban –US relations and did not back the United States up as much, they became a close democratic- ally during the crisis. Kennedy frequently used Macmillan to bounce of his ideas and possible courses of action and both leaders were also concerned about how this might affect Berlin. Because Macmillan did not want to create panic few knew that nuclear missile –carrying planes were on standby and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Taking any obvious action like that instead of just regularly calling and discussing the situation with President Kennedy, might also have prompted the Soviet Union to attack due to feeling threatened. As soon as they would have launched a missile, either at the US or any other western country, the US and Britain would have declared war and retaliated in full, leading to WWIII. The espionage and informational aid the UK gave to the United States was also classified, so that would not have been known about either. So, the British government kept a lot of it undercover and secret from the population during, and even some after, the crisis so as not to antagonize the situation even further. They did everything in their power to help desensitize the precarious state the American and Soviet government were