Cuban Missile Crisis Research Paper

The Cuban missile crisis, which happened in October 1962, certainly has many lessons for us regarding nuclear warfare- or the prevention of it. However, whether the experience and knowledge gained from these lessons can be applied in Iran today is debatable. There is a relative correspondence to what happened fifty years ago in Cuba and what is happening in Iran right now- but there are also significant differences. Obviously, the main and most important similarity is that there is a potential risk of a nuclear war. Other underlying similarities would be the cause of tension between the two countries, and how the U.S.A. administrations decided to tackle the situation. However, there are also stark contrasts between both of the scenarios, revolving
Also, while Cuba was under a relatively stable dictatorship, Iran is wavering between regimes of serious theocracy.

So, in both situations, nuclear war was imminent- and both nations were (in Iran’s case, still is) under a severe dictatorship, either military or theocratic. The U.S.A. had already had some turbulent history with both these nations, causing tension to build up. If there is one thing one shouldn’t get in the way of, it is American’s interests. Cuba took up the challenge, and Iran is in the process of doing exactly that. However, Cuba was an immediate neighbour of the U.S. in a communist regime, while Iran is situated close to the U.S’s allies, which basically means one thing… They are a threat to their main petrol suppliers. So, in the case of Cuba, the U.S.
Iran lacks the type of support Cuba had from the USSR and Cuba’s ideal location, which was their greatest advantage- they were about 140km away from Miami, Florida. Iran, on the other hand, is isolated in the Middle East, surrounded by many hostile Sunni U.S. allies which don’t support their acquisition on nuclear weapons. However, the U.S. has one problem with the Iran that it didn’t with Cuba- they can’t justify why they want the removal of their nuclear weapons. Not only do other countries close to Iran possess nuclear power (such as Israel) but Iran also claims that they need this nuclear power to provide electricity, so it seems like America is simply acting upon caprice by asking them to remove their nuclear power. Another difference would be the risk factor. During the CMC, there was a far greater chance of a nuclear war, but if Iran or the U.S. decided to launch an attack on each other, chances are they distance between them would be so inconvenient they’d only be able to take one nuclear strike at each