I watched the movie Thirteen Days, for the first time, in class almost two weeks ago. It takes place in the 60's, mostly in Washington D.C. and is all about the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile crisis was the probably the most intense thirteen days in an October in 1962 that the world has ever faced. For during these thirteen days the world stood on the brink of World War III.
It started with the discovery of soviet weapons in Cuba. A U.S. spy satellite found that the Soviets were stockpiling 40 or so medium and long-range inter-continental ballistic missiles capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads and hitting anywhere in the continental United States. Tension starts to escalate between both of the military superpowers and within the Whitehouse between the President and his team, and the Military Generals who want to look good and get back Cuba for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Looking at everything from a top down approach or a Global system level of analysis it would appear that the two largest super powers were flexing their muscles and trying to get at each other. Every other country in the world was to pick a side with one of the super powers and stick by the one they picked. Ultimately, everyone in the world would hope for the best in that the two superpowers wouldn't go to war with each other because if that happened, in the end, there might not be that much of a world left.
Now coming at it from a State level of analysis, it would appear that before the whole Cuban Missile Crisis happened, the United States had established inter-continental ballistic missiles in Turkey. These missiles had the same capability as the ones in Cuba had. The U.S.S.R, wanting to even the odds, started establishing missiles in Cuba. Seeing this, the U.S. realized that the U.S.S.R was capable of doing a damaging first strike attack on anyone of the major cities in the Continental United States. This was not good.
