Put it together: Why did the crisis end peacefully?

H2 History - syllabus 9174, 2027

Choose a factor and weigh it against the others.

Which factor best explains the peaceful end of the crisis?

Kennedy's choices

Chose a quarantine over air strikes.
Answered the first letter and offered a secret Turkey deal.

Kennedy kept options open and gave Khrushchev a way out.

His earlier actions, such as the Bay of Pigs, helped cause the crisis.

Khrushchev's choices

Ships turned back at the quarantine line.
Accepted withdrawal on 28 October.

Khrushchev chose to back down when war became likely.

He created the crisis by deploying the missiles secretly.

Nuclear deterrence

Both sides understood a nuclear war could not be won.
Kennedy's 22 October letter stressed that no sane man would choose such a war.

Fear of mutual destruction pushed both leaders to compromise.

Deterrence nearly failed: the U-2 shootdown showed how events could escape control.

Secret diplomacy

Robert Kennedy and Dobrynin met privately.
The Turkey concession was kept secret.

Secret channels let both sides compromise without public humiliation.

Secrecy also hid the real terms from allies, including Castro and NATO.

Sources and context

Background reading for this chapter.

Kennedy writes to Khrushchev
Paraphrase of President Kennedy's letter to Chairman Khrushchev, 22 October 1962, sent with a copy of his televised statement on Cuba.
Khrushchev's first proposal
Paraphrase of Chairman Khrushchev's letter to President Kennedy, 26 October 1962, as translated by the US embassy in Moscow.
Khrushchev raises Turkey
Paraphrase of Chairman Khrushchev's letter to President Kennedy, 27 October 1962, broadcast publicly by Moscow radio.
Kennedy replies
Paraphrase of President Kennedy's message to Chairman Khrushchev, 27 October 1962, released to the press.
Khrushchev announces withdrawal
Paraphrase of Chairman Khrushchev's letter to President Kennedy, 28 October 1962.
Kennedy addresses the nation, 22 October 1962
Extract from President John F. Kennedy's radio and television report to the American people on the Soviet arms build-up in Cuba, broadcast on 22 October 1962. A US government document in the public domain; text from the American Presidency Project.
Khrushchev replies, 24 October 1962
Extract from Chairman Nikita Khrushchev's letter to President Kennedy, Moscow, 24 October 1962, in the official translation prepared by the US Department of State, printed in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, volume VI, document 63. A US government publication in the public domain.
the President's advisers debate Turkey, 27 October 1962
Extract from the summary record of the eighth meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm), Washington, 27 October 1962, 4 p.m., written by Bromley Smith, Top Secret. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, volume XI, document 94. A US government document in the public domain.
Robert Kennedy reports his meeting with the Soviet ambassador
Extract from a memorandum by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, 30 October 1962, describing his meeting with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on the evening of 27 October. Top Secret. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, volume XI, document 96. The editors note that a typed sentence was crossed out of the final paragraph: "If some time elapsed--and per your instructions, I mentioned four or five months--I said I was sure that these matters could be resolved satisfactory." A US government document in the public domain.
a cartoon about the settlement, November 1962
An original cartoon drawn for these notes in the style of a European newspaper cartoon published in November 1962, after the Soviet missiles were withdrawn. It is not a copy of a real cartoon. The American missiles in Turkey were removed in April 1963; the understanding was kept secret until the late 1980s.