POLI 388                                                                                                      April 7, 2010

TAKE-HOME MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT

             If done on an in-class basis, about 35-40 minutes would be allocated to this question. Given the more relaxed circumstances of a take-home exam, I recommend that you devote several hours to preparing your answer. In any event, your answer should be limited to no more 750 words (3 doubled-spaced pages). You are, of course, free to refer to your notes and readings (and you certainly should finish reading Thirteen Days). However, you must work on your own, independently of other members of the class. (It’s a non-cooperative game — actually it is not a game at all, because your grade [“payoff”] will depend only on the quality of your answer, not the quality of your answer relative to other answers.) And of course, what you turn in should not be plagiarized from other texts (books, journal articles, web pages, term paper mills, etc.); see the Guidelines For Student Research Projects and the course website for further guidance on plagiarism.

            Hard copy answers may be turned in at the beginning of class on Monday, April 19 or be delivered be emailed to me (preferably as a Word, WordPerfect, RTF, or PDF attachment) later the same day. Answers turned in after this deadline, in the absence of special arrangements that will be granted only to accommodate unusual circumstances, will be penalized according to the degree of lateness. Your answer should be typed or word-processed if possible; if this is not possible, please write in ink and double-spaced (or on wide-lined paper) as legibly as possible. This question booklet (with the passages of the speech you focus on labeled) should be attached to your answer.

Select at least six passages from the following excerpts from President Kennedy's speech of October 22, 1962, which initiated the "open phase" of the Cuban missile crisis (in that it disclosed to the Soviets and the world that the U.S. knew about the existence of Soviet “offensive” missiles in Cuba and announced the initial U.S. response), and discuss these passages in light of concepts and insights presented in the class lectures, discussions, and readings (especially those pertaining to Bargaining and Bargaining Tactics). (Label the passages you select on these pages, for clear and easy reference.) You should probably review the entire speech (the first item in the Documents section of THIRTEEN DAYS) and, if you wish, you may also comment on the speech as a whole in the same vein.

Excerpts from the address by President Kennedy, October 22, 1962

            Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.

             For many years both the Soviet Union and the United States, recognizing this fact, have deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great care, never upsetting the precarious status quo which insured that these weapons would not be used in the absence of some vital challenge. Our own strategic missiles have never been transferred to the territory of any other nation under a cloak of secrecy and deception; and our history, unlike that of the Soviets since the end of World War II, demonstrates that we have no desire to dominate or conquer any other nation or impose our system upon its people. Nevertheless, American citizens have become adjusted to living daily on the bull's eye of Soviet missiles located inside the U.S.S.R. or in submarines.

             In that sense missiles in Cuba add to an already clear and present danger — although it should be noted the nations of Latin America have never previously been subjected to a potential nuclear threat.

             But this secret, swift, and extraordinary build-up of Communist missiles — in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy — this sudden, clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil —is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe.

             The 1930's taught us a clear lesson: Aggressive conduct, if allowed to grow unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true to our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere.

             Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation, which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required — and it is underway; and these actions may only be the beginning. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of world-wide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth — but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.

             Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the resolution of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately:

             First: To halt this offensive build-up, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.

             Second: I have directed the continued and increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military build-up. The Foreign Minister of the Organization of American States in their communiqué of October 3 rejected secrecy on such matters in this Hemisphere. Should these offensive military preparations continue, thus increasing the threat to the Hemisphere, further action will be justified. I have directed the Armed Forces to prepare for any eventuality and I trust that in the interests of both the Cuban people and the Soviet technicians at the sites, the hazards to all concerned of continuing this threat will be recognized.

             Third: It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.

             Fourth: As a necessary military precaution I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of our personnel there, and ordered additional military units to be on a standby alert basis.

             ....

             My fellow citizens, let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead — months in which both our patience and our will will be tested, months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.

             The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are; but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high — but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.

             Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right — not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this Hemisphere and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.