Answer to Question #168692 in History for william

Question

What were the positive consequences of the missile crisis?

Answer 1

The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to an end after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the evacuation of Soviet missiles from Cuba. Khrushchev announced proposals in 1960 to mount medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, putting the eastern United States in range of a nuclear strike. Despite the Soviets' best attempts to present the missile crises' conclusion as a win, one of the crisis's implications was the deposition of Khrushchev. Other Soviet officials persuaded him to resign, claiming that the missile crisis demonstrated Khrushchev's rash decision-making and failure to lead the Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev's heir, rose to power and worked to de-escalate relations with the United States.

           Kennedy was still persuaded by the Cuban Missile Crisis of the risks of nuclear brinkmanship. He and Khrushchev had stared into the pit of nuclear catastrophe but were willing to step out. A Moscow-Washington hotline was developed in the White House to promote direct contact between the representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States in order to deter potential crises. The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom concluded a convention restricting aerial and underwater nuclear tests in August 1963. Despite this, the test-ban treaties struggled to curb the arms race, as Kennedy concurrently approved a major arms buildup that massively increased the US nuclear arsenal and bolstered US military dominance in the Cold War.