CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

The Cuban Missile Crisis (CMC) presented a different type of military intelligence than Pearl Harbor did. In the case of CMC, military intelligence provided tremendous amounts of valuable and incontrovertible evidence. However, that information has to be viewed in the larger context of the times to understand why the United States government viewed the situation as seriously as they did.

The United States had been actively but covertly working to prevent the spread of Communism to the Western Hemisphere. Many in America believed that the U.S.S.R. intended to spread Communism to every corner of the world, while the United States was determined to bring democracy to every country possible. This ideological face-off was known as the "Cold War." Both the United States and the U.S.S.R. feared that this ideological conflict might escalate to nuclear war.

The United States had clung steadfastly to the Monroe Doctrine, established in...
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