Question

Nikita Krushchev stated in his memoirs that the Cuban Missile Crisis was "...a great victory...a triumph of Soviet foreign policy."

Was Khrushchev accurate in his assessment of the Cuban Missile Crisis? - I need help writing a thesis!!!

Answer 1

Not really. In short, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended up being an embarrassment for the Soviet Union. Khrushchev was seen as reckless in instigating a potentially lethal situation for no gain. At least in the public eye.

Much less known, however, is that the US made a concession to pull back a number of missiles from their European theater which is one of the reasons that convinced Khrushchev that he'd be okay in putting missiles in Cuba. The US and its allies had missiles on the Soviets' doorstep, so why couldn't they? But when the US pulled those missiles back later, after the Crisis, it seemed like a normal thing -- not a tit for tat in negotiating an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis. If the US' secret agreement to pull their missiles back had been made more publicly known, I'd guess that the blowback on Khrushchev's withdrawal would have been a lot less brutal.