Diplomacy in the Cuban Missile Crisis

One thing to note is that while American newspapers gave Americans up to date knowledge about the crisis, Soviet newspapers did the opposite. Because of centralized Soviet media, Russians had limited knowledge of the crisis. While they heard basic events, such as Soviet ships moving towards Cuba, they were not told the gravity of the situation.

In the Cuban Missile Crisis, diplomatic letters and solutions were used a considerable amount more than rifles and bombs. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev (the USSR leader) exchanged many letters on the topic offering peaceful solutions. It helped that Khrushchev had a vey high opinion of the Kennedy administration. A common solution in most of these cases was the U.S. promising to not repeat another invasion on Cuba, the U.S. removing their missiles faced towards the USSR, and the Soviets also withdrawing their missiles from Cuba.

Following the diplomacy between the two nations, the two moved closer towards a diplomatic resolution. Kennedy and the United States formulated a response. They would respond to Khrushchev’s first, original letter, and not the second. The second letter demanded harsher terms than the first, and demanded concessions that the United States was not yet willing to agree to (such as removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey). Finally, in a private conversation between Robert Kennedy and Anatoly Dobrynin at the Soviet embassy, an agreement was reached.