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The history of Missiles and International Law can be best understood with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962 the world witnessed two superpowers, US and USSR in a horrendous nuclear standoff over the island of Cuba, after the USSR placed its nuclear tipped missiles on Cuba.
On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy did address the American people. Kennedy said, US was having proof that USSR was currently deploying inside Cuba “large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction.” On October 22, 1962, US put on record the Cuba issue before the UNSC and did ask for immediate meeting of the UNSC. The US was worried about USSR’s nuclear tipped missiles being deployed in Cuba as the theory of ‘missile gap’ was widely believed in the US security establishment.
What ‘missile gap’ meant was that USSR had missiles which were conventional and nuclear in the thousands, and some of them were being deployed in Cuba. The missiles in Cuba could have been used for political coercion and if the Soviets would have attacked Europe, then the US response to Soviet aggression could have been held hostage by the missiles in Cuba.
These missiles in Cuba covered the entire US range (Soviet missiles from USSR were not having range to reach US), this meant that nuclear tipped missiles of the US would have got destroyed (some for sure), hence deterring or distracting the US from coming to the help of the Europeans.
Later on, a CIA mole in the Department of Defence at Moscow (official USSR government) divulged that “In such large questions of strategic rockets and attacks with strategic weapons, he (Soviet Leader Khrushchev) lies and puts out what he wants as if it were true, believe me.” Adlai Stevenson, US ambassador to the UN said at the UN on the tenth day (since the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis) “My government is most anxious to effect a peaceful resolution of this affair. We continue to hope that the Soviet Union will continue to work with us to diminish the not only the new danger which has suddenly shadowed the peace but all of the conflicts that divide the world.”
Eventually the UN played an important role where this crisis was also dialed down. A great op-ed written on the role of the then UN Secretary General Thant says “Though rarely recognized as such, Thant served as a crucial mediator. His first task was to de-escalate the world-threatening crisis and create a space for negotiation. He began on Oct. 24 by appealing for a Soviet suspension of arms shipments and U.S. suspension of the quarantine. This would allow time for negotiations to resolve the crisis peacefully.
Though this message was initially criticized by both Soviet and American officials, Kennedy directed the state department to ask Thant to send another message to the Soviets “to give them a way out.” Specifically, Kennedy wanted Thant to ask the Soviets, as his own proposal, to stop their ships for a few days so preliminary talks could be arranged under UN auspices.
Thant sent his second appeal on Oct. 25. Coming as a proposal from the UN secretary general rather than an ultimatum from the American president, it was accepted by Khrushchev and indeed he used it to save face while withdrawing his ships. Even while the hawks in President Kennedy’s circles pushed for the invasion of Cuba, Thant ensured that each side of the conflict was given enough breathing room to back down from near-catastrophe in an honourable manner.
While Kennedy may be the figure most often associated with the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is certainly worth remembering the courage and vision of the quiet diplomats of the United Nations.” President Kennedy resolved the issue using the UN, CIA mole (obtaining critical information which too helped avoid a nuclear war) as well as activating the back channel. The back channel is where the real bargaining and negotiations took place. So, to have an honourable and face-saving exit Khrushchev withdrew his nuclear tipped missiles from Cuba, but what was unheard of back then in 1962 was the fact that Kennedy too withdrew his nuclear tipped missiles which were placed in Europe very close to the border with the USSR.
This was the first lesson in world history about nuclear weapons, that they are not for warfighting but serve as deterrence. This experience and more motivated US and USSR to have arms control treaties which would help drastically reduce even an accidental nuclear war.
China understood after its first nuclear test in 1964 while many more followed till 1996 along with construction of suitable strategic rockets (which mounted the nuclear bomb), that they are not for warfighting, so conventional tipped missiles are the answer!
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint