For 26 long and arduous years, the Berlin Wall stayed up. Anywhere between 130-200 people attempted to cross the wall and died trying. Many Presidents and Soviet Leaders came and went, until two very divisive figures showed up.
One of them was Ronald Reagan, a film star turned Governor of California and later POTUS, who had a very tough stance on communism compared to his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. Whilst no-one wanted communism to spread, Reagan was harder on it than most. He advanced technology, especially in the space programme and computers. In order to stop the spread of communism in South America, he actively traded with Iran, who had an embargo due to their war with Iraq who was a US Ally, in order to fund anti-communist militia forces in Nicaragua, in the infamous Iran-Contra affair.
A photo of Reagan
Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
Ronald Reagan, National Association of Evangelicals, 1983
The USSR believed much of what Reagan was doing was an intentional prep for war. Whilst tensions rose, the unthinkable happened. Leonid Brezhnev died. He was replaced by Yuri Andropov, who also died. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, who also died. He was replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, who did not die. He believed that the reason the Soviet system was failing was because people were not satisfied with the outcome of their hard work, due to the lack of free speech in the country.
A photo of Gorbachev
His changes were enacted quickly. People were allowed to criticise the government, they were allowed to enjoy Western pop-culture and food and the media were allowed to interview western politicians, most notably the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He also began de-escalating the arms race with the West, most notably stopping the production of Intermediate Ballistic Missiles. Where many others in the Eastern Bloc saw reform, Reagan saw an opportunity.
Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. . . . Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. . . . As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. […] General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Ronald Reagan, Brandenburg Gate, 1987
Reagan making his famous “Tear down this wall” speech
With all these reforms, many began to question what would become of the Eastern Bloc, an idea that crossed the Prime Minister of Hungary’s mind. He visited Moscow, and asked Gorbachev about reforms he wanted to enact. Gorbachev said that he did not agree with them but would not stop them from happening either.
Many countries in the Eastern Bloc began carrying out free and fair elections, with Poland’s anti-Soviet party winning 99 out of 100 seats in the Senate. Barbed wire began to come down in Hungary and the Iron Curtain was crumbling. One country that did not enact such reforms was Germany, run by hardline Stalinist, Erich Honecker. The still destitute Germans realised that if transport was permitted out of Hungary, then they could get to Hungary and move to the West that way. Tens of thousands practiced this before Honecker stepped in and banned all transport to Hungary. However, the Freedom Fever kept going as the Czech Embassy for East Germany was opened to civilians and political unrest began occurring in East Germany. Honecker was ousted by the Politburo whilst the unrest continued. One target on their minds was the wall.
On November 9th, 1989, in order to quell the chaos, the East German Government held a press conference led by Günter Schabowski, where it was announced that the travel ban from East to West Germany would be lifted. Towards the end of this hectic conference, he was asked when this would take effect he said that “As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay”. This was a mistake. The ban was meant to be lifted the next day. But, the German people had heard what they wanted to hear and, later that day, thousands of Germans came to the wall. The guards, overwhelmed, allowed the people through, whereupon the Berlin Wall was torn down.
A photo of the fall of the wall
The tearing down of the Berlin Wall is considered to be one of the great stepping stones in Eastern European freedom and the downfall of the Soviet Union. Families and friends who had been separated for nearly 3 decades partied into the night. The next year, Germany reunified into one German State.
In 1932, in Cavendish University, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Walton bombarded lithium with protons from a particle accelerator. The protons caused the lithium atom to split. Many scientists realised that if they continued to split uranium and plutonium atoms, with the protons from one atom splitting another and the process repeating in a process called fission, they could make a new source of energy. Much of this energy was harnessed in Nuclear Power Plants. By 1986, there were 389 power plants, 37 of which resided inside the Soviet Union.
Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was constructed in 1983, with Viktor Bryukhanov, manager of construction of the plant, telling higher ups in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that a test had been conducted in order to ensure the safety of the reactor. However, this was false. Bryukhanov would later defend this saying that completing work ahead of schedule entitled party members to significant bonuses. Despite the lack of the safety check, the plant went into operation.
A photo of the plant before the explosion
Eventually, Nikolai Fomin, Chief Engineer, authorised the test to go ahead on April 25th, 1986 and the test would be performed by the workers of the afternoon shift. However, party officials from Kyiv requested that the test be delayed to late that night, as they did not want citizens to lose power in the middle of the day. Despite the workers of the afternoon shift being debriefed on what to do, the night shift workers were tasked with going ahead with the test instead.
Anatoly Dyatlov, deputy Chief Engineer, was monitoring the test, with the nightshift foreman, Alexander Akimov, and the Senior Reactor Control Engineer, Leonid Toptumov, who was only 25. Toptumov had only been operating the reactor for 2 months before the test, whilst neither Akimov or Toptumov had ever done the test before and weren’t properly briefed, with the test manual being heavily annotated and thus hard to follow. This meant that the two men were relying entirely on Dyatlov, as he was the most experienced in nuclear energy. In order to conduct the test, the reactors power levels had to be reduced to around 700 MW. However, an error was made by Toptumov.
A diagram of a Nuclear Reactor
Control rods help moderate the fission reactions, which heat up the water, which spins the turbines that generate the electricity. Toptumov’s mistake was that he had put these control rods in far too deep and the reactor practically went offline. Dyatlov was infuriated at the error but still insisted that the test go through anyway, despite the lack of power that was required to do so. He ordered that the control rods be raised, in an attempt to bring the power back up. The workers did what they were told and raised all but 8 control rods, whilst the minimum amount for safety is around about 30.
Many debate what happened next. Dyatlov claimed that everything was going as planned and part of the test was to press the emergency shut down button. However, many others testified that the power levels began to rise incredibly fast to dangerous levels. Whatever the case may be, what we know for certain is that Akimov pressed the AZ-5 emergency shut down button, which re-inserted every single control rod into the core.
Logically, this was supposed to immediately shut down all power. However, due to cutting cost, the rods were tipped with graphite, which got stuck at the heart of the core due to steam pressure. Graphite, when reacting with the radioactive elements, causes an increase in energy, before the control rods shut it down. The levels of energy rose higher and higher and, with the added steam pressure, the 1000 ton lid of the reactor was blown clean off. Then, once the core was exposed a second, undetermined, reaction occurred, causing and even larger explosion that blew the roof off the factory.
At 1:23 in the morning, the explosion echoed around the nearby city of Pripyat. Decimeters in the plant, that were only capable of detecting 3.6 roentgen per hour, broke due to the overload. The reactor was actually emitting over 15,000 roentgen per hour. Firefighters quickly arrived on the scene, many of whom succumbed to radiation sickness. Once they arrived at Pripyat Hospital, their highly radioactive clothes had to be taken off and we thrown into the basement, where they still rest to this day.
A photo of the firefighters clothes in the basement of Pripyat Hospital
Over 45,000 residents from Pripyat had to be evacuated. Eventually, a large sarcophagus was built over the reactor to contain the radiation, which was replaced by the Chernobyl New Safe Containment in 2016.
Dyatlov was sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal negligence and failure to comply with the safety regulations of the test. He was released after serving only 4 years due to health concerns and died in 1995, aged 64 of bone marrow cancer, likely caused by his exposure to the plant’s radiation. Tomin, despite attempting to commit suicide multiple times, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was also released from prison early and, as far as we’re aware, he is still alive today, living with his family in Udomlya. Bryukhanov sentenced to 10 years also, for gross violation of safety regulations, creating conditions that led to an explosion, mismanagement by understating the radiation levels after the accident, administrative negligence and sending people into known contaminated areas. He was released for good behaviour in 1991 and died in 2021 from an undisclosed disease, although we know he had Parkinson’s later in life.
Bryukhanov (left), Dyatlov (centre) and Tomin (right), on trial for their negligence at Chernobyl
To this day, the Russian Government still claims that only 31 people died from the disaster, whilst UN estimates claimed that 50 deaths were caused as a direct result of the explosion, with a further 4,000 succumbing to radiation sickness or other illnesses related to exposure such as cancer. Many scientists cite the Chernobyl Disaster as the worst disaster in the history of nuclear energy.
In 1494, a line was drawn on a map by the Pope. This line dictated what would rightfully be owned by Spain or Portugal. On the Spain side of the line, there was a small cluster of islands, which would later go on to be named the Falkland Islands
A map of the Pope’s line
In 1765, Anthony Cary, Viscount of Falkland, tasked a mariner by the name of John Strong to look for the wreck of a Spanish ship off the coast of Chile. On his way down, he discovered the islands and claimed them in the name of Britain. However, one year earlier, the French had found the Eastern most island. France, finding out about the British setting up a colony on the western island, called upon Spain to assist. Spain informed France about the line on the map, and, as they were allies, France peacefully handed over their colony to Spain. They warned the Spanish about the British on the Western Island. Once Spain had gone over there, the British claimed that the island was theirs as they were Protestants who did not care for the opinions of the Catholic Pope, but were threatened into leaving the island. Fearing a war with the British over this island, Spain attempted to call upon France, who could not join as they were not ready for war. That meant Spain had to give the colony back to the British. Eventually, British soldiers had to leave the region in order to deal with the American Revolution but left a plaque claiming their territory.
The plaque left by the British
Once Napoleon had gotten into power, he invaded Spain, capturing King Ferdinand. This instability within Spain led to many South American Spanish colonies wanting independence, meaning that Spain had to leave the islands to deal with the crisis. The islands were left practically uninhabited for many years, except for penguins, fishers and gauchos, essentially Spanish cowboys.
Luis Vernet, a Merchant from Hamburg had recently moved to the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, modern day Argentina. He heard about the cows on the islands and had wanted to make some money through cattle farming. He got permission from both Rio de la Plata and the British government to set up a port on the Eastern Island. Eventually, some American ships came down and began whaling in the region, which angered Vernet. Vernet requested assistance from Rio de Plata, who gave him some weapons and appointed him governor of the islands. He seized the ships and arrested the crew. The US, learning of this, came down and bombarded the harbour.
Britain, finding out that Vernet had been appointed governor of the islands, pointed to the plaque claiming that the island was theirs. Britain came down with weapons, kicking them off the island. The island became a crowned colony in 1840, sheep were imported in 1851, two world wars came and went and the now Argentina was still claiming that they should own the islands.
It’s now 1982, and Leopoldo Galtieri was the ruler of Argentina under a right wing dictatorship. The economy was on the ropes and decided to recolonise the Falklands to distract the Argentinians from their economic crisis.
A photo of Galtieri
He decided that then was the time was to do it, as Britain was planning on cutting their military spending and the HMS Endurance had been withdrawn from the region. The Argentinians captured South Georgia Island before 600 troops were sent to the Falklands. The British Garrison at Port Louis put up resistance but were ultimately crushed by the much larger Argentine force. They assumed the British would do nothing about the invasion. They were incredibly wrong about this. Enter Margaret Thatcher.
Thatcher was a love her or hate her Prime Minister, with rarely a person having a middling opinion on her. But she was very well known for being tough, creating her nickname “The Iron Lady”
A photo of Thatcher
Thatcher declared an exclusion zone around the island, sending down a task force to deal with the islands. The UN weren’t happy with Argentina’s invasion, but every Latin American country other than Chile supported Argentina and the US had toppled the communists in 1976, which led to the dictatorship being established that Galtieri ruled over. Reagan requested that Thatcher not attack the Falklands, who obviously denied such a request. Reagan instead armed thatcher with some American guns.
A map of the Falkland Islands
Having travelled 8000 miles, the Argentinian troops had time to entrench themselves, setting up defences and mines. The Royal Navy made easy work of obtaining Naval superiority. The British sank and Argentine Cruise ship outside the exclusion zone. After the sinking, the Argentinian navy withdrew. Due to their Air Bases on the Island, the Argentinians managed to maintain air superiority, sinking the HMS Sheffield on May 4th. The Argentinian air force would carry out raids on the Navy, whilst naval Harriers attempted to take down the Argentine Planes. As the aerial battles raged on, San Carlos was declared as the best landing spot. An SAS raid was carried out on Pebble Island whilst ships engaged on skirmishes, taking out the Argentine Naval Presence.
The landings began on May 21st. Argentinian aircraft would fly over the ships, damaging a few and sinking others. The Fleet Air Arm and the Anti-Air guns made quick work of the Argentine Air Force, allowing a beach head to form. Forces began pushing East and South, towards Port Stanley and Goose Green respectively. Despite having a smaller army deployed in the area, the British would usually win battles, with the larger Argentinian Forces surrendering. After 14 hours of battling, Goose Green was captured by the British, taking 900 Argentinian POWs. The British began preparing for battle at Port Stanley, eventually taking control of the hilly and mountainous areas around the Capital. The Argentinians retreated into the town, where they were bombarded by the Royal Navy. Surrounded, the Argentinians surrendered on June 14th, ending the war.
Around 200 British lives were lost, with around 600 on the Argentinian side. The Islands were firmly British. In 2013, a referendum was held, wherein there was a 99.8% support for British Ownership. Only 3 people voted in favour of Argentina.
After graduating in 1968, Donald Trump took on a three year apprenticeship at his father’s company. It was brutal, with him and his brother, Fred, having to manage projects that were about to go bust in low to medium income housing areas. However, he soon became the President of the company in 1971.
Meanwhile, the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act had just been passed and the Department of Justice would check many buildings and apartment complexes to see if they discriminated against people based on the colour of their skin, which had been made illegal due to the act. Eventually, the DOJ arrived at the Trump apartments and began to notice a pattern.
The DOJ would send in an undercover black or hispanic member of the department, asking for a type of apartment. They would be denied, being told that there were no availabilities. Right afterwards, they would send in a white undercover member of the department, asking for the same type of apartment, and they would be welcomed with open arms. They repeated this process over and over again on multiple different Trump complexes, until they had enough evidence to file a civil lawsuit, titled “United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc.”
A fragment of a front page New York Times article, October 16th 1973
The DOJ found that many apartments would be filed with a “C” for apartments listed under people of colour, the C possibly standing for coloured. Not only that but doormen were told to tell black applicants that the rent was twice as high as it actually was. One man was asked why he denied a black applicant, he claimed he was told by his boss to not rent to black families.
Trump was infuriated but instead of settling with the DOJ, he decided to fight back and fight back hard. It was around this time that Trump was not too unfamiliar with partying at high end nightclubs with a beautiful woman at his side. At one of these nightclubs he met Roy Cohn.
A photo of Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn was notoriously cutthroat and ruthless. He was the chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy during the McCarthy Trials, trials that sent hundreds to prison of the suspicion of being a communist. He also prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were suspected of being Soviet spies. This was the kind of man Trump needed.
They attempted a counter-suit against the DOJ for $100 million dollars, citing false allegations. The judge immediately dismissed this. However, the DOJ’s case did not end with Trump’s company being sued. He instead managed to strike a deal in which he would admit no responsibility in exchange for changing his company’s policies on applicants with different race or skin. This made Roy Trump’s top lawyer, whilst also teaching Trump something. To always fight and never admit defeat.
However, after this, Trump was no longer satisfied with the low income housing market. After all, he had grown up with the glitz and glamour of a small mansion in Queens, and all Queens had to offer was the low income housing. He turned his eyes to the former height of civilisation, Manhattan.
A photo of Manhattan in the 1970s
Manhattan was once a prospering metropolis. However, since prohibition, it had become a hive of scum and villainy. Many gangs had been set up by immigrants forced to live in slums who had to commit crime to get by, such as the Five Points Gang made up of Irish Immigrants. The mob made a rise there too, exporting illegal alcohol, the most notable mobsters being Lucky Luciano of the Italian Mafia and Meyer Lansky of the Jewish Mob. Since the war, crime in the borough had sky rocketed. In 1929, 425 murders were committed in New York. By 1973, that number had rose to 1680. The amount of crime committed was so high that it inspired the fictional city of Gotham in the Batman Comic Books, a city well known for its large supervillain presence and mafia activity. However, Trump saw past the crime and saw an opportunity.
New York is either going to get much better or much worse and I think it will get better
Donald Trump speaking to the New York Times
Donald Trump, using his father’s many political and business connections, managed to buy up the Commodore Hotel, which was facing foreclosure, and renovate it into the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Many city planners considered the renovation to be ludicrous, due to its placement on 42nd Street, very well known for its adult movie theatres, drug dealers and hookers at the time. However, the plan went ahead thanks to a very large and controversial tax break and the hotel finished renovation by September of 1980.
A photo of the hotel today
He then set his eyes on an old dilapidated department store on Fifth Avenue. He had the building demolished and the plot was turned into the now famous 58-storey Trump Tower. Here were the operations of the Trump Organisation, whilst Trump would live with his new wife, a Czech model named Ivana Zelníčková, in a vast penthouse on the top floor.
Eventually, Trump’s memory of the designer of the bridge came back to his mind. He decided he wasn’t going to be some guy who designed one of the tallest buildings in the city. He wanted to make Donald Trump a household name. And his first step in the plan was to sell the fantasy. Trump could not say that he came from a rich background and his empire was built on connections and tax breaks. That won’t sell. Trump instead told a story of hard work and perseverance, a tactic used by many billionaires today, despite many already having a rich family. However, Trump took it a step further.
Trump would use his fame to keep up his persona of a ladies man party animal, who was never spotted without a beautiful woman or another celebrity at his side. This caught the attention of the tabloids. One time, for 22 days in a row, Trump appeared on a cover of a tabloid, due to his persona. He decided to use his tabloid fame to his advantage.
He would often use fake aliases to report to notable tabloids, exaggerating his achievements. On one notable occasion, he called up Forbes under the alias of John Baron, claiming that his, Donald Trump’s, net worth was $100 million, when at the time it was more around $5 million. By 1984, he had met actress Marla Maples, with whom he had began an affair, leading to a tumultuous relationship with Ivana, ending in a nasty divorce in 1990. However, Trump used this to fuel the tabloids, building up his celebrity factor even more than before, with a tug of war between Ivana and Donald over who had the favour of which tabloids. Due to his exploitation of the tabloids, Trump was on the cover of a newspaper 87 times in the span of 15 years.
Trump had established a grand empire of real estate, fame and journalism, and it was only going to get better from here.
In 1973, Mohammad Daoud Khan overthrew his own first cousin, the King of Afghanistan, establishing an autocratic one party nation. Despite his many economic reforms, similar to those of his cousins, Khan’s foreign policy strained tension with neighbours and factions within his own country. Eventually, Khan was overthrown and killed by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan lead by Hafizullah Amin in 1978, making Afghanistan a Communist nation.
Insurgent cars arriving at the Presidential Palace, 1978
Soon, the new Communist Afghanistan, with new President, Nur Muhammed Taraki, began facing struggles. They tried to reform women’s rights, mainly to education, make the state more secular and enacted some awful land reforms. Anyone who spoke out about these reforms would be arrested. Soon, uprisings from Islamic Rural areas began occurring and Taraki began losing control of his nation. During the violence, Taraki was killed by Amin, allowing Amin to ascend to power
Meanwhile, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and the rest of the Kremlin did not trust Amin and decided that in order to secure their next door neighbour, not wanting yet another fundamentalist Islamic country on their doorstep like Iran before it, Amin had to die. On December 27th, 1979, Soviet forces raided the palace, killing Amin, putting a Soviet puppet in his place, Babrak Karmal. Whilst Soviet forces did manage to capture key military forts in cities and urban areas, they were unable to secure the insurgents in the mountainous countryside, who would use the mountainous terrain to wage brutal guerilla warfare. These insurgents were called the Mujahideen. And this was just the ticket, the US needed.
Outside of the Warsaw Pact, the international community strongly opposed the invasion, with many other Communist nations such as China, Muslim majority countries such as Pakistan and many more opposing the occupation. However, no-one was a stronger opponent than the United States, who imposed a trade embargo on Soviet products, boycotted the Olympic Games, which were being held in Moscow that year, and, most importantly funded the Mujahideen.
It was the height of the Cold War, and, after the Iran Hostage Crisis, Jimmy Carter had not won a second term. The new “tough on Communism” Ronald Reagan wanted to limit Soviet expansion as much as possible, whilst also wanting to give the Soviets their own Vietnam.
2/2/1983 President Reagan meeting with Afghan Freedom Fighters in the Oval Office to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan
We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.
Reagan in his 1985 State of the Union address.
Over six years, in Operation Cyclone, the CIA would funnel $3.2 billion worth of weapons, economic help and military training towards the Mujahideen. Pakistan was also a large supporter of the Mujahideen’s efforts against the Soviets, serving as an operational base for the Mujahideen. The British were also a key supplier of finances and weapons, with MI6 assisting from their base in Islamabad.
During the war, atrocities were committed by both sides, with the Soviet Forces engaging in chemical warfare and airstrikes on civilian targets, whilst the Mujahideen brutally tortured captives. These acts forced 4 million citizens to seek asylum and did nothing to help either side.
Soon, the USSR, under the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, realised that there was no winning this conflict. It began to slowly withdraw whilst stabilising a Communist government under their new puppet, Mohammad Najibullah, who, despite his decent reforms, did not help the trust in the communist government. They also restricted direct involvement, only training and funding a new Communist Afghan Army, which ultimately resulted in failure.
The Soviet-Afghan War was an absolute catastrophe for the Soviets. It showed the weakness in the Belly of the Bear, and proved that, with time, the Soviet Union could be defeated. Many historians cite the war as laying the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union, only 2 years after the end of the war. The Communist regime eventually collapsed, thrusting Afghanistan into civil war, with one of the factions of the Mujahideen, the Taliban, taking control of the country in 1996 and were not deposed until 2001 during the War in Afghanistan, starting a terrorist insurgency that would last 2 decades, eventually returning to power in 2021 after the American withdrawal from the country. By many scholars, the Taliban and the rule they imposed over Afghanistan, as well as their insurgency, is currently considered to be one of the greatest enemies to the United States and the world at large
A modern day photo of Taliban Insurgents in Afghanistan
The United States respects the people of Afghanistan […] but we condemn the Taliban regime. […] It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
Lord Louis Mountbatten was a Statesman, Naval Officer and the 1st Earl of Burma. He was the uncle of Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark. Louis was a great influence on the young Phillip so he ended up taking Mountbatten’s surname. When Phillip married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, Louis ended up becoming an honorary member of the royal family.
A photo of Lord Mountbatten
Meanwhile, a group of radical Irish Republican Catholics began believing that Ireland was meant to be united as one, instead of split between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This group would call themselves the IRA or the (Provisional) Irish Republican Army
One of their members was Thomas McMahon. Not much is known about McMahon, other than he was one of the most skilled bomb makers in the IRA.
A photo of McMahon
On the night of August 26th, 1979 in Mullaghmore Harbour in the Republic of Ireland, McMahon is reported to have slipped onto a boat, the Shadow V, and left undetected.
The next morning, Mountbatten went out fishing on the Shadow V with his grandsons, Nicholas and Timothy Knatchbull, his daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and John Knatchbull, his mother-in-law, Doreen Knatchbull, and a crew boy named Paul Maxwell. A few hours after they set sail, they were off shore, when all of a sudden…
A large explosion erupted from the boat. The explosion was allegedly so powerful that Mountbatten’s legs were nearly torn clean off. He was found in the water alive and pulled to shore, but succumbed to his injuries before he reached the shoreline. Paul and Nicholas were also killed in the explosion. All other occupants of the boat were seriously injured, with Doreen dying in hospital from her wounds soon afterwards.
The remnants of the Shadow V
The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. McMahon had gone onto the boat to plant a bomb made of gelignite. He was arrested for suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. Traces of the paint from Shadow V and nitroglycerine were found on his clothes, connecting him to the attacks, so he was sentenced to life in prison. The IRA claimed that the attack was “a discriminate act to bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country”. This day was the deadliest attack in IRA history, as that same day a British Military convoy was attacked by the IRA in a guerilla ambush, killing 18 men. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, ramped up SAS involvement in the Troubles, ordering them to kill any known IRA volunteers. She was also the victim of a bombing at a hotel she was staying at in Brighton, but was left only lightly injured. McMahon was eventually paroled in 1998, in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement
In the aftermath of the bombing, many head of states, including Jimmy Carter, US President, and Pope John Paul II sent their condolences to the royal family, the US State Department saying that “Americans will especially recall his great contribution to our common cause in World War II as well as his many services to this country and to the world since then.” Many others regard Mountbatten as a war hero for his service in World War 2, defending against the axis powers. A 3 day period of mourning was observed in Burma. His state funeral was held on September 5th, 1979
In 1952, Mohammed Mosaddegh was elected to the office of Prime Minister of Iran by the Iranian People. An openly socialist leader, he increased social security, mandated higher taxes and enacted mass land reforms. The most famous of his policies was to nationalise Iranian Oil. These oil fields were initially owned by the British in Persian land, through the private Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This meant that the fields were now under state ownership, posing a problem to British and American oil interests in the region. On August 19th, 1953, the MI6 and CIA backed a coup in Iran, overthrowing the democratically elected Mosaddegh and centralising power under the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been the Shah of Iran in a constitutional standing since the end of the Second World War.
A photo of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
The kings had been absolute rulers of Iran for millennia before a parliament was introduced in 1906. The rule of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was widespread with oppression and suppression of minority groups. He was forced to abdicate in 1941 and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took power. After the Second World War, Britain began to allow democracy to have more power in Iran. Once oil was nationalised under Mosaddegh, who was backed by an Iranian Communist party, the coup was orchestrated and democracy died.
Between 1963 and 1975, the Shah was considered to be quite a decent ruler. He reorganised the oil industry, which went from producing $555 million in 1964 to $20 billion by 1976. Much of this money was re-invested into infrastructure and education. The population grew, infant mortality fell and a professional middle class was beginning to develop. However, the problem was these reforms were coming fast and hard. Many universities pumped out graduates quicker than jobs could be made, especially prevalent in the capital city of Tehran, where this effect was most dire. After 1975, the Shah ruled with absolute autocratic power. Many political prisoners were tortured and arrested by a brutal secret police known as the SAVAK. He abolished all political parties, replacing them with the pro-Monarchy, Conservative Liberal Resurgence party.
Many of the positive reforms, however, were largely opposed by Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia Cleric from Qom. He mainly complained that the reforms would give women too many rights, including the right to vote, as well as saying that the government neglected the poor and was strongly opposed to the sale of Iranian Oil to Israel. Khomeini believed that a king was inherently un-Islamic and that he must be deposed. Due to his opposition, he was exiled to Türkiye in 1964. Iran was a powder keg of economic inequality and vast oppression. All it needed was a match.
A photo of Khomeini
On January 7th, 1978, an Iranian Newspaper published an article that was highly critical of Khomeini. Small demonstrations began to break out across the country. However, these grew once the army began to fire on protestors. Once more protestors arrived, the army would once again crack down and the cycle would continue. Many had also grown discontent with the West’s influence in Iranian life and society.
American lifestyles had come to be imposed as an ideal, the ultimate goal. Americanism was the model. American popular culture – books, magazines, film – had swept over our country like a flood…We found ourselves wondering ‘Is there any room for our own culture?
A woman interviewed by Michael Axworthy
A confused Shah had no idea why the people were protesting him, suspecting them to either be Communists or controlled by the British. Despite his attempts to appease the people, he was forced to flee to the United States on January 16th, leading to a break down of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States from then on. Many say that these initial protests were not about fundamental Islam, however, but with a discontent with a decreased standard of living. In the second phase of the revolution, Khomeini moved to establish an Islamic Republic, which involved extreme anti-American fever and the taking of hostages inside the US Embassy in Iran.
Since the revolution, Iran has become a fundamentalist Islamist dictatorship, with the people’s vote in parliament and President ultimately being worthless, when all parliamentary legislation can be superseded by God, embodied by the Supreme Ruler, who, from 1979 until his death, was Khomeini. To ensure the support of an Islamic Republic in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary guards and Hezbollah were created in order to ensure there would be no counter coup. Sharia law was strictly enforced, with those who disobeyed receiving harsh punishments. By at least October of 1979, several hundred people had already been executed. Everything was owned by the state, including the media, who always bowed down to the Supreme Leader. Repression is still rife in Iran, perhaps even more than it was under the Shah, especially in relation to women’s rights, which have been highly supressed.
In the late 19th century, resource rich territories in Northern and Western territories in what is now Zimbabwe caught the eye of Cecil Rhodes, a British Mining Magnate. Using his royally chartered company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), he was able to force his way into the area, despite resistance from native tribes. Eventually, British settlers began coming en-masse to find work and land. BSAC was henceforth given full control of the region which would later become known as Rhodesia, named in honour of BSAC’s founder.
A cartoon comparing Cecil Rhodes to the Ancient Wonder of the World ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’
However, land disputes between the British settlers and the indigenous population soured racial tensions between the two groups. Much of Rhodesia’s domestic policy relied on a segregationist system, similar to the Jim Crow South, that favoured the white minority population. Despite only making up 5% of the Rhodesian population, they controlled all aspects of government, with only 15 seats of the 65 seats in the Rhodesian Parliament being allocated to black politicians in the 1962 election by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. Whilst the black population were given the right to vote, the registration process required a higher education, something that was systematically made much more accessible to the white population than the black population.
As anti-monarchist and anti-colonial sentiment in British life began to make waves, the decolonisation efforts of Harold Wilson’s Labour Government began to be enforced. Their policy was simple. “No independence before majority rule.” The white ruling class of Rhodesia began to panic, fearing a similar fate to the mass upheaval that befell the Congo upon its independence from Belgium. In this panic, the government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965. Smith stated that:
Rhodesia did not want to seize independence from Britain. It was forced upon us.
Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith
Ian Smith signing the declaration of independence
This was condemned at large by the international community but Rhodesians saw this as an act of survival. From this date forth, they were privately funded by South Africa and Portuguese Mozambique. However, many Rhodesian Black Nationalists, wanting a majority rule, saw this as an opportunity. The black majority population of Rhodesia saw the Rhodesian declaration of independence as a move in order for the white majority government to secure more power for themselves and undermine the black population and their rights even more than they had before.
The two notable factions of the black nationalists were the Zimbabwean Africa People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), both of whom adhered to communism. Whilst ZAPU adhered to Marxist-Leninist doctrine and preferred traditional open warfare, ZANU, a splinter group of ZAPU, adhered to Maoism and received backing from China, whilst practicing guerilla fighting. However, both these groups had been banned following the 1964 killing of Andrew Oberholzer by ZANU insurgents. Largely condemned as a political crime against an innocent foreman, key figures from both groups, such as Joshua Nkomo, head and co-founder of ZAPU, Ndabaningi Sithole, co-founder of ZANU, and Robert Mugabe, head of ZANU, were sentenced to ten years in prison, whilst their paramilitary branches went into exile. Eventually, insurgent operations conducted from exile eventually devolved into an asymmetric bush war.
A photo of Muagbe (left) and Nkomo (right)
When the declaration of independence escalated conflict between black nationalist cells and the Rhodesian government, Rhodesia was not fully alone in the conflict. Despite a UN embargo, the secret pipelines through South Africa and Portuguese Mozambique kept them supplied. Despite their vast advantage over the enemy, with the highly trained SAS and air superiority, many of the ZANU and ZAPU forces had taken extensive training in Cuba, the USSR and North Korea. In addition, the Rhodesians could not secure their borders from the guerillas, who were being actively assisted by insurgents from Mozambique. Most of the fighting took place trying to secure the North eastern border. However, the insurgents were becoming much more resilient to Rhodesia’s efforts. Much of this led to both sides committing great atrocities. The black nationalists abducted children into their cause to fight and conducted raids on white farms whilst the Rhodesian army often tortured and executed insurgents extrajudicially.
When Portugal’s African colonies claimed their independence, the Rhodesians began working with South Africa for a ceasefire, unintentionally allowing the resistance to regroup. However, by 1975, ZANU and ZAPU had resorted to infighting, including the assassination of leaders and targeting each other as much as they did with the Rhodesian army. ZANU was eventually forced into retreating to a headquarters in Mozambique before resuming the fighting by early 1976, much more brutally than before. In response, the Rhodesians began conducting operations outside of Rhodesia’s borders in order to crush external militia help. Most notably, a group of Rhodesian soldiers disguised as Fromila (Mozambique black nationalist) soldiers entered Nyadzona in Mozambique, and began opening fire on a camp just outside the city. This drew mass controversy as the camp did not just consist of insurgents but also refugees, including the elderly, women and children. The raid killed over 1000 people, according to Amnesty International. Due to this, South Africa withdrew its support. Rhodesia was now completely isolated.
Rhodesia soldiers donning Fromila uniform and blackface in order to infiltrate Mozambique
Eventually, peace talks between the black nationalists and Smith’s administration began. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of the United African National Council, began talks with Smith, establishing Zimbabwe-Rhodesia as a transitional government to stable majority rule, whilst still allowing white representation. This angered many guerilla forces, seen as appeasing the white minority rule. The fighting escalated, leading to more atrocities committed by the Black Nationalists, such as the infamous Elim Mission Massacre, where ZANU forces killed 12 Christian missionaries, including a child in its pyjamas, and raped 4 of the 5 women at the mission. As ZANU marched west and ZAPU marched east, their fighting often focused more on each other than Rhodesian security forces, desperate to stop the skirmishes turning into all out civil war.
Eventually, the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 eventually marked a shift towards peace. Under temporary British rule, Rhodesia collapsed and Zimbabwe took its place. In the subsequent 1980 elections, allegations of voter intimidation and a potential military coup were rife. As a result, Robert Mugabe rose to become Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and later President, positions that he would control for almost 40 years. Whilst his administration expanded healthcare and education opportunities, it was also mired by mass political suppression and the violent seizure of land from white farmers, which led to decreased food production and a famine. The former guerilla fighters became a private militia for Mugabe by 2000, who killed more than 100 people in violent election campaigns. Mass hyperinflation was a large problem under Mugabe’s regime, leading to the introduction of a Z$100 trillion note, that only made the economy worse. Currently, £1 in the UK (worth about $1.34 USD) is worth over Z$87,100. He was eventually ousted in a coup in 2017 and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a regime change that has merely led to even more political suppression. Mugabe passed away in 2019. As of 2025, Zimbabwe is still not a member of the Commonwealth, despite its efforts to be readmitted.
A photo of Mugabe at the United Nations General Assembly
The reputation and legacy of both Rhodesia and the black nationalists are controversial. Whilst Rhodesia’s economy prospered greatly despite the international sanctions, its foundational systematic racist segregation policies has led to the flag being embraced as a symbol by modern white supremacist movements. Many perceive the black nationalists as liberators from colonial rule, whilst some focus on their brutality during the war and the political suppression, corruption and dire economy once in power to condemn them. The Rhodesian Bush War has been described by many as Africa’s equivalent to the Vietnam War.
John F Kennedy was a Democrat Party member, who represented Massachusetts in both houses of Congress. After a brief time in the Navy and Journalism, Kennedy got into politics. In 1960, he ran for President and won by only a hundred thousand votes to Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon. Kennedy was and still is the youngest President Elect in history. Kennedy was well known for his stances on civil rights, foreign policy and lower taxes.
In the months leading up to November 1963, Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had made plans to make trips to soothe over tensions between the Liberal and Republican candidates in Texas. The plan was to arrive in Fort Worth, spend the night at Hotel Texas, drive to an Airforce Base, take Air Force One down to Love Field Airport in Dallas, and drive down to the Trade Mart via Dealey Plaza for a banquet. The idea of driving to the Trade Mart was proposed by Republican Texas Governor John Connelly. The turns through Dealey Plaza would proceed as follows. The motorcade would turn right onto Houston off Main before making a sharp left onto Elm Street to disembark onto the freeway.
A very crude diagram made by yours truly of the turns made through Dealey Plaza
However, another option was considered for the banquet, the Women’s Building. Had this been the case, the car would have remained straight on Main Street facing the opposite way, only just grazing the plaza. This would’ve meant that Kennedy’s left shoulder would’ve faced the plaza with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy in between him and the plaza. In addition, these odd turns through the plaza could’ve been avoided if they hadn’t chosen to go down the freeway. However, the freeway was considered more scenic by secret service agents over the route through the Design District so was chosen instead. The motorcade was finalised and publicised to the public by November the 16th.
A potential alternate route highlighted in yellow. The route taken is highlighted in red
Whilst inspecting the route, secret service agents discovered that there were over 20,000 windows overlooking the route. Instead of inspecting them, they decided to inspect none of the windows along the motorcade route due to a lack of manpower being able to monitor the route.
After having arrived at Love Field, the motorcade was 15 minutes late due to the President shaking hands with all his citizens. This was a common habit for Kennedy to do, departing from the secret service to be among his people.
Kennedy shaking hands with the public at Love Field
Eventually they got into the motorcade and sped off. Kennedy and Jacqueline were in the back seats which were slightly elevated, with Kennedy sitting on the right side of the car. John Connelly was directly in front of Kennedy with his wife, Nellie, sitting on his left. Two secret service agents sat in the front, William Greer driving and Roy Kellerman in the passenger seat. The limousine was open top, giving the public a very clear view of President Kennedy.
A diagram of the limo used on that day. It was specifically modified to be convertible
At Dealey Plaza, the streets were lined with masses of people. One such person was Arnold Rowland. He looked up, at around 12:15, and spotted something unusual.
Interrogator: While you were standing on Houston Street […], did you have occasion at any time to observe the Texas School Book Depository Building? Rowland: Yes, […] We looked and at that time I noticed on the sixth floor of the building that there was a man back from the window, not hanging out the window. He was standing and holding a rifle. […] This was on the west corner of the building, the sixth floor […] and this was the only pair of windows where both windows were completely open and no one was hanging out the windows, or next to the window. […] We thought momentarily that maybe we should tell someone but then the thought came to us that it is a security agent. We had seen in the movies before where they have security men up in windows and places like that with rifles to watch the crowds, and we brushed it aside as that, at that time, and thought nothing else about it until after the event happened.
Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams, sir? Interrogator: What? Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams? Interrogator: Yes. Rowland: This is a reoccurring dream of mine, sir, all the time, what if I had told someone about it. I knew about it enough in advance and perhaps it could have been prevented. I mean this is something which shakes me up at times.
Arnold Rowland’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964
At around 12:20, a man named Howard Brennan also spotted a man on the sixth floor. He was described to be white and was pacing back and forth, this time on the most Eastern window that faced the plaza
At 12:29, Kennedy’s motorcade turned onto Houston. Around this time, Connelly’s wife turned to Kennedy and said “Mr. President, they can’t make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love you and appreciate you, can they?” Kennedy responded with “No, they sure can’t.” These would be the President’s final words. At 12:30, as Kennedy turned onto Houston, student Amos Euins looked up to the window as the car slowed down to around 9 mph.
Then I was standing here, and as the motorcade turned the corner, I was facing, looking dead at the building. And so I seen this pipe thing sticking out the window. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it
Amos Euins’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964
The first shot rang out. Only a few people realised what had happened. A car backfire, a firework. Some jested about being startled by such an insignificant little thing.
Another shot rang out. “Then I looked up at the window, and he shot again.” Amos describes. Kennedy is now clutching his neck, bleeding profusely. Jacqueline tends to her husband as Connelly also reacts to being hit from the same bullet. Clint Hill leaps towards the Limo in order to protect the President
Kennedy holding his neck after being shot
The final shot rings out as President Kennedy’s head explodes, a large flap of tissue still clinging onto the side of his head. His brain matter is sprayed all over the bonnet. Jacqueline screams and attempts to clear it up. As the limo sped up, Hill clambered onto the back of the bonnet.
A diagram of the second shot that struck Kennedy’s head
At 80mph, the Limo speeds away to Parkland Memorial Hospital and Kennedy is taken inside at around 12:36, 6 minutes after his lethal headshot. Somehow he was still alive, if only technically. After 20 minutes of operation, the word came out.
From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
Walter Cronkite on CBS, 1963
Johnson, Jackie and the other officials drove back down to Love Field and took off on Airforce One. On the flight, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Whilst also on the flight, the officials received some shocking news.
Lee Harvey Oswald was, at the time, 24 and was a worker at the school book depository, where Amos claimed that the shots were fired from. He was hired there in October of 1963. Oswald was rather open about his Marxist beliefs and had attempted to renounce his US citizenship and had visited Russia in the late 50s. In fact, his wife was a Russian Immigrant. He was a member of the US Marine Corps for 3 years and was a very talented marksman, specifically with the M1 rifle. He was also prone to violent tendencies, having chased his brother around with a knife when they were both children. He was under observation by the FBI agents, who failed to inform anyone about Oswald, despite his place of work overlooking the route. Oswald was also in possession of a 6.5 mm Carcano Italian made rifle. A fully intact bullet found in Connelly’s thigh matched a round that could’ve been fired from such a rifle.
A photo of Oswald with the Carcano
Not long after the shooting, Oswald was spotted in the second floor lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository by police officer Marrion Baker with the accompaniment of Roy Truly, superintendent of the Book Depository, who positively identified Oswald. He seemed calm. He is then believed to have left the building 3 minutes later to catch a bus.
At 1:15, Officer J D Tippit discovered Oswald, having been given the description of a slender white man in his early 30s at 5 foot 11 and weighing 165 lb or 75 kg. After walking around to the front of his car, he was, seemingly unprovoked, shot 5 times in the chest by Oswald with a handgun. Multiple witnesses reported the crime and could identify Oswald out of a line-up later. Oswald then strolled down to the Texas Theatre and took a seat without paying for a ticket. Police ran into the building. Oswald allegedly resisted arrest before being taken down to Dallas PD. However, two officers on the scene claimed Oswald acted very differently. After being interrogated for 12 hours, he denied all involvement in the assassination of Kennedy.
On the morning of November 24th, Oswald was scheduled for a transfer to the county jail. At 21 minutes past 11, on live TV, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded by local nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Ruby claimed to be an admirer of Kennedy’s and was so distraught by the killing, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Ruby was sentenced to death before it was alleviated and died of cancer in 1967.
A photo of Oswald being shot by Ruby
Almost immediately after the assassination, Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, formed the Warren commission, a group of higher ups inside the US government, whose purpose it was to investigate Kennedy’s death. They were adamant that Oswald acted alone and fired 3 shots from the South East corner of the School Book Depository, the first shot missing and hitting the ground, the second shot hitting President Kennedy and Governor Connelly and the final shot being the fatal head shot to Kennedy. The reason they were so fixated on this reasoning is that 3 shell casings were found by the window, around which boxes had been placed in order to form a sniper’s nest. A 6.5 mm Carcano Rifle was found in another corner of the building, with Oswald’s palm prints only being found on the rifle after his death. This was the official ruling, that Oswald acted alone after having explored no other avenues.
Over the next few years, many have drawn up conspiracy theories regarding the assassination. From Johnson to Russia, from the Mafia to the CIA, there are endless multitudes of possible conspiracy options, that draw from government documents, inconsistent testimonies and forensic analysis. This has led many to believe that Oswald did not act alone that fateful November morning. Whether or not this is the case is heavily debated, much like Kennedy’s legacy. Some have argued he was one of the greatest Presidents in American history, by launching the race to the Moon, his diplomacy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, advancing the Civil Rights cause in government, and establishing humanitarian aid programmes such as the Peace Corps and USAID. However, some have viewed his legacy as romanticised due to his assassination, and point to his poor handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion, his timidness regarding Congress passing Civil Rights and the Vienna Summit that almost directly enabled the Soviet Union to construct the Berlin Wall, as well as his personal health issues and alleged adultery.
Ultimately, the assassination has made it almost impossible to separate Kennedy the President from the myth that grew around him after his death. Whether he was a visionary leader cut down in his prime or a deeply flawed politician whose legacy was transformed by tragedy, his presidency remains one of the most debated in American history. More than sixty years later, the question of who killed Kennedy may remain disputed, but there is little doubt that his death permanently changed the way Americans viewed their government, their presidents and their own history.
In 1959, the Cuban communist revolutionary, Fidel Castro with the help of Che Guevara toppled the US Backed military dictator, Fulgencio Batista. He immediately began mass land reforms, giving land taken by the Americans back to the Cuban people, before he aligned himself with Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
A photo of Castro (left) and Khrushchev (right)
Fearing the communism in his own backyard, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut off all diplomatic relations with Cuba and issued a trade embargo. He also requested, on his way out, that some Jupiter Class Nuclear Missiles be place in Turkey and an invasion would go ahead against Cuba, using 1400 trained CIA Trained Cuban exiles. The next President, the young and charming John F. Kennedy was told that the US involvement could be covered up and that the invasion would cause an anti-Communist uprising in Cuba.
Unfortunately, the plan went awry very quickly, with poorly disguised bombers missing their targets and immediately being identified as American. The invasion was an absolute disaster, with hundreds of American lives being ended and thousands captured.
American Operatives being captured in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs
Sensing weakness from America, Khrushchev took this opportunity to erect the Berlin Wall in August of that same year. Kennedy spoke on the wall in his famous speech, where he said:
[D]emocracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.
Kennedy speaking in Berlin in 1963
Not long after that, Khrushchev was on his boat in the Black Sea, thinking about the Jupiter Missiles in Turkey. Whilst the missiles weren’t highly effective, Khrushchev still believed the missile’s presence to be an act of aggression. And slowly, an idea began to brew in Khrushchev’s head.
Day 1 – October 16th, 1963
At around 8 in the morning on October 16th, 1962, NSA, McGeorge Bundy arrived at the White House, informing President Kennedy of a photograph taken by a U2 Spy plane over Cuba. The photographs clearly showed Soviet Medium Range Ballistic missiles, with a range far enough to destroy most of the Eastern Seaboard.
Labeled photographs taken by the spy plane
Within minutes, Kennedy gathered his foreign policy team, including Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara, Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, General Maxwell Taylor, Speech Writer, Ted Sorenson and ambassador Lewin Thompson. As the crisis developed, the committee would soon become known as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm for short.
They agreed to secrecy and not to let anyone else know about the crisis. However, the secrecy could not really be broken, as no-one really knew specifics. Would the missiles launch and, if so, when? Could there be more missiles? But, amidst the uncertainty and speculation, Kennedy was firm. He could not allow Soviet missiles in Cuba and they had to be removed immediately. There were 4 main options considered, either a limited airstrike on the missile bases, a wider strike which would include other Cuban military facilities, an even larger airstrike which would then be followed up with an invasion or a blockade of Cuba.
Day 2 – October 17th, 1962
A photo of an ExComm meeting
They eventually ruled out just the airstrikes, insisting that if an airstrike were to be conducted it must be backed by an invasion, lest Khrushchev send more missiles. However, this was under the pretence that the missiles were not ready to fire, which they, in fact, were. More U2 Spy planes discovered even more sites, with the number now totalling 32 Soviet missiles in Cuba. However, Kennedy had to keep up appearances, having a dinner with the Libyan Crown Prince and supporting Democratic Congressional candidates in Connecticut.
Day 3 – October 18th, 1962
Kennedy decided to take action and had a meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, who denied that any Soviet offensive weapons were in Cuba.
A photo of the meeting with Gromyko
As to Soviet assistance to Cuba, Mr. Gromyko stated that he was instructed to make it clear, as the Soviet Government had already done, that such assistance, pursued solely for the purpose of contributing to the defense capabilities of Cuba and to the development of Cuba, toward the development of its agriculture and land amelioration, and training by Soviet specialists of Cuba nationals in handling defensive armaments were by no means offensive. If it were otherwise, the Soviet Government would have never become involved in rendering such assistance.
An excerpt from a memorandum from the meeting with Gromyko
Kennedy was specific to not mention the missiles specifically, but did recall his public warning that he made on September 14th, that in response to any offensive weapons being put into Cuba by the Soviets, there would be the “gravest consequences”
Day 4 – October 19th, 1962
Still attempting to keep up appearances, Kennedy attended campaign events in Ohio and Illinois, whilst the rest of ExComm discussed plans to move forward. During this time, another spy plane managed to capture photos of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Site. This would mean that if missiles were to fire from Cuba, the only safe major city in the United States would be Seattle.
A map with the range of the missiles highlighted in red
Day 5 – October 20th, 1962
Kennedy ended up having to lie to the American people so they would not panic, saying he had a cold, in order to return home to Washington instead of continuing his six state tour. After 5 hours of deliberation, ExComm came to the conclusion that a blockade must be enforced. However, they could not exactly call it a blockade, as that would be an act of war, so they very subtly decided to call it a “Quarantine”
Day 6 – October 21st, 1962
The military advisors, fearing their planned invasion would not go ahead, attempted to convince Kennedy one more time of an air strike. However, they could not guarantee that all the missiles would be hit. This was too much of a risk for Kennedy, who decided to go ahead with the quarantine.
Day 7 – October 22nd, 1962
Kennedy contacted Truman and Eisenhower, the two presidents before him, about the situation, before contacting British Prime Minister, Harold McMillan. He then wrote to Nikita Khrushchev before addressing the nation on national television.
Kennedy addressing the nation
Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.
[…]
Acting, therefore, in defence of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, I have directed that a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba be initiated. All ships bound for Cuba carrying offensive weapons will be turned back.
[…]
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
[…
The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are – but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high – and Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right – not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.
President John F. Kennedy, televised address to the American people, 22 October 1962
Day 8 – October 23rd, 1962
Kennedy signing the authorisation for the quarantine
Kennedy once again wrote to Khrushchev, requesting the stop of all Soviet ships towards Cuba. However, this writing would often take an obscenely long amount of time, with them having to be shipped halfway around the planet, translated, having a response written up, sent back and translated again. Sometimes, messages were not given responses for 12 hours at a time.
Day 9 – October 24th, 1962
Khrushchev wrote back to Kennedy regarding his letter. Whilst he did not actively threaten Kennedy, he also did not say he wouldn’t back down either.
You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding oneself in one’s relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us.
An excerpt of Khrushchev’s letter to Kennedy
The DEFCON level was moved to DEFCON 2, one step short of all out war.
Day 10 – October 25th, 1962
Photos from the missile sites being shown at the UN
Kennedy once again urged Khrushchev to back down, whilst at the UN, United States Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, verbally attacked Valerian Zorin, Soviet Ambassador to the UN, presenting photos of the missiles.
Stevenson: Mr. Zorin, I remind you that you didn’t deny the existence of these weapons. Instead, we heard that they had suddenly become defensive weapons. But today — again, if I heard you correctly — you now say they don’t exist, or that we haven’t proved they exist. […] Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don’t wait for the translation: yes or no?
Zorin: I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor does. In due course, sir, you will have your reply. […]
Stevenson: You are in the court of world opinion right now and you can answer yes or no. You have denied that they exist. I want to know […] if I’ve understood you correctly.
Day 11 – October 26th, 1962
A Soviet Freighter was stopped at the quarantine line and was searched for contraband. No such contraband was found and it was allowed to pass into Cuba. Castro sent a letter to Khrushchev, urging him to initiate a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.
Day 12 – October 27th, 1962
A letter arrived from the Kremlin, requesting that in exchange for removing the missiles from Cuba, Kennedy had to withdraw the Jupiter Missiles from Turkey. Many in ExComm saw this as outrageous, with some even comparing it to Chamberlain’s appeasement before WW2, an appeasement which Kennedy’s father strongly supported. This option is opposed even more when Cuban Anti-Aircraft guns shoot down a U2 Spy Plane, killing the pilot. An American man had been killed because of this, and many military men in ExComm sought war. Kennedy resisted this pressure to invade strongly. Later that night, Bobby Kennedy met with a Soviet Ambassador to negotiate the terms of the missile withdrawal.
Day 13 – October 28th, 1962
The thirteen most tense days in human history were over, as both nations withdrew their missiles from Turkey and Cuba respectively as the world blew a massive sigh of relief. In addition, the United States pledged to never invade Cuba again.
Kennedy was eventually shot in a motorcade in Dallas in November of the next year. Some suspect that Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis undermined the CIA, who many believed ordered his assassination. Khrushchev was ousted from the communist party in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. Khrushchev then died of a heart attack in 1971. A hotline was set up between the two nations via a famous red phone in each of the leader’s offices, to ensure such delays in communication would never happen again. However, the United States and Cuba never sought diplomatic reconciliation until 2016, when Barack Obama became the first President to visit the country since 1928.
President Obama meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro
Many say, to this day, that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest humanity ever came to ending the world via nuclear annihilation. Whilst many, at the time, saw the two leaders of the two superpowers as traitors to their people for seeking a diplomatic solution, many today see them as brave men for doing such things and many in the West cite them as some of the greatest leaders of their respective countries.
