Cuban Missile Crisis Joint Crisis Committee UMass MUN 2012 1 Greetings delegates! Welcome to Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Cuban Missile Crisis Committee! My name is Kevin Kirby, and I will be your chair during UMassMUNXI. I am currently a sophomore political science major at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The task before us is important and daunting. Having gotten word that the Americans have discovered our intent to arm Cuba, a beloved ally in the struggle against the ruthless Americans, with nuclear weapons, General Secretary Khrushchev has tasked us with confronting the situation at hand. The pace of the committee shall be relentless. As leaders of the USSR, you all will be confronted with difficult choices. You will be faced with options that all seem bleak, It is your task to challenge the American hegemony and assert Soviet leadership at a critical time in global affairs. Helping me run this simulation will be Colin Gurney, who will be the crisis manager for this committee as we confront the United States committee in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Together, these two committees shall work together to confront the situation. Delegates, the history I have given you below starts with the founding of the USSR and brings you to the Bay of Pigs operation by the Americans. I’m keenly interested in your understanding of the power dynamics of the USSR and how these dynamics shape policy making within the Kremlin. If, after reading this background guide, you have any questions about the topics to be covered at the conference, the lay out of the committee, or the background guide itself, please feel free to email me ([email protected]). While I will not do your research for you, I will gladly help 2 keep you pointed in the right direction to ensure everyone arrives on the same page at the conference. Everything you do shall receive a response from the Americans. Actions have consequences. As you seek to prepare for your global confrontation, I urge you to think wisely, for one poor decision could lead to the destruction of the USSR as we know it and give way to American fascism. Sincerely, Kevin Kirby Chair UMassMUN USSR Cuban Missile Crisis Committee 3 History of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics October 1917: The government of Alexander Krensky is overthrown by the Bolshevik’s Revolutionaries lead by Vladimir Lenin. March 3, 1918: Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which cedes large chunks of land to the Germans. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence from Russia as a result of the treaty. 1918-1920: Civil War in Russia between the Bolshevik’s (the Reds) and the anti-Bolshevik’s (the Whites). War communism takes hold, leaving millions to starve to death due to the army needing the food for its soldiers. December 29, 1922: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Transcaucasus sign the Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union. January 21, 1924: Lenin dies. After internal power struggle between Joseph Stalin and Alexi Rykov, Stalin takes command of the USSR. November 16th, 1933: The United States formally recognizes the USSR. 1936-1938: President Stalin makes public a plot to undermine his regime, lead by Leon Trotsky. Stalin proceeds to purge thousands of dissidents by way or death or long-term imprisonment. August-September, 1939: USSR signs a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. German invasion of Poland starts World War II. Soviet troops proceed to enter Poland, leading Germany and the USSR to split Poland. 1940: Soviet troops take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are then incorporated into the USSR. April 13th, 1941: USSR signs the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact. 1941-1945: German invasion of USSR leads to Soviet counterassault on the Nazi regime, ending with Soviet forces taking East Berlin. February 4-11, 1945: Yalta Conference. Cold War ‘begins’. August 29th, 1949: USSR successfully explodes its first atomic device. 1949-1950: Soviet recognizes communist Chinese government, signs 20-year alliance treaty with said government. 4 1950-1953: Korean War represents first indirect military confrontation between the Soviet and American governments. March 5th, 1953: Joseph Stalin dies. Georgi Malenkov becomes Prime Minister and Nikita Khrushchev becomes Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. May 14th, 1955: Warsaw Pact signed. October 4th, 1957: Soviets launch Sputnik. March 27th, 1955: Nikita Khrushchev becomes Prime Minister. May 1st, 1960: Soviets shoot down American U2 spy plane over Soviet territory. April 1961: American trained Cuban exiles launch unsuccessful invasion at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The work of our committee of Soviet Patriots begins with the fallout of the Bay of Pigs debacle. 5 The Aftermath of World War II Germany divided into four zones following Yalta Conference (http://ldfb.tripod.com/index.htm) The U.S. and USSR had worked together as the Allies, primarily with nations Great Britain and France, against the Central Axis powers, mainly Germany. At the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president of the U.S. and Joseph Stalin held authoritarian power in the USSR. Following the fall of Germany, the Yalta Conference, held by the USSR, the US, and Great Britain, known as the ‘Big Three’, in February 1945 divided Germany into four distinct zones, controlled by the U.S., the USSR, Great Britain, and France. It was this division of Germany that eventually led to the Berlin Wall during the Cold War.However, the Yalta Conference made clear the tension existing between the USSR and the other Allies powers. This tension was fueled by a fundamental power struggle as well as the ‘ideologies’ at battle here: capitalism and democracy vs. communism. The Yalta Conference also founded the United Nations and determined that the U.S., Great Britain, USSR, and China would be the four permanent members with veto power. The control of Poland was contested and the USSR essentially forced its rule on the region. Although Stalin promised to allow the people of Poland to determine its own fate via elections soon after, this did not happen and the issue at the Conference proved to further illustrate the growing mistrust between the USSR and the U.S. as well as Great Britain1. 6 World War II also saw the defeat of Japan by the US. Years of research finally led to the development of the atomic bomb in a secretly and primarily US-funded endeavor known as the “Manhattan Project”. The US used the atomic bomb to force the Japanese to surrender and agree to its terms of war victory. The atomic bomb unleashed an era of nuclear arms development and the nuclear arms/technology advancement race between the US and the USSR, which was a key component of the Cold War. This will also be discussed in detail further on. The Start of the Cold War Great Britain was one of the ‘Big Three’ and France was also a considerable power in Europe, but the destruction of the war and the weakening of the economy of mainland Europe left the US, which had joined the war only in 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the USSR relatively unscathed. The US and USSR, the two nations that emerged as the two world superpowers following World War II, were at war over their respective influences over other nations, one fighting for democracy, the other for communism. The Cold War was essentially a hostile stalemate that represented the power struggle between these two powers, and it threatened the safety of the entire world for more than four decades as each tried to gain favor with other nations that were forming new governments. As mentioned above, the USSR forced its influence over Poland, scaring the US about the USSR’s growing ‘sphere of influence’ and thus its growing power. The Truman Doctrine (1947) pledged support for "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"; the pledge was targeted at communism and basically gave America a blank check to intervene in other nations’ affairs if it was ‘threatened’ by communism. The doctrine also devoted financial aid to Greece in the attempt to prevent the spread of communism there2. The US did not stop there. The Marshall Plan provided almost $13 billion (from 1948 to 1951) to help European countries, including Germany, Great Britain, and France, recover from the war3. This was another attempt by the US to prevent the spread of communism to these nations by becoming their primarily ‘caretaker’ and making them dependent on the US, thus making it necessary for these nations to parlay with the US’s ideology to continue receiving funding. 7 Finally, and most notably, NSC-68 (1950) focused the US’s foreign policy towards the containment of the USSR’s influence and the spread of communism. The policy of containment was championed by George F. Kennan4, a war correspondent who was at some point stationed in the USSR, who recommended that the US be wary of the USSR’s pursuit of power through the spread of communism and that the US work to prevent this spread. The Berlin Blockade In 1948 the US, Great Britain, and France began reforming their occupied zones of Germany, which came to be known as West Germany (vs. East Germany, held by the USSR), to prepare it to assume self-governance. Through this process they introduced a new currency that would allow it to participate and compete economically internationally. However, the USSR did not like the prospect of a currency in Germany that it would not be able to control, and the USSR was concerned about a powerful Germany considering its experience during WWII, having been invaded by Hitler’s forces.