Impact of the ICBM Balance on Foreign Policy
Impact of the ICBM Balance on Foreign Policy
Numerous points have been instigated towards the issues related to the ICBM balance and its connections to the foreign policies. One of the most fundamental topics in this regard has been its connections to the cold war and the leaders that made an impact to its implementation. This topic is seen to have a controversial point of view since Russia and the United States have their own point of view in relation to who is right. Different scholars and historians have their own point of views. This makes it possible to establish three important questions that can be associated with issue in question. The questions include, 1) Were Eisenhower and Dulles decided to back up from Syria because of they realize that Russian’s Missile program were even further along than they expected? 2) Was it true that Khrushchev really believe his first generation ICBM was going to work and prepared to use it? 3) What was the reason for Khrushchev using the Missile Threat at this time? All these questions can be answered correctly through looking at some of the scholars’ points of view that oppose those that are instigated by the professor.
Were Eisenhower and Dulles decided to back up from Syria because of they realize that Russian’s Missile program were even further along than they expected?
According to the professor, the main reason as to why they decided to back up from Syria was because they had been promised support by the Arab leaders from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. After sometimes, Russians claimed that they had been testing the long-range ballistic missiles. These issues raised by the professor might not be true according to Sergei Rogov (1998). He implies that the entire concept of the Arab world entertaining communism is not realistic. At this particular time, there was a mass induction of the Arab states in support of the international communism. These Arab governments were in support of neutralization of the cold war. According to majority of the Arab leaders, they advocated for the doctrine that no Arab country would have close ties to the United States, Britain and France as they propagated western imperialism. Alexei Aebatov (2007) believes echoes these sentiments through implying that the Eisenhower administration thought that they would prevail over the western powers by using these instigations. All the opinions of the Arab world were uniform and they believed that they had the upper hand over the countries that were ready to make allies with them. This meant that Dulles and Eisenhower took advantage of the mistake made by the United States over the aggression in Egypt to ensure that they had the upper hand in the Arab world. They relied on making friends with the Syrians and Egyptians since it was easy to make coalitions with them during these desperate times.
The professor implies that Khrushchev was on the verge of using his first generation ICBM since it was going to work. There are other historians who believe that he as bluffing though majority of them have the same point of view as that of the professor.
Targowski, Andrew. (2005) opposes this and indicates that Khrushchev was not a person to bluff but he was an opportunist. He claims that he believed that Kennedy was indecisive. Majority of the soviet leaders thought that Kennedy was young and lacked the necessary leadership skills. His sentiments are echoed by Sergei who instigates that Khrushchev banked on the failures by the Kennedy administration. The failed operation Mongoose and soft response by Kennedy in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 gave Khrushchev the impression that he had stronger ICBM that would scare the American military operations. In 1961, the ICBMs that could be counted in the soviet region were only four. Khrushchev made the world aware that he had a lot of missiles when he boasted publicly that USSR was making them like sausages.
What was the reason for Khrushchev using the Missile Threat at this time?
The professor asserts that the main reason as to why Khrushchev threatened the Americans using missiles was to take control of the fuels system. This was the perfect moment for him to use the missiles as majority of the superpower countries relied on the fuel system. This was aided by the fact that there was no missile guidance system and the program would be shattered in the future. At the same time, he knew that the United States was capable of coming up with advanced missile system. Therefore, his main objective was to lure the United States into deploying the first generation missile system which would have been used by the USSR to come up with a better missile.
This ideology that the USSR had might not have been the best according to Szajnfarber, Zoe and Annalisa Weigel (2013). They conclude that he did not have enough missile power to go after the Americans therefore he had to use some of the American territories in order to scare them. Therefore, he embarked on putting missiles in other regions such as Cuba to enable him to boost his power in making united states look threatened by its presence in the Caribbean territory. On the other hand, he wanted to have the upper hand amongst the Germans since he had the bargaining power to ensure that East Germany joined Western Berlin.
Conclusion
The term ICBM or in other words, intercontinental ballistic missiles is a term that has always been used by countries at war in order to give threats. This term has been seen to be used create balanced between two warring function around the world. it is for this reason that leaders such as Eisenhower gained popularity in the Arab world and gave him the upper hand against the western communists. At the same time, Khrushchev decided to give the Americans a lot of headache through his threats of using it against his enemies.
Bibliography
Alexei Arbatov. 2007. "Nuclear Deterrence and Proliferation: The Dialectics of Doomsday Weapons". Russian Social Science Review. 48 (2): 4-29.
Sergei Rogov. 1998. "Russia and the United States at the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century". Russian Politics and Law. 36 (6): 43-58.
Szajnfarber, Zoe, and Annalisa L. Weigel. 2013. "Mechanisms of Innovation in the Space and Defense Sector: A Review". International Journal of Space Technology Management and Innovation (IJSTMI). 3 (1): 20-37.
Targowski, Andrew. 2005. "From the Cold War to Internet Cathedral". International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education. 1 (2): 87-99.
