Article Review: The Cuban Missile Crisis by Hershberger

The cold war era raises critical issues and questions from both the Soviet Union and the USA. The author of this article recounts the events of the period by examining the historical events of the cold war era exclusively before, during and after the Cuban missile crisis. The article topic is the Cuban missile crisis and reading through the article; the author has remained within the perimeters of the question without falling out of the text. Based on the article introduction, the author highlights how the cold war era would have triggered a global carnage if the two superpowers failed to down their nuclear threats.

The process of understanding the occurrence of events, it is necessary to collect views from both sides of the parties involved. In this article, the Cuban missile crisis is recounted from an American lens. The author of the article James Hershberger is an American, and though he is accredited as professor history, his account, analysis and evaluation of the Cuban missile crisis remain subjected to an American viewpoint. Therefore, it is often possible to find contradicting reports of events when a Russian author retells the turn of events in the era.

The author knows how to use credible resources. In the article, the author recount events by using both primary and secondary sources and he use direct quotes from the people involved in the crisis. For example, he quotes JFK response when he was presented with the question as to why Khrushchev sent missiles to Cuba, and his response was Its all gray to me, this whole Russian thing. He also quotes other authors work for example Stanley Kubrick, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. The author has also analyzed and recounted events of the crisis by use of the qualitative method where he uses picture and diagrams showing the location of missile stations.

The article is well written because the author begins by introducing a thesis statement that illustrates openly what the report will cover. In the introduction part of the article, the author creates curiosity by visualizing the hostility and damage anticipated following the spark of the nuclear war. Such an introduction makes the material catchy and exciting to read. The author has excellent control in the way he delivers the information, he is systematic, and one can quickly follow the orders of events and impacts they caused as the development of the era erupted. He begins by introducing the involved parties in the crisis, and how they were connected to the world resulting in tension. He also has used subtopics in the article, and this makes it easy for the leader to understand and relate the history of the Cuban missile crisis.

The article work is also well detailed as it uses both primary and secondary data. In the article quotes of the leaders involved are used, detailed information on the airplanes, missiles numbers and shipping details of the nuclear missiles used. It is also easy to trace the order of events as they occurred, and this is due to the author ability to handle dates and actual years of the development. The article illustrates how the crises was solved, what each party threatened to do and what was forgone by each side, bringing an end to the cold war.

Based on the article testimonies and the authors illustration the Cuban missile crisis remains one of the most dangerous moment. The article is well summarized answering any possible questions about the Cuban missile crisis; however, the article does not give a solution to prevention of a similar dreadful occurrence in the future. In my opinion, I would say the article was up to standard as it covered the right format and addressed all the correct issues surrounding the Cuban missile crisis debate of leaving nothing unattended.

Reference

Hershberg, J. G. (2010). The Cuban missile crisis. na.