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The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 ................................................................................... 4
Position Paper Submission Guidelines ...................................................................... 11
c o n t a c t
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[email protected]
Brandon Chesla, Director
[email protected]
(734) 764-2721
Mike Carroll, Rapporteur
[email protected]
Christine Chang, Rapporteur
[email protected]
Ryan Barrett, Assistant Director
[email protected]
Johanna Hanink, Rapporteur
[email protected]
Alix Malloy, Rapporteur
[email protected]
the historical
security council
Dear Delegates,
On behalf of the staff in the Historical Security Council and the entire staff of UMMUN 2001, I would like to thank
you for attending the conference and welcome you to my committee.
My name is Brandon Chesla, and I am the Director of the HSC for UMMUN 2001. This is my seventh year as either
a delegate or staff member at UMMUN. After attending UMMUN for three years as a high school delegate, I joined
the conference as a staff member in my freshman year at the University. Before becoming director of the Historical
Security Council, I worked with the Crisis Staff to invent the contemporary disasters that make UMMUN so entertaining. This will be my second year as director of the Historical Security Council. Outside of UMMUN, I am a senior in
the College of Engineering pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering.
UMMUN held its first Historical Security Council two years ago to let students explore the many crises confronted
by the international community since the United Nations was founded in 1945. Freed from the political reality of this
new century, we have a unique opportunity to simulate the history of the last fifty years. In the past two years we
have successfully simulated the Korean War and the Suez Crisis of 1956, and this year we are working hard once
again to provide you, the delegates, with the best committee experience we possibly can.
For UMMUN 2001 we are turning the clock back to October 1962 to discuss one of the most dangerous moments
in human history. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a turning point in the history of the Cold War – an event that forced
the world to confront the scary reality of nuclear war in a way it never had before. The natural result of the policies
of the brinkmanship that both superpowers followed after World War II, this crisis could easily have changed the
course of history as we know it. It is your challenge to rewrite this history, and ours to help you along in the process.
If at any time you have questions about the committee, its topics, or the University in general, feel free to contact
me or any of the UMMUN staff.
Good Luck!
Brandon Chesla, Director
the university of michigan model united nations
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS OF 1962
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide
Roy Con, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, “Rock Around the Clock”
Buddy Holly, “Ben Hur”, space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the Congo
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the Suez
Hemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”
- Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
THIRTEEN DAYS
The world never came closer to nuclear war that it did in October 1962. For just under two weeks, a drama was
played out on the world stage and behind closed doors that could literally have ended western civilization. The
history behind this crisis, and the events that lead up to it, provide what is perhaps the most interesting moment in
the history of the Cold War. A classic case study in “crisis management,” most analysis of the crisis focuses on the
decisions made in corridors of the White House and Kremlin. As said by President Kennedy’s National Security
Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, “Having come so close to the edge, we must make it our business not to pass this way
again.”
For the purposes of our simulation, however, it is as important to understand the history leading up to the crisis as
to memorize a blow-by-blow account of the events.
THE UNITED STATES & CUBA
When the United States gained its independence from the British in the Revolutionary War, it served as a role
model for the many regions that composed the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. From 1810 – 1825, leaders
such as Simon Bolivar led most of the mainland Spanish colonies to independence. By the midpoint of the century,
all that remained of the Spanish Empire where the island colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. In
1862, a military rebellion known as the Ten Years War began against the colonial authorities in Cuba. After ten long
years of fighting, however, the rebel movement was facing disunity in the ranks. The Spanish authorities were able
to successfully end the revolution when they regained the support of the Creole landowners in Cuba, who had
provided the financial backing for the revolt, by offering them concessions on representation in the Spanish Cortes
in the Treaty of Zanjon.
In 1892, a Cuban exile named José Martí formed El Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary party) in
New York City and it soon spread to Philadelphia, Tampa, and Key West, Florida. By 1895, the party declared that the
“Second War for Cuban Independence” had begun on Cuba, and Marti made plans to return to the island at the head
of a military expedition. Shortly after returning to the island, Marti was killed in battle, but by 1897 his rebellion had
become powerful enough that the Spanish Queen Regent had offered the island autonomy in the Spanish Empire,
an offer that was rejected by the rebels.
The President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, had signed a proclamation of neutrality at the start of the
conflict, but popular sentiment had begun to favor the rebels by 1896. By December 1897, the rebels were claiming
victory was near in their war against Spain, but Cleveland’s successor, William McKinley refused to recognize the
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rebels’ independence. In January 1898, the United States dispatched the battleship Maine on a “friendly” visit to
Havana after a series of violent pro-Spanish demonstrations threatened American interests in the city. On February
15, 1898, the Maine blew up in Havana harbor, killing 260 officers and crew.
Journalists in the United States blamed Spain for the destruction of the battleship, and with the cry “Remember the
Maine!” demanded that the United States retaliate. Seeking to avoid a conflict, the Spanish government reiterated its
offer of autonomy for Cuba and offered to submit the matter of the Maine to arbitration. Throughout the month of
April, the United States Congress passed a series of measures authorizing American intervention in Cuba with of the
goal of “enforced pacification” of the island. These resolutions cumulated with a declaration of war on Spain on April
25th.
The Spanish-American War demonstrated the emergence of the United States as a major world power. The
modern American navy was able to easily shatter the antiquated Spanish fleet, and for the first time the United
States waged a worldwide campaign as it battled for control of the Philippines. The main theater of the war
remained Cuba, however, and despite a serious lack of professionalism in the American military forces that launched
an attack on the island, they were easily able to defeat the Spanish forces on the island, who had already been
exhausted by a three year war against the local rebels.
The terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, officially ended four centuries of Spanish rule in Cuba by
granting independence to the island. Despite assertions by the American Congress that the United States held no
“intentions to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof,” Cuba
was placed under military government by the United States at end of the war. In 1900 the United States organized
a constitutional convention in Cuba that drew up a document modeled on the U.S. Constitution. The following year
the United States Congress put forward the Platt Amendment to the Cuban constitution that limited Cuba’s right to
sign treaties with other nations, authorized unlimited American leasing of naval stations on Cuba, and granted the
United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs whenever life, property, or liberty were threatened.
In 1901 Cuba held its first democratic elections, supervised by the United States. In the following year, Cuba gained
independence and the U.S military occupation came to an end. In 1903 the Platt Amendment was incorporated in
the Permanent Treaty between the United States and Cuba. Until the Permanent Treaty was abrogated in 1934, the
United States soldiers intervened in Cuba on multiple occasions. During the first fifty years of its independence,
Cuba for the most part resembled an American colony.
THE UNITED STATES & THE SOVIET UNION
As World War II drew to a close in late 1945, the world was a dramatically different place than it had been a mere
six years ago. For the second time a generation, European civilization had bled itself dry as the nation states of the
continent battled for European and worldwide dominance. Germany and Italy, defeated and broken, had been
removed as powers from the world stage. France, occupied by enemy forces for nearly five years, had lost, in
addition to its pride, its Napoleonic claim as the dominant power of Europe. Britain, which held the proud distinction of being the only nation to fight Hitler’s Germany from the beginning of the war to the end, was militarily and
economically exhausted, and soon after the war was concluded, it was forced to confront growing demands for
autonomy and independence in it colonial empire. The continent of Europe, for better or worse, was now dominated by two massive states that in the previous decades had operated only on the periphery of the continent: the
United States and the Soviet Union.
In many ways it was only an accident of history that had brought the Soviet Union and the United States together
as allies. Both nations moved to the sideline of world affairs in the two decades following World War I: the Soviet
Union because of its advocacy of an international proletarian revolution, and the United States because of isolationist sentiment at home. It was not until 1933, well over a decade after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, that the
United States recognized the Communists as the legitimate government by establishing diplomatic relations with
the Soviet Union. Shortly before war returned to Europe in 1939, the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, agreed
to a non-aggression pact with Germany. Under the terms of the agreement, Hitler recognized the Soviet claim to
parts of Finland, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in exchange for a free hand
in the rest of Poland and western Europe. In 1940, Britain and France were on the verge of sending Finland
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assistance in its fight against the Soviet invaders, when Hitler’s attack on Norway cut off the route to send reinforcements. Only by the narrowest of margins did the Soviet Union remain at peace with the Allies.
In 1941, however, Hitler voided the non-aggression pact with the Soviets by launching Operation Barbarossa, a
massive invasion of the Soviet Union by over three million German and Axis soldiers. In December 1941, after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States responded by declaring war on the Japanese Empire. Honoring
their treaty commitments to Japan, Germany and Italy responded by declaring war on the United States, the action
that finally brought the two most powerful nations in the world together as allies. In the word of British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, “Hitler’s fate was sealed… all that remained was the proper application of overwhelming
force.”
Although the leaders of the three Allied Powers made a strategic commitment to fight together until the unconditional surrender of the Axis nations, they never truly acted in a coordinated manner while pursuing military and
political goals. From 1942 on, the Soviet Union urged the Untied States and United Kingdom to launch an attack on
France at the earliest possible moment, so as to relieve pressure on the Eastern Front. Fearful of the possible losses
in a failed invasion of France, the western Allies instead spent two years launching a series of much smaller diversionary assaults on Axis possessions, searching for a “soft underbelly” to Hitler’s Fortress Europe. It was only in June
1944 that the invasion of France began, and by then the Soviet had already gained the upper hand on the Eastern
Front and forced the Germans to begin a retreat that would end only when Soviet soldiers raised the Hammer and
Sickle over the shattered remains of Berlin.
In addition to their differences on military policy, the western Allies and the Soviet Union had distinctly different
visions of the political shape of Europe after the war. The first priority of the Soviet leadership was to ensure that no
nation would ever be able to launch an invasion into the heartland of the Soviet Union again. To this end, Stalin
wished to establish client regimes in the countries of Eastern Europe that would serve as buffers against and future
invasion from the West. The United States, on the other hand, wished to establish free-market democracies in the
countries liberated from Axis rule – and within the Axis countries themselves. Despite a handful of agreements
between the Allied leaders at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, in the years following the end of World War II, both
the United States and the Soviet Union used their control of the situation on the ground rebuild the political institutions of occupied nations in their own image. In 1946, while receiving an honorary degree from Westminster
College in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill stated that:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line
lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade,
Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere,
and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing
measure of control from Moscow.
As relations between the Soviet Union and the Untied States broke down, there appeared to be a worldwide
struggle taking place for ideological dominance. The United States saw Communist activity in Greece and Turkey as
a grab for power by the Soviet Union. In March 1947, President Truman issued what would later be known as the
Truman Doctrine: that the United States would come to the aid of any nation that was under pressure from outside
forces that sought the establishment of a totalitarian regime.
One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and
other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion. This was a fundamental issue in the war with
Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon
other nations.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation
by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability
and orderly political processes.
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The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty
and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope
alive.
The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms.
Under this policy, the United States provided economic aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey. A few
months later, the United States began to draw a cooperative economic recovery plan for Europe. Under what would
become known as the Marshall plan, the Untied States provided over thirteen billion dollars to finance the reconstruction of Europe. Although the invitation to join the Marshall plan was extended to all nations in Europe, Moscow
did not allow the states in the Soviet sphere of influence to participate. In 1949, the economic and political ties
created by the reconstruction effort were extended to the military sphere with the create of NATO, an alliance whose
members “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered
an attack against them all.” In 1955 the Soviet Union responded by forming the Warsaw Pact with its European
satellites.
In addition to the struggle for control in Europe, the Cold War was beginning to take on a worldwide dimension.
Shortly after the end of World War II, the Vietnamese began a revolt against the French colonial government that was
both nationalist and communist in nature. In 1949, the Chinese Civil War ended with victory for the Communist
Party, with the Nationalist government driven off the mainland to the island of Taiwan. The struggle for primacy in
the Far East came to a head after North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. For three years the United States led an
international force authorized by the United Nations as the battle lines seesawed up and down the peninsula. After
the Chinese intervention, the war entered a period of stagnation until the armistice ended the hostilities in 1953.
While the soldiers waged a conventional war on the ground in Korea, the United States and Soviet Union participated in a potentially far more dangerous nuclear arms race. At the end of World War II, the United States had
developed and unleashed a weapon far more destructive that any other in the history of mankind. Many modern
historians assert that when the U.S. destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs at
the end of World War II, the message was meant for Stalin as much as the Japanese generals. Regardless of the
intention behind its use, it was clear to the leadership in the Kremlin that the atomic monopoly of the United States
made it a power on a different level than the Soviet Union.
In 1949 the Soviet Union answered the American challenge by detonating a nuclear weapon of its own. The
Soviets surprised the American with the speed with which they developed an atomic capability, and the realization
of American vulnerability to this new weapon helped fuel the Red Scare that permeated American society. As both
nations developed increasingly more numerous and more powerful weapons, the Eisenhower administration put
forward the policy of massive retaliation: that any nuclear exchange would result in a total attack from the U.S.
arsenal against the opposing nation. In 1957, the nuclear arms race took on a new dimension when the Soviet Union
successfully launched the world’s first manmade satellite into orbit. What was clear to policy makers at the time was
that any missile that could send a satellite into orbit could do the same for nuclear warhead, and that unlike aircraft
with atomic bombs, there was no defense against a ballistic missile.
CASTRO
After gaining its independence at the start of the century, Cuba was governed by a series of corrupt civilian and
military rulers that frequently depended on U.S. support in order to stay in power. Throughout this period, the Cuban
economy became increasingly dependent on and subservient to the United States. In 1952, Fulgencio Batista seized
power in a military coup d’etat and declared himself President. The Batista regime was well known for its human
rights violations and corruption, and under his rule Havana became a frequent destination for organized crime
figures from the United States. In 1953, Fidel Castro launched a guerilla war against the Batista regime that would
final cumulate in his victorious entry into Havana on January 8, 1959.
Although Castro was initially welcomed by the United States, and met with Vice President Nixon during a trip to
Washington D.C. in 1959, by the end of the year relations between the United States and Cuba had soured. In May
of that year, Castro dispossessed the United Fruit Company, a powerful American business that had in essence
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controlled a number of “banana republics” in Latin America, of its lands in Cuba without compensations. In retaliation, the Congress in the United States revoked the preferential status given to Cuban imports of sugar to the United
States, which provoked Castro to nationalize the US-owned sugar mills on the island and claim the property for the
Cuban people. Cut off from the American economy on which his nation had depended for decades, Castro sought
the support of the Soviet Union and announced a large trade deal with the USSR in 1960.
Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy defeated Vice-President Richard Nixon in the Presidential Election of 1960,
and when Kennedy took office he inherited a plan from the Eisenhower administration that called for an invasion of
Cuba by exiles armed and trained by the United States. Three months into his Presidency, Kennedy gave the goahead order for the invasion. What resulted was an international embarrassment and military debacle for the United
States. On April 17th, 1962, a brigade of Cuban exiles, trained and equipped by the CIA, landed on the shores of the
Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba, but when the exiles called upon the United States for air support Kennedy hesitated.
Castro himself traveled to the battlefield to direct the Cuban military and local militia against the invasion. Within 72
hours almost every member of the exile brigade had been captured or killed.
The Bay of Pigs invasion convinced Castro that the United States was determined to destroy his government and
reassert its control over Cuba. From Castro’s perspective, another American invasion was not just possible, but
almost inevitable. After the Bay of Pigs invasion was successfully crushed, Castro proclaimed that Marxism-Leninism
was now the official ideology of the revolution that he led, and thereby placed Cuba firmly on the side of the Soviet
Union.
THE CRISIS BEGINS
Despite American fears of a “missile gap” between the United States and the Soviet Union, the nuclear balance of
power in world as the 1960s began was clearly tilted in the favor of the United States. In addition to possessing over
seven thousand strategic nuclear warheads vs. the Soviets’ five hundred, the United States had deployed its nuclear
weapons at a set of overseas bases that gave the US arsenal a nearly worldwide strike capability. It was because of
this numerical advantage that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev first considered placing nuclear missiles on Cuba.
He hoped that the strategic location of Cuba would give the Soviet Union the kind of deterrent capability that
numbers alone could not. Assured by his generals that the Soviet Union could install the weapons without American
knowledge, Khrushchev gave the order to begin the installation of SS-4 and SS-5 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) in Cuba. Fearful of another US invasion of Cuba, Castro readily agreed to accept the Soviet weapons
on Cuban territory. Throughout the summer of 1962, Soviet construction crews worked feverishly to prepare the
bases and installations that would be needed to fire and store the weapons.
On October 15th, 1962, an American reconnaissance flight over Cuba revealed that the Soviets were constructing
missile sites in Cuba. For a week after the discovery, debate raged in the highest levels of the US government as to
how to respond to the situation in Cuba. On October 22nd, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missiles to a
shocked American public. In the same speech, Kennedy announced the following:
To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being
initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive
weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers…
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…
Under the Charter of the United Nations, we are asking tonight that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be
convoked without delay to take action against this latest Soviet threat to world peace. Our resolution will call for the
prompt dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons in Cuba, under the supervision of U.N. observers, before
the quarantine can be lifted.
Our simulation begins with an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday, October
22nd, 1962.
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THE PUBLIC PHASE
After Kennedy’s speech to the nation, a flurry of diplomatic and military events began to take place around the
world. On the Tuesday after Kennedy’s speech, the United States stepped up its aerial surveillance of Cuba by
sending a squadron of supersonic fighters over Cuba to gather low altitude photographs of the Soviet installations in
Cuba. The United States gained a diplomatic boost on the same day when the Organization of American States
voted to support the US blockade of Cuba. Robert Kennedy, the brother of the President and the Attorney General of
the United States, met secretly with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin that evening to discuss the emerging crisis.
The American blockade was set to go into effect at 10:00 am on October 24th, at which point any ship traveling
within 800 miles of Cuba would be boarded and searched by US naval vessels. In order to give the Soviets more
breathing room, Kennedy moved the line back to 500 miles from the Cuban coast. On the same day, however,
Kennedy placed the American military on the highest state of alert it has ever held during peacetime, DEFCON 2. As
the deadline approached, the White House received word that the Soviet ships en route to Cuba had turned around
and did not appear to be challenging the blockade.
On October 25th the debate moved to the United Nations Security Council, where US ambassador Adlai Stevenson
presented the members of the council with photographic evidence that the Soviet Union was deploying nuclear
weapons in Cuba. Later that day, a Soviet oil tanker was allowed to pass through the American blockade without
incident, after the Americans stated that they had no reason to believe it carried contraband. And finally, Thursday
saw one of the first proposed solutions to the crisis put forward by an American columnist, Walter Lippman. He
suggested that the United States offer to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey in exchange for a similar Soviet
withdrawal from Cuba
On Friday, American forces conducted their first inspection of a vessel en route to Cuba, the Lebanese freighter
Marcula. Khrushchev wrote an impassioned plea to Kennedy, that arrived that evening, and in it he suggested the
Soviet Union might consider removing it missiles from Cuba in exchange for a public promise from the United States
to never invade Cuba:
You and I should not now pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied a knot of war, because the harder you and
I pull, the tighter the knot will become. And a time may come when this knot is tied so tight that the person who tied it
is no longer capable of untying it, and then the knot will have to be cut. What that would mean I need not explain to you,
because you yourself understand perfectly what dreaded forces our two countries possess.
I propose we, for our part, will declare that our ships bound for Cuba are not carrying any armaments. You will declare
that the United States will not invade Cuba with its troops and will not support any other forces which might intend to
invade Cuba. Then the necessity of the presence of our military specialists in Cuba will disappear.
Later that evening, Robert Kennedy once again met with the Soviet Ambassador, and when Dobrynin suggested
that the Soviet deployment in Cuba was justified because of American missiles in Turkey, Kennedy stated that the
President would look favorably on the Turkish question.
The Crisis came to a head on Saturday, October 27th. On that day, an American U-2 spy plane accidentally
wandered into Soviet airspace near the Alaskan border, and was chased out by Soviet MiGs that had been scrambled
in response. Around noon the Americans received word that another U-2, this one operating over Cuba itself, had
been shot down by a Soviet surface to air missile. At the same time a new letter from Khrushchev arrived, stating:
You are disturbed over Cuba. You say that this disturbs you because it is ninety miles by sea from the coast of the United
States of America. But...you have placed destructive missile weapons, which you call offensive, in Turkey, literally next to
us...
I therefore make this proposal: We are willing to remove from Cuba the means which you regard as offensive...Your
representatives will make a declaration to the effect that the United States...will remove its analogous means from
Turkey...And after that, persons entrusted by the United Nations Security Council could inspect on the spot the fulfillment of the pledges made...
Most of Kennedy’s advisors, unaware the Attorney General had brought up the same topic with the Soviet Ambassador the night before, reacted with shock to the new Soviet demands. They believed that removing the American
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missiles from Turkey would be seen as abandoning a NATO ally, and had the potential to shatter confidence in
America’s commitments around the world. As a course of action, Kennedy decided to write a response to the first
Soviet letter, and ignore the second altogether. On the same day, an American reporter serving as an administration
intermediary met with the KGB station chief in Washington, and in a moment of frustration told the Soviet that an
American invasion was only 36-48 hours away – which was not true.
On Sunday, Khrushchev met with his advisors outside of Moscow. Worried that an American invasion of Cuba was
imminent, Khrushchev drafted a letter to Kennedy that in effect defused the crisis.
Esteemed Mr. President:
I have received your message of October 27, 1962. I express my satisfaction and gratitude for the sense of proportion
and understanding of the responsibility borne by you at present for the preservation of peace throughout the world...
In order to complete with greater speed the liquidation of the conflict... the Soviet Government... in addition to previously issued instructions on the cessation of further work at building sites for the weapons, has issued a new order on
the dismantling of the weapons which you describe as “offensive,” and their crating.
Within a month, the Soviet weapons had been removed from Cuba and the US blockade was lifted. While the
outdated American missiles were removed from Turkey soon thereafter, and the United States has never attempted
another invasion of Cuba, the Kennedy administration never publicly agreed to these terms with the Soviet leadership.
The consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis reach forward to this day. Many policy makers, after seeing the
superpowers come so close to nuclear war, were determined to prevent these events from repeating. In order to
improve communication between Moscow and Washington, a “hotline” was installed directly from the White House
to the Kremlin. One year after this crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed the first modern arms control document,
the Partial Test Ban Treaty. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the ultimate expression of the policy of brinkmanship in the
Cold War, and after the policy had come so close to disaster, both sides began to reformulate their worldwide
strategies, a process that would eventually lead to the period of détente during the Nixon administration.
OUR SIMULATION
As stated earlier, our simulation will begin on October 22nd, 1962, immediately after President Kennedy’s address
to the nation. The President has just announced that Soviet missiles are being installed in Cuba, and has decided to
establish a naval blockade on Cuba and to search all vessels carrying cargo to Cuba for weaponry. Debate in the
committee should focus on the legitimacy of the Soviet and American actions taken so far, and on possible resolutions to the dispute at hand.
While debating this crisis in the committee be careful not to foreshadow events that have not yet occurred. There
is no guarantee that the events after October 22nd will proceed as they did historically. Much to the contrary, the
simulation will progress in response to your actions and the resolutions you pass. While it is useful to understand
how the crisis developed and was resolved historically, it is highly unlikely that events will proceed as they did in
1962. We have provided a complete history of the Cuban Missile Crisis only so you understand the motivations of
the players involved and the strategic importance of the crisis in the flow of world events.
You may find it useful to research your nation’s historical response to the Cuban Missile Crisis while formulating
national policy for the Historical Security Council. If you cannot find any information regarding the historical role of
your nation, try and formulate a cohesive policy based on the answer to some of these questions. Remember, it is
October 1962, not January 2001. A lot has changed in the past forty years.
1. What is your nation’s role in the Cold War? How did the Cuban Missile Crisis alter the balance of power in
the Cold War, and what type of resolution to the crisis would benefit your nation the most?
2. What are some of the potential outcomes of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how would these outcomes affect
your nation? If the Soviet Union and United States came to blows, would your nation be on the front line?
3. What economic, cultural, or political ties does your nation have with the United States and the Soviet Union?
4. What is your nation’s political and economic structure in 1962?
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POSITION PAPER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The position paper is the way in which the delegates demonstrate their understanding of the topics being discussed by their respective committee and how the nations they represent react to those topics. The paper also
serves to inform the committee chairperson of both how sincerely the delegate will represent their nation during the
conference and how to pace discussion and direction of debate. For these reasons, it is very important to the success
of the conference for the position paper to be written in an informed manner and submitted to the committee
chairperson on time.
CONTENT:
In a traditional Model United Nations committee, the content of the position paper is the result of an individual’s
research regarding their country and the topics at hand. The position paper should include original research done by
the student (no plagiarism from the background papers is allowed), the country’s position and bloc policy with
regards to their respective topic. Since the readers of the position papers – the directors and assistant directors – are
fully knowledgeable of the topics they chose, a general historical background of the topic is not required and
discouraged. Position papers are required in order to be considered for awards, and will be a deciding factor in
determining the award recipients.
PHYSICAL GUIDELINES:
Please adhere to the following guidelines when writing your position paper(s):
1. Each paper should be one (1) page, single-spaced (or two (2) pages double spaced)
2. Please use a standard font on 8 ½” x 11” plain paper with 1 inch margins on all sides. Multiple pages should be
stapled in the upper left corner in the margin area.
3. A plain
a.
b.
c.
d.
cover sheet should contain the following in large print:
delegate’s name & representative country
committee
high school name
date written.
Please submit a separate position paper for each topic.
Position Paper Due Date: January 3rd, 2001 to the UMMUN office:
University of Michigan Model United Nations
c/o Michigan Student Assembly
3909 Michigan Union
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
If you have any questions or problems please contact the director of your committee (contact information can be
found in the front of this document), or the UMMUN secretariat at [email protected].
Good luck with your research, and we look forward to seeing you in January!
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