Pearl Harbor and the Cuban Missile Crisis

Paper Summary:

United States' history is full of events where the intelligence gathered was interpreted either well or badly, affecting the outcome of major events. The paper shows that two such events are Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the "Cuban Missile Crisis" of October 1962. Both events relied on a combination of information gathered in a variety of ways. The paper shows however, that the resulting body of intelligence helped prevent acts of war in one instance but failed to prevent acts of war in the other.

Paper Outline:
Introduction
Pearl Harbor
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Conclusion
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"Another reason to withhold this information may have been Washington's hope that war with Japan could be avoided. Japan planned to conquer much of Asia and had invaded China, an action unacceptable to the United States. As a result, the United States froze Japanese assets in the United States and imposed a trade embargo that actually forced Japan to look to Asia for materials they could no longer get from the United States . In addition to a failure to share military intelligence with those who needed it to protect Pearl Harbor, we misinterpreted Japan's determination to acquire the natural resources of Southeast Asia even if it meant war with the United States."

More papers on Pearl Harbor and the Cuban Missile Crisis:

• Term Paper # 94294 : "Realism and Foreign Policy"
• Essay # 93875 : "Realism and Foreign Policy"
• Term Paper # 105664 : "Intelligence Failures"

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