The Kennedy administration's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Kennedy administration's handling of the Cuban missile crisis presents an excellent source of information on how the crisis decision making process operate. The handling of the Cuban missile crisis by the Kennedy administration also reveals how the crisis decision making process greatly assists an administrator and his administration in resolving a crisis situation. This particular event demonstrates the manner in which a Presidential administration dealt with a crisis situation that effected the entire world. This event also reveals the intricacies of the crisis decision making process when it is implemented by an administration in order to assist in the resolution of the problem. The ability of an administration to handle a crisis situation is a crucial factor for any administration to be a successful one. The understanding of how the crisis decision making process operates is essential for all administrations.;Once there is a general understanding of how the crisis decision making process operates in an administration, then the study of a particular event can be accomplished. The selection of the Cuban missile crisis as this event, was because it presented an excellent source of how the crisis decision making process assisted a Presidential administration in resolving a crisis situation that effected the populace of the entire world. Chapters Two through Six of this thesis examine this crisis and the process used by the Kennedy administration to resolve this particular crisis situation. These chapters explain in detail the Kennedy administration's handling of the Cuban missile crisis. The purpose of these five chapters is to reveal just how the administration of President Kennedy dealt with the crisis situation by employing the various aspects of the crisis decision making process that would be able to assist in resolving the problem.;The information presented in these chapters allows for an understanding of how a particular crisis situation was handled by an administration. The resolution of a crisis situation can greatly effect the operation of an administration long after the crisis has passed. The Cuban missile crisis had profound effects on the administration of President Kennedy during the thirteen day period in October of 1962, and months later. The ability of the Kennedy administration to resolve this crisis in a peaceful manner was a major accomplishment. The failure to peacefully resolve the crisis would have meant far reaching effects on the entire world populace most likely in the form of a nuclear conflict between the two superpowers.;The thirteen days that the Cuban missile crisis occurred in, presented the world community with the importance of handling a crisis situation in the proper manner. The proper use of the crisis decision making process by the Kennedy administration allowed for the crisis to remain only a conflict in the political arena. If President Kennedy and his administration failed to implement the crisis decision making process in the proper manner, the end result might have been an outbreak of a thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.;The examination of the process of crisis decision making can be accomplished through the studying of one particular situation in which the process greatly assisted the administration's handling of the crisis. But it is also important to have a general knowledge of exactly how the crisis decision snaking process operates within an administration and how the crisis decision making process assists that administration in handling a crisis situation. It is for that reason that the first chapter of this thesis presents a general outline of how the crisis decision making process operates and how an administration can use it. This first chapter contains information that reveals the influences on the crisis decision making process as well as the process's influences on the administration that is implementing it for the purpose of resolving the crisis at hand.;The final chapter of this thesis deals with the lessons learned from the handling of the Cuban missile crisis by the Kennedy administration. This chapter explains the importance of following a proper method for handling a crisis situation. The process used by President Kennedy during this crisis situation was designed to allow him and his advisers to formulate and implement the best course of action to resolve the crisis situation between the Soviet Union and the United States. The crisis decision making process employed by President Kennedy during this event proved to be of great assistance in the peaceful resolvement of the crisis. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).