Missile Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Missile Crisis - Essay Example But though major powers were not directly involved, they armed or funded surrogates, lessening direct impact on the populations of their own countries, but increasing conflict and tension between millions of civilians around the world. One of the 'hot spots' in the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the then US President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev were practically eyeball to eyeball, each with a finger on the trigger. One wrong move and this would have escalated to a nuclear confrontation, and ccompletely changed the course of history. For the Americans, the countdown began on Monday, October 15, 1962, when a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft revealed several Soviet nuclear missile installations in Cuba. They promptly swung into action and the subsequent 13 days has been recorded for posterity and popular consumption in a typical American good-guys-verses-the-bad-guys movie "Thirteen Days," where the good guys were, of course, the Americans. Who knows when it began for the Russians Perhaps the insecurity of being on the defensive started after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the use of nuclear weapons is seen by some historians as a warning to the Soviet Union. According to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba to counter an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. At this point of time, MAD, or "mutually assured destruction" was a prominent feature of the nuclear arms race, supported in particular by the deployment of nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The idea was that the two super-powers would not attack each other because both sides had nuclear weapons to decimate each other, and worse, to make the entire planet uninhabitable. So, since launching an attack would be suicidal for either party, neither would attempt it. (Wikipedia) For the Soviet Union, what brought things to a head was the presence of U.S. missile sites in Turkey, which directly threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union, tilting the balance of terror in favour of the U.S. As for the Cubans, ever since the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, when the United States armed and funded Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro's government, the Cubans lived under the shadow of fear of more reprisals from the United States. It was to protect themselves from another such United States-sponsored invasion, that Fidel Castro gave the Soviet Union approval to build missile installations in Cuba. The differences in their view-points are reflected in how they subsequently remember the incident. The Cubans know it as the October Crisis, just one of the many run-ins with the Americans. The Soviets refer to it as the Carribean Missile Crisis, where the Cubans are merely instrumental in yet another confrontation with the Americans in the Cold War, while the Americans call it the Cuban Missile Crisis. However they saw it, the thirteen-day countdown (Timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis, n.d.) was it was considered one of the tensest and most perilous moments in history. Starting with the American discovery of the SS-4 nuclear missiles in Cuba, when President Kennedy immediately convened his Executive Committee to consider America's options, which ranged from doing

Black Board Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Black Board - Essay Example The blackboard enables student to effectively manage their studies by providing access to course modules and valuable tutorials. It also allows students to exchange information with their lecturer, classmates and tutors. As of every other service, there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of the Blackboard in helping the students to achieve excellence in their field of study and also its market appeal. To do this, the SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats- strategic tool learned in the Business and Management Systems lecture will be used in evaluating the level of service the Blackboard can offer. The primary strength of the service is the inclusion of the feature Personal Tutorial (PT) and Personal Development Planning (PDP). The feature enables students to communicate with their tutor and clarify matters on a certain topic. It also permits Contents of Course Modules to be uploaded in their 'native format'(meaning the format of the course content can be uploaded as it is whether it is a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet or even a movie file). This feature enables students to fully appreciate the lectures that they were given. The idea is that the student can remember the discussion on a certain topic when the format used in their lecture is used for their private study. This feature is also quite powerful in terms of appeal to users because the student can now seek help, advice and notes from well-versed tutors anytime they want whether they are at home or in their native countries - this may arise due to some unforeseen events necessitating the need to travel. It must also b e remembered that learning gaps is surely to occur due to communication problems between the lecturer and international students who are not yet adept in using the English language. With the use of the PT and PDP, the students can clarify some points, in which communication problem occurred, with the tutor and other students. The Blackboard is also remarkable due to its Content Collection because it enables students to see announcements made involving their subjects. All announcements for all Blackboard sites the student belongs to are aggregately posted. This eliminates the need to browse through all the subjects to check for announcements. Other virtual learning environments do not provide this feature. Besides the announcement feature, the Content Collection section enables past exam papers and grades to be viewed for review in the future. These facilities are definitely plus factors in terms of attractiveness of the service because it enables the student to have an easily accessible future reference source. Another noteworthy feature is the Assignment facility which enables students to pass assignments in electronic data form. This enables the students to pass assignments even if they are in faraway places. Another plus of the service is that the username and password format are very easy to remember (username format uses the student registration's number preceded with a W and the last number deleted, password format uses the student's registered birth date as a default password). The provision for storage of accomplished works by the Portfolio feature also adds to the market appeal of the service. This added feature, non-existent in virtual