Khrushchev’s Letter to Kennedy, a a textual analysis, by: Muhammad Raza

 Khrushchev’s Letter to Kennedy

by: Muhammad Raza

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev employed the rhetorical strategies of future forecasting, magnification of issues, and rationalization to berate Kennedy’s establishment of a blockade on Cuba. In October 1962, the then-Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, wrote an emotional letter to President Kennedy regarding the recent quarantine that the United States instituted on the communist nation of Cuba. This quarantine was problematic for the Soviet Union because it was a close ally of Cuba, and both nations shared strong economic and military ties. In his letter, Khrushchev uses several methods to attempt to convince President Kennedy that his blockade of Cuba is unjustified. Firstly, he forecasts that this blockade may eventually “propel humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war”, and that the U.S.S.R. will be forced to take action if this obstruction continues. These harrowing predictions for the future serve to warn Kennedy about the potential dangers of continuing this quarantine of Cuba. Khrushchev also magnified the blockade to a major issue in order to convince Kennedy to remove it. He states that this blockade is not merely a blockade but an “ultimatum”, that it is an act of treason against International Law, and that there exist no laws or morals that can justify this approach of the United States. While this extrapolation of the blockade into a massive issue may be somewhat extreme and illogical, it nevertheless assists in creating a strong argument against the blockade that Kennedy has created. Lastly, Khrushchev employs simple logic and reasoning to support his claim that the U.S. blockade of Cuba is unjustifiable. By positing that Kennedy was making an emotional decision rather than a rational one, and urging him to attempt to understand the situation through the perspective of the U.S.S.R., Khrushchev bolsters his argument against the U.S. blockade through his rationalization. Ultimately, despite the fact that this blockade of Cuba is a heated topic of debate even among contemporary analysts and historians, one cannot deny the fact that Khrushchev implemented a wide range of literacy devices and rhetorical techniques into this passionate letter to effectively and directly illustrate his argument to the late President Kennedy. 

Sources:

“Letter from Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy | Wilson Center Digital Archive.” 2016. Wilsoncenter.org. 2016. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/letter-khrushchev-john-f-kennedy.