Perception, Bias, and the Cuban Missile Crisis

by | Jul 19, 2023 | humanities

 

After reading “What Can Be Learned from the Past?” and “Soviet Deception in the Cuban Missile Crisis,” identify any cognitive shortfalls associated with individual or group perception, memory, analysis, or biases associated with “Operation Anadyr.”
Section I: Introduction.
(a) Clearly state the purpose of your paper along with the approach you’ll be taking to answer the question. Briefly summarize the key events associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Summarize your introduction with a clear thesis statement.
Section II: Perceiving the build-up to and eventual crisis.
(a) From the course readings/presentations, identify two specific instances where US political or military personnel mistakenly perceived the build-up to the crisis, the Soviet’s ability to successfully place nuclear weapons in Cuba, and the Soviet’s response to the crisis. Analyze why the perception was believed to be correct and its impact on the crisis.
(b) From the course readings/presentations, identify two specific instances where US political or military personnel allowed a cognitive bias to influence their assessment/judgment in relation to the build-up to the crisis, the Soviet’s ability to successfully place nuclear weapons in Cuba, and the Soviet’s response to the crisis. Analyze how the bias occurred its impact on the crisis.
(c) Identify two missed indicators you think would’ve allowed the US to prevent the Soviets from placing weapons in Cuba. Assess why you think these indicators were missed and how they could’ve altered the conflict had they been collected, identified, and recognized as such.
Section III: Bibliography formatted in CMS. You must have a bibliography in addition to your citations.
(a) Contains all sources consulted and cited in preparing your paper

 

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

Sample Solution

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1962, during the Cold War.

Sample Solution

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1962, during the Cold War.

Paper that addresses the cognitive shortfalls associated with “Operation Anadyr”:

Introduction

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1962, during the Cold War. The crisis was caused by the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. The United States was concerned that the missiles would give the Soviet Union the ability to launch a nuclear attack on the United States without warning.

The purpose of this paper is to identify any cognitive shortfalls associated with individual or group perception, memory, analysis, or biases associated with “Operation Anadyr.” The paper will first briefly summarize the key events associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then, the paper will identify two specific instances where US political or military personnel mistakenly perceived the build-up to the crisis, the Soviet’s ability to successfully place nuclear weapons in Cuba, and the Soviet’s response to the crisis. The paper will then identify two specific instances where US political or military personnel allowed a cognitive bias to influence their assessment/judgment in relation to the build-up to the crisis, the Soviet’s ability to successfully place nuclear weapons in Cuba, and the Soviet’s response to the crisis. Finally, the paper will identify two missed indicators that the US could have used to prevent the Soviets from placing weapons in Cuba.

Perceiving the Build-Up to and Eventual Crisis

One cognitive shortfall that occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis was the tendency for US political and military personnel to overestimate the Soviet threat. This overestimation led to a number of mistakes, including the failure to anticipate the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Another cognitive shortfall that occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis was the tendency for US personnel to focus on the most recent information and to ignore information that contradicted their existing beliefs. This tendency led to the US misinterpreting Soviet signals and to underestimating the Soviet commitment to Cuba.

Cognitive Biases

Two cognitive biases that influenced US decision-making during the Cuban Missile Crisis were the availability heuristic and confirmation bias. The availability heuristic is the tendency to judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples of that event come to mind. In the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the availability heuristic led US officials to overestimate the likelihood of a Soviet attack.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs and to ignore information that contradicts those beliefs. In the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis, confirmation bias led US officials to interpret ambiguous evidence as confirmation of their belief that the Soviets were planning an attack.

Missed Indicators

There were a number of missed indicators that the US could have used to prevent the Soviets from placing weapons in Cuba. One missed indicator was the increase in Soviet military activity in the Caribbean in the months leading up to the crisis. Another missed indicator was the discovery of Soviet submarines off the coast of Cuba in September 1962.

Conclusion

The cognitive shortfalls that occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis had a significant impact on the course of the crisis. These shortfalls led to the US overestimating the Soviet threat, misinterpreting Soviet signals, and underestimating the Soviet commitment to Cuba. These shortfalls also led the US to miss a number of opportunities to prevent the Soviets from placing weapons in Cuba.

Bibliography

  • Allison, Graham T. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971.
  • Freedman, Lawrence. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Basic Books, 2007.
  • McGeorge Bundy. Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years. New York: Random House, 1988.

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