Differentiation and Misunderstanding in the U.S. Government: Political and Military Communications during the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 put extreme pressures on the relations between the American defense and decision-making apparatuses. While the military pushed for a military intervention, President Kennedy and his advisors wished to safeguard nonmilitary options. The tensions between the two systems can be analyzed in terms of communication systems with different rationalities: whereas the political discussion proceeds in terms of deliberations which provisionally represent the various perspectives and interests, the military discourse needs clear objectives based on policy conclusions. Several incidents can with hindsight be considered as provocations by the military to trigger war, but others were a consequence of the failure of the political system to make itself clearly understood. Using Luhmann’s sociology of communication, the tension between these two power-wielding communication systems can be considered as structural. Some implications of the model for civilian control are specified.