Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Introduction
After WW2 relations between the former allies U.S.A and
the Soviet Union broke down and it brought about an era
known as the Cold War, where the world was divided into
east and west. The end of WW2 had brought upon a new
stage of warfare in the form of the atomic bomb. The 1950s
saw a massive amount of nuclear testing with both powers
demonstrating how powerful they are. One incident, which
could have ended it all for everyone, was the Cuban Missile
Crisis, which occurred from October 14-27 1962.
After the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959 Cuba
who had been an ally of the US started making links with the
Soviets. America attempted to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs
by training Cuban exiles. But suffered a defeat. The soviet
premier Nikita Khrushchev planned to place Nuclear
weapons in Cuba to deter any future invasion. Similar to the
Jupiter Missiles the US had placed in Italy and Turkey in case
of a Soviet invasion. He also wanted the NATO [North
Atlantic Treaty Organization] controlled West Berlin which
he planned to bargain for. The missiles were secretly
shipped to Cuba and construction began to make them
operational. On October 14th an American U2 plane spotted
the missiles and the CIA alerted the president the next
morning. The medium range ballistic missiles could as far as
D.C. the long-range ballistic missiles could reach almost all of
the contiguous US. President Kennedy was faced with many
choices. The Joint Chiefs of Staff thought a full-scale invasion
was needed. But on doing these Soviets would retaliate
leaving the world in total nuclear war. Technically these new
nukes didn’t add much to the soviets arsenal of 300.
Compared to the US arsenal of 5000. But those nukes
seemed to be doing nothing.
On October 18th Kennedy met with the soviet minister of
foreign affairs, Andrei Gromyko, who assured him that any
weapons in Cuba were for defensive purposes only. They
decided to Blockade Cuba calling it quarantine because
technically a blockade was an act of war. It kept the US in
control and wasn’t the most aggressive thing to do. Any
Soviet ships found to be carrying Nukes would be turned
back. He informed his allies what was going on before
addressing the nation. The US moved to Defcon 3. The world
stirred uncomfortably wondering how bad the threat was.
The pope appealed to both Kennedy and Khrushchev
requesting them for peace. Khrushchev publicly compared
the quarantine to piracy and warned Kennedy that this was
an act of war. The photos of the missiles were shown to the
Conclusion
Despite avoiding thermal nuclear war the Soviet Union
appeared weak after these events and Khrushchev
ultimately lost power 2 years later. John.F.Kennedy was
assassinated just over a year after these events. The cold
war went on for decades and the US had their biggest defeat
in Southeast Asia.
SOURCES
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-
crisis
https://www.historytoday.com/john-swift/cuban-missile-
crisis
http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-
know-about-the-cuban-missile-crisis