The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13 day military and political standoff between the two superpowers of the 20th century. Starting on the 14th of October 1962 the United States of America (US) discovered nuclear missile launch sites belonging to the Soviet Union in Cuba. For 13 days the US fought to remove these missiles, while the world was as close as it ever has been to global nuclear war and fallout.
The Batistan dictatorship came to power in 1933. The dictatorship held great relations with the US. However the dictatorship exploited the Cuban population causing unrest. A Cuban lawyer Fidel Castro fought a guerrilla war against Batista for two years. When Batista was removed Castro established a new government in 1959. At first they remained
…show more content…
The war was fought by proxy. Each country sought out allies and spread their ideologies around the world. For New Zealand we were the democratic capitalist ally of the US. We had a security treaty with the US called ANZUS. For the allies this would protect the Pacific from communism. The Cold War was also fought with the threat of nuclear missiles. For the US they had made an agreement in 1961 with Turkey to construct their nuclear missile stations here. This is why the Soviets wanted to have nuclear missiles in Cuba, to balance out the power, where the US had missiles not far from Soviet …show more content…
Khrushchev proposed to Castro to have Soviet nuclear missile launch sites in Cuba. Castro eventually agreed to this and so the construction began.
On the 14th of October 1962, start of the Cuban Missile Crisis the US discovered these launch sites in construction. The US took this as an immediate aggressive threat needing urgent action. At first General LeMay proposed a secret invasion to remove these sites, but was quickly dismissed as there were fears it could provoke nuclear missile launches or repercussions inn Berlin, where the Allies controlled the East, and the Soviets the West from 1945, the end of World War II.
Another proposal was a naval blockade or as the White House worded it a quarantine. This would require every ship inbound for Cuba to be stopped and searched. The only problem was if a Soviet ship did not stop the US Navy may be forced to fire at it. Also during this time the US switched to DEFCON 2, which put the military on high alert and prepared their nuclear missiles for launching.
The Soviet response to the escalating US was to prepare Cuba for an invasion. They authorised any invasion force in Cuba to be attacked. They also raised their military to high
The accumulation of weapons and changes made to the defense system in Cuba was a source of concern and attracted the attention of the presidency and the top brass of the military in eliminating the threat presented by Cuba way before its eruption. In the course of the crisis, the President relied heavily on the intelligence system for the much-needed information to enable the making of informed decisions, all of which functioned to rescue the nation from the most serious crisis since the conclusion of the Second World
The Cuban Missile Crisis largely was between the Soviet Union and the United States. Their leaders, Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, most likely felt forced to do what was best for their country. In Kennedy’s situation, the Americans wanted to get rid of the missiles, get rid of Fidel Castro and eliminate Communism from Cuba. Khrushchev and the Soviets wanted to test the USA and prove that the USSR was stronger, but he also wished other countries to feel attracted to
After several tense days of negotiation, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. Significance: The Cuban Missile Crisis was significant because it brought the world close to nuclear war and highlighted the dangers of the arms race. The resolution of the crisis demonstrated the importance of diplomacy and negotiation in preventing conflict between nuclear
Just over a decade later, the Soviets stationed nuclear missiles in Cuba near U.S. shores. The U.S. and the USSR participated in a thirteen-day military standoff called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many consider this incident the beginning
In the Cold War era, the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 marked an important turning point. As the Soviet Union attempted to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, there
On October, 22, 1962, Kennedy announced the U.S. had discovered the Soviet Union was building “offensive missile sites” in Cuba that could cause a nuclear strike on the Western Hemisphere. He claimed that he wouldn't allow such a thing to happen. Members of the Soviet Union agreed that the missiles must be removed, but they didn’t agree on how they should be. Robert Kennedy pledged in a secret meeting with Anatoly Dobrynin, that the U.S. would remove the ballistic missiles from Turkey. The Soviet Union decided to compromise and remove the missiles, and Kennedy ended the naval blockade of Cuba which would avoid violent conflict of the Cold War.
Using spies in the Manhattan project, the Soviets were successful in replicating a nuclear bomb. They were determined that the US would not have an advantage over them if a war breaks out. In 1949, word got out that the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atom bomb in Kazakhstan. The soviets were suddenly equally as powerful as the United States was and would make a formable opponent if a war followed. The tensions rose when the US started increasing the power of these bombs to defend themselves.
From the beginning, the invasion was lead with poor planning and bad execution. The primary source states “The force, which had been secretly trained and armed in Guatemala by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was too large to engage in effective covert operations yet to small to realistically challenge Castro in a military confrontation without additional support of the United States.” The Cuban exiles weren’t trained professionally in the short period of time before the invasion. One of the sources about the plan of the invasion states “The original invasion plan called for two air strikes against Cuban air bases. A 1,400-man invasion force would disembark under cover of darkness and launch a surprise attack.
On October 17, 1962, American spy planes photographed these missile sites under construction. Kennedy responded by placing a naval blockade, which he referred to as "quarantine," around Cuba. While his generals and senior advisors were telling him to plan a full-scale raid of the island and while it is underway they all would slip away to the safety of their nuclear bunkers. John Kennedy said no and that if anyone were to die today it were to be them sitting as they were in the white house, the prime targets of those Russian nuclear missiles. JFK saved not only you, but, the entire world that day from nuclear holocaust.
Nuclear-armed missiles were being installed close to the us (90 miles south of florida) which could easily reach targets in the eastern US. interview: me: umm how about the Cuban Missile Crisis? Mr. Doi: Uhh yeah. me: do you
This operation was The Bay of Pigs Invasion in which JFK authorized a militia to enter Cuba and attempt a coup d 'état to overthrow Fidel Castro. The communist rule in Cuba knew well in advance of the CIA’s plan, making the attack a complete failure. Inside the museum sits a large portion of what was the Berlin Wall. Although the wall fell in 1989, its construction during Kennedy’s presidency in 1961 nearly started war.
Pre-Event: Demands by Cuban patriots for independence from Spanish rule made U.S. intervention in Cuba a more important issue in the relations between the United States and Spain from the 1870s to 1898. One of the reasons why the Spanish American War happened was because of the 10 Years War fought between Cuba and Spain for Cuba’s independence (http://www.infoplease.com). The Ten Year War started in 1868 and ended in 1878 because of the lack of happiness in Cuba because of excessive taxation, trade restrictions, and virtual exclusion of native Cubans from governmental posts. Cuba tried to revolt but ended up losing the battle and was still under control of Spain.
During the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. It was when two superpowers were close to causing a nuclear war. Its main origin was when the United States invaded Cuba, on April 10, 1961; which is also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the invasion, previous Prime Minister; Fidel Castro of Cuba, was ‘paranoid’ because he felt like America was planning another attack. So in order to protect his nation, he sought military and economic help from the Soviet Union.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal moment in the history of the Cold War that nearly escalated into a global nuclear war. It was a political and military standoff between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in October 1962. According to an article in the Journal of Cold War Studies, the crisis began when the United States detected the presence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. The Soviet Union had installed missiles that were capable of reaching the United States, which led to a tense standoff between the two superpowers(Allison 5).
Countering these threats, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons on Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis—a defining incident of the Cold War—in 1962. After negotiating, the missiles were removed with the US promise of never invading Cuba. Castro could now develop his political ideas without fear of a US invasion. As the Head of Cuban Armed Forces and later the Prime Minister of Cuba, he pushed through radically changing reforms such as the redistribution of wealth among the poor.