The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
Notes:
- American’s supported a corrupt regime under Fulgencio Batista until the Cuban revolution in 1959
- Fidel Castro took over
- Alligned with the Soviets
- The Bay of Pigs (Failed invasion of Cuba)
- 1962 Soviets begin to put Nuclear weapons into Cuba (Noticed by U2 spy planes)
- The US had 3 options:
- Diplomatic solution (negotiated settlement)
- A conventional attack (air attack followed by invasion)
- A naval blockade
- Robert Kennedy, attorney general, convinced Security Council to go with blockade
- Ships turn around at the quarantine
- 2 Letters sent from Krushchev to Kennedy
- Brinkmanship ensues (U.N. gets involved)
- Russians pull out of Cuba in exchange for a removal of missiles in Turkey at a later date
- Directly resulted in the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1962
- Hot line, phone that president could pick up and talk to leader of Soviets
- The US had 3 options:
SUMMARY :
It could be argued that communism has worked to a certain degree in Cuba, making it one of the only countries for this to happen. It had been extremely poor until communism had come into play, now the country has one of the best medical and educational systems in the world. Kennedy backs out on air support and counter revolution did not succeed, communism survives. Nuclear weapons found off coast of Cuba through U2 planes. Because of this no nuclear weapons were allowed to be launched above ground for testing.
Quotes:
“We went Eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked”
Subjunctive questions:
How could have this crisis been avoided in the first place? Were all nuclear weapons removed from Cuba completely, or did some stay?