Confrontation between the superpowers (12) Flashcards
Background of the Castro Regime?
Returned from exile with his brother, Ernesto ‘che’ Guevara and 79 supporters and started a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the Batista regime.
In January 1959, the Batista regime collapsed
Castro’s move towards communism and USA’s isolation of it?
May 1959 begins to seize private property
1960 Mikoyan, Politburo, offers $100 million in economic and military aid to Cuba
First shipment of Soviet Crude Oil arrives in 1960, US refinery refuses to accept it and is nationalised
- US immediately imposes sanctions, cutting sugar imports by 95%
During 1960, $1 billion of US assets were seized
Diplomatic ties cut in January 1961
Bay of Pigs?
Many Cubans fled, mainly to Florida, after Castro took power
Director of CIA - Allen Dulles
1,400 exiles sign up to CIA mission
April 15th 1961, 8 B-52 bombers attack Cuban air bases
April 17th 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion
Over 100 killed
1000 captured
American Operations in Cuba?
Operation Mongoose - Authorised in 1961 - operation to overthrow Castro Regime using covert measures - air strike plan OPLAN 312 and Ground force plan OPLAN 314
Operation Quick Kick - US military manoeuvres in Caribbean to prepare for Cuban invasion - Led to USSR sending missiles to protect Cuba
During Cuban Missile Crisis a force of 140,000 assembled in Florida and Kennedy put all worldwide nuclear and conventional forces on high alert
USSR Operations in Cuba?
In response to Operation Quick Kick
Operation Anadyr
Soviet fighter planes, bombers and 14,000 ground troops - short and medium range ICBMs (range between 1100 km and 2800 km)
Cuba geostrategically gave Khrushchev a chance to shorten the missile gap - currently 17 to 1
Later increased to 42,000 troops and sent an additional 42 MIG-21 fighter interceptors
9 tactical nuclear weapons - commanders had authorisation to use in the event of US invasion
The 13 Days
1962
Oct 16th Kennedy informed on missiles via U-2 pictures, assembled Excomm filled with Hawks and Doves
Oct 23rd US Naval ships surround Cuba in quarrantine - Soviet submarines move into Caribbean
US UN ambassador, Stevenson, attacks Soviet counterpart, using U2 pictures of missiles
24th Soviet ships halted before quarantine line
Oct 26th Castro sends first letter
Oct 27th Pilot Anderson shot down in U2 plane from Soviet surface-air missiles
Robert Kennedy meets with Soviet Ambassador to discuss removing Jupiter missiles in secret
October 28th Khrushchev signs agreement - USA promise not to invade Cuba
Agreements as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
1963 – creation of ‘hot line’ connecting the Kremlin to the White House – symbolic value of this
October 1963 – Moscow Test Ban Treaty – Khrushchev had proposed it as early as 30th October 1962 – no provisions for periodic review and inspection – States could after three months start testing again if it was of national importance – no obligation to sign up, France and China did not sign up – contributor however to détente
Two months later - agreement in UN to ban nuclear weapons from space
Consequences of Cuban Missile Crisis?
Crisis seen as an international humiliation of the USSR and constraint on their international freedom – it would want to improve its international reputation in the future - buildup of nuclear arsenal
Cuba remained communist in the US’s ‘back-yard’ – Containment and the Truman Doctrine had failed – this was a great success for the Soviets
West Berlin had remained a frontier to the Communist Bloc
De Gaulle in France feared for another event in which France could be dragged into a nuclear conflict without consultation again - broke away from NATO in 1966 and started on its own nuclear arsenal
