Cuban Missile Crisis Flashcards
What were the causes for the Cuban Missile Crisis?
- Superpower tension
- Tension built up from the space race, nuclear testing, arms race, funding of anti-communists and Berlin Wall - Fidel Castro’s Cuba
- Communist Fidel Castro took power in 1959
- It was in America’s backdoor
- Cuba had a deal with the Russians. They would send them sugar for oil, machines and money
- frightened Americans
- America stopped trading with Cuba in 1960 - Bay of Pigs Incident
- Trained 1400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles by the CIA
- Gave them arms, equipment and transport
- Totally failed
- Met by 20,000 Cuban soldiers
- All exiles killed or captured within days
Why did Kennedy decide he had to act against Cuba?
When an American U2 plane took photographs of a nuclear missile site being built on 14th October.
Describe the developments of the Cuban Missile Crisis
22 Oct: Naval blockade announced
23 Oct: Khrushchev expresses dislike for the blockade and refuses to admit to the presence of missiles
24 Oct: Blockade begins
26 Oct: Khrushchev sends letter offering to dismantle the sites in return for America not invading Cuba and lifting the blockade
27 Oct: Sends another letter asking to also remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Kennedy ignored second letter and accepted the demands of first letter.
28 Oct: Khrushchev agreed
20 Nov: Blockade lifted
What were the results of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Khrushchev lost prestige. Some even link him being fired to this event
- Kennedy gained prestige. He was seen as the man who stood up to the Russians
- Both leaders set up a telephone hotline
- Cuba remained communist, but America left it alone
