Key topic 2: Cold War crises, 1958–70 Flashcards
When is Khrushchev’s Berlin ultimatum?
Nov 58
When is the Geneva summit?
May 59
When does Khrushchev visit the USA?
Sep 59
When is the U2 crisis?
May 1960
When does Kennedy become President?
Jan 61
When was the Cuban Revolution?
1959
and it worried the US
What was the Bay of Pigs?
Where a group of Cuban exiles are trained to launch an attack on Castro and overthrowing him. He did this to make it look like a cuban revolution making America not involved. However Castro already knew about the plan therefore making Castro get ready (20,000 soldiers ready to fight 1400 invaders)
What happened in April 1961
1,400 exiles cubans landed on cuba
what was Cuba like before the Revolution? Who ruled it and what did he do?
since 1952 Cuba was ruled by a ruthless military dictator
he allowed US businesses and mafia to make huge profits in a country where most people lived in poverty
Who is Fidel Castro
He was a rebel;
in 1956, he began a guerrila war. (small military unit uses tactics like raids to fight a larger opponent)
By 1959 he had enough support to take Cuba’s capital, Havana, and successfully overthew the Batista’s government
How did USA react to kruchev putting weapons on cuba
Kennedy realised that if Cuba had missiles then they would he in under threat. Kennedy warned kruschev that he couldnt allow the soviet union to use cuba as a base to threaten USA
Why was the US worried about the Cuban revolution?
USA had long economic history with Cuba
It owned half of the Cuba’s land and held most of the shares in all Cuban industries.
Therefore they felt that they had the right to be involved in cuba’s affairs. But cubans grown to resent American influences.
How did USA push cuba closer to USSR?
When castro came in to power in 1959,
he increased taxes on goods imported fro america, which angered the USA
Eisenhower threatened to stop importing cuban sugar. Sugar was cuban’s main source of wealth
Instead Castro signed a trade agreement with USSR - USSR promised to buy all sugar exports
All american property in cuba was confiscated
by Jan 1961 USA severed all diplomatic relations with Cuba and the new president kennedy nolonger recognise Castro’s government
What was the bay of pigs?
Kennedy couldn’t let a communist state emerge next to America so he intervened
in 1961, Kennedy authorised and invasion of Cuba anti-Castro rebels trained to overthrow him.
CIA trained 1500 anti-castro exiles
kennedy send 6 planes to bomb cuban air force (did not turn out well), so he canceled air support
supply ship also got destroyed
Castro was told that there would be an invasion but did not know the scale of it so he mobilised all troops (20,000 soldiers ready to fight 1400 invaders)
all exile captured within 7 hours
this lead to Castro decide that they need soviet military support to defend it’s self
consequences of the Bay of Pigs
for usa
humiliating and embarrassing failure
doing what they condemn ussr for
fresh plan to get rid of castro
for ussr
closer relationship with cuba
propaganda victory
august 1961 khrushchev placed nuke in cuba
for cuba
become communist
military support from USSR
Castro felt vulnerable
cuban missile - cause
The reason why Khrushchev placed missile in Cuba was because NATO had missile in turkey and so they have to have a deterrent near America
cuban missile - consequences
- Hotline established so Moscow and Washington could communicate more directly and more quickly in event of a crisis
- all nuclear missile removed from Cuba, then from Turkey by 1963
- Kennedy emerge from the crisis as a hero who stood up against thread of communism
- Khrushchev was discredited, he forced the USA to remove missile from Turkey but agreed to keep the deal a secret. In the eyes of the public he failed and resigned in 1964
- in the long term it also prompted new measure to bring the build up of of missile under control, eg test ban treaty, outer space treaty, nuclear non proliferation treaty.
discovery of missiles in Cuba
on 23 October 1962
An American U2 spy plane took picture of the missiles in Cuba that was discovered on the 14th oct.
order of events happend on “the 13 day “
16 oct 1962
Kennedy called the Executive comitee (ex comm) to discuss how America should react to the missile, they met every day for 13 days,
22 oct 1962
Kenedy decide to not launch an attack,
he set up naval blockade and announced about the missle on TV
24 oc 1962
USSR agree to remove missiles in cuba if they agreed to not invade them,
27 oct 1962
an U2 spy plane shot down
Khrushchev would remove the missiles if America remove theirs in Turkey
28 oct 1962
America ignored the second proposal and agreed to the first, however they later agreed in private they would remove their missile in turkey
What were the Hawks and Doves in CMC
Members of the excom
Hawks are the ones wanted to attack Cuba
Doves are the ones who wanted to negotiate
importance of CMC
it forced everyone to face up how quickly a tense situation could escalate to absolute catastrophe,
Why had the refugee issue in Berlin become such a problem for the USSR by 1957?
- the flow of refugees was humiliating for the USSR
- Many were skilled workers, important to the economy
- the existence of West Berlin as an island of capitalism within East Germany had always been resented by the USSR
What was the Berlin ultimatum
A statement by Khrushchev that the west had 6 months to demilitarise Berlin or “els”
-Berlin should become a “free city”
Geneva 1959
No real agreement but arrangements made for Khrushchev to visit US
