The crisis over Cuba, 1962 Flashcards
Significance of the Cuban Missile crisis - Increased rivalry
Kennedy seemed to have won the war of words and the perception was that Khrushchev had backed down. any people saw Kennedy as a great statesman who had stood up to the communists. The deal over missiles in Turkey was not made public at the time. There were many leading politicians in the Soviet Union who thought Khrushchev had been humiliated and looked to remove him. Mao zedong, the leader of China, criticised Khrushchev for placing the missiles in Cuba and then for backing down. Khrushchev saw the crisis as a victory for himself because he had saved Cuba from invasion and knew that the missiles in Turkey would be removed. However, within the Soviet Union, Khrushchev was seen to have failed over Cuba and this contributed to his removal as leader in 1964.
Significance of the Cuban Missile Crisis - Hotline?
The superpowers had almost gone to war - a war that would have destroyed much of the world. There was relief that the crisis was over and there was a great reduction of tension. To ensure that the two leaders did not have to communicate by letter in the case of a crisis, a hotline telephone link was established between the White House in Washington DC and the Kremlin in Moscow.
What was a significance of the Cuban missile crisis - treaties?
In August of 1963, the limited test ban treaty was signed, whereby both the USA and the Soviet Union agreed to stop testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. In 1968, the 2 superpowers and other countries signed the outer space treaty, by which they promised to use outer space for peaceful purposes and not place nuclear weapons in orbit. This was folowed by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed in 1968, this was designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Those countries signing agreed not to develop nuclear weapons. The idea that the arms race had almost brought about nuclear war helped to push the superpowers to consider limitations to their arsenals and a series of important talks began in 1969. Relations had improved, in 196s, following poor harvests, the USA sold grain to the soviet union.
