The Cuban Missile Crisis Flashcards
Summary of the Cuban missile crisis
The Cuban missile crisis is the moment in the Cold War when the USA and the USSR came close to a nuclear war. Khrushchev(soviet leader) reached a secret agreement with Fidel Castro(Cuban leader) the agreement was for the Soviet’s to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter further US aggression. The Soviet’s has been sending anti air nuclear missiles to Cuba. John F. Kennedy didn’t care but he said bad situations would occurs because of this. On October 14th 1962, American U2 planes took photos of missiles under construction in Cuba, Kruschev promised to stop sending missiles to Cuba but was actually lying. Kennedy created a team called excom, at first they wanted to bomb Cuba and get rid of the weapons but Kennedy instead decided to order a naval quarantine. Kennedy sent a letter to kruschev saying that the USA didn’t want the Soviet’s sending any weapons and the USA said that the Soviet’s should dismantle their weapons and give it to the USSR. Kruschev said that he will still send weapons to Cuba. Kruschev sent Kennedy a letter wanting to make a deal, saying the USSR will remove missiles from Cuba only if the USA promised not to invade the island. Kruschev sent another letter saying that the deal would also have to contain the removal of missiles from Turkey, on the same day a U2 plane was shot down in Cuba. USA prepared for an attack in Cuba, later Kennedy went ahead with the first deal with Kruschev and ignored the second letter. The nuclear weapons were dismantled in Cuba.
