On The Dawn Of October 16Th, 1962, Began A 13-Day Standoff

The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear engineers; the name of this research was called, “The Manhattan Project”. On July 16, 1945, the detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb was detonated, it sent shock-waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would forever change the meaning of war.

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis? Many people have heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and may have learned about it during school, but they do not know the nitty gritty details of the whole fiasco. The CMC was the first threat of a nuclear world war. The real “crisis” was between the United States and the Soviet Union and not Cuba. Cuba played a relatively small role in the grand scheme of it all and was basically the field on which the two powerhouses played on. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most tense 13 days that the world has ever known and had the possibility of completely disintegrating the world we know today. In this paper we will learn exactly what happened.

The event of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Fifteen years into the cold war, the two superpowers continued the fierce competition to increase their military strength. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, whereas the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba which would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union. The fate of millions

The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the war did not bring about large scale fighting, there remained a constant threat of a catastrophic nuclear war. During the war, the US sought to strictly limit the spread of communism through containment, an idea formulated by US diplomat George Kennan, which became the basis of Harry Truman’s foreign policy. The containment policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam. The president’s initial step toward containment came in response to a British request to support both Turkey and Greece against the spread of communism. By requesting Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey, Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This policy, marking an “informal declaration of Cold War against the Soviets”, established that the United States would provide military and economic assistance to all nations threatened by Communism. The United States further devised the Marshall plan, which provided massive financial aid to western European countries in order to strengthen their economy, which indirectly prevented the spread of communism. Eisenhower and Nixon’s containment policies, while sharing Truman’s idea that communism should be contained, implemented different policies regarding containment. Eisenhower’s “New Look” policy was fiscally

On April 17, 1961, the United States led trained men by boat into the Bay of Pigs on the southwest coast of Cuba. However, they were defeated by Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba, and his troops and

The Bay of Pigs took place in April of 1961, and was a failed attempt to overthrow communist dictator Fidel Castro. The American troops split into five groups by boat on April 13, 1961 and had landed by the 16th. At the beginning the Cubans were overwhelmed, but then Castro took over the mission. The US only sent half of the air support that was planned and necessary for the US to claim victory. Because of the lack of air support the American soldiers were captured in three days and sent to Cuban prisons. This was one of the worst losses for the United States military but great for Castro. He felt as though he was on top of the world and much better than the US which led to Cuba to make the call to Khrushchev to import the nuclear weapons. The call that Castro made led the US and Cuba to a 13 day political and military standoff, and the US was not afraid to use massive retaliation. Cuba and the US came to an agreement that Cuba would remove their weapons if the US removed their nuclear weapons from Turkey. Cuba had allied with the Soviet Union while the Cold War was at its climax, the U.S. flew over Cuba and saw that nuclear missiles were being installed which continued the battle. After a long and treacherous 13 days both Cuba and The

Under the lead of President Harry Truman, in 1947, a foreign policy doctrine was forged during the Cold War called the "Containment Policy" which states that the United States did not aim to ignite a war with the Soviet Union,

The bay of pigs invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba. Brigade 2506, the group that attempted to invade cuba, was made up of Cubans who fled the country after Castro’s takeover, was trained and funded by the CIA. The CIA Castro gone because he was a communist, and at the time everyone was afraid of communists. This attack lasted three days before Brigade 2506 was defeated.

The failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs in April 1962 ultimately led to the crisis. After Castro obtained power of the Caribbean island in 1959 Kennedy’s advisors told the president that Castro was no real threat. However Kennedy wanted to show that he was intent on winning the cold war and he adopted the plan for the invasion from former president Eisenhower. The invasion was to ship 1400 Cuban exiles to the Bay of Pigs on the south side of the island however world war two era aircraft painted with Cuban markings failed to destroy Castro’s air power.

It all began On April 17, 1961, about 1400 Cubans were launched at what became to be known as the invasion of Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. It lasted two days from April 17, 1961, to April 19, 1961. It became one of United States biggest screw-ups and failed operations. Causing the death of 114 Americans and over 1,100 were taken prisoner each was sentenced to 30 years in prison (“History.com”). After twenty months of negotiation, most of the prisoners were released in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine (. This event gave Fidel Castro a means to claim there was a threat from the USA while in reality the US barely supported the invasion.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the Cold war's most dangerous crisis's. So, in 1962 mid-October an American spy plane spotted launch sites for Soviet nukes. The nukes were located to where they could reach the U.S.

Kennedy was informed the the missiles that very same day and his advisors told him that they wanted an air strike followed by an invasion put up in Cuba. Kennedy knew that if the US invaded the Soviets would use their missiles.

When speaking about the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy said, "It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization” (“Nuclear Test Ban Treaty” 1). the Cuban Missile Crisis was a time where these two men, Kennedy and Khrushchev, had the power in their hands to end civilization. In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis one must understand, the Cold war drama; the dangerous crisis; and its importance today.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 reflects possibly the most precarious moment in nuclear history. For the first time, the world’s two nuclear super powers, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were poised to destroy each other in a war of unprecedented proportion. On the brink of what may have escalated into a nuclear war, the leaders of two nations showed courageous restraint and diplomacy to avoid an exchange of brute force and unimaginable desolation. The situation was preempted by the Bay of Pigs, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba. Castro had gained authority through a rebellion against Fulgencio Batista, the previous Cuban dictator (Bay of Pigs). America was displeased with Castro, mainly because he was a Communist leader so close to American shores, so a plan to depose him was made, without official United States military support.

On April 15, 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion began to invade Cuba and remove Castro from the leadership. The unsuccessful invasion was stopped two days later. Now Castro needed the strong arm of the Soviets even more. With the Cold War arms race in effect, Castro knew that the Soviets could protect him from future invasions from the United States.