The Cold War: The Cuban Missile Crisis Of 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis all started in October, 1962, when an American spy plane spotted and secretly photographed missile sites being built on the island of Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy did not tell the Soviet Union right away that we had found their nuclear missile site. But days later, President Kennedy meet secretly with his advisors to discuss the situation. President Kennedy and his advisors though long and hard about what to do and the finally came up with an idea. Kennedy decided to put a naval blockade around the island of Cuba. The purpose of this was so Cuba could not get anymore military supplies for the Soviet Union. President Kennedy demanded that the missiles that were already there be disabled and that the sit be destroyed. Later on, Kennedy told America what was happening on a televised address. Everyone was anxious about what the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, would say about the naval blockade. But both President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev recognized that the devastation that a nuclear war will bring is too much.

President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a warning to all the countries in the world. The US and the Soviet Union both knew the world had come too close to a nuclear war; both super powers knew there had to be better communication. After eight months, a hotline was installed. The phoneline linked the Soviet government, the Kremlin, and the White House. As a backup, a teletypewriter linked Washington, DC to Moscow. In addition, in 1963, the US, the Soviet Unions, and other countries signed the Limited Test Ban

The crisis began when the United States discovered the existence of offensive Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), nuclear capable, barely 90 miles from the southern coast of Florida, in Cuba. U-2 spy plane reconnaissance missions over Cuba captured the

The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most impactful events in the Cold War due to the effect that it had after it happened. The effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis created many changes on the direct and indirect relations between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis spanned 13 days in October 1962 that almost brought the world into a nuclear war. This all began when a United States U-2 spy plane Cuba took photos of Soviet SS-4 medium range ballistic missiles getting setup for the ability to launch.This caused the U.S leaders to be thrown into a panic because the Cuban Government had very strong ties with the Soviet Union who are the United States biggest enemies at the time. Another reason the United States was very fearful is because the coast of Cuba is only 90 miles of the coast of Florida. When President John F Kennedy was told of the missile threat in Cuba he immediately called a meeting with his closest advisors on how to react. There were many ideas on how to react to the missiles, some of Kennedy’s advisors wanted to invade Cuba, others wanted to send a warning to the Soviet Union. JFK finally decided to send a naval blockade to cuba for the purpose of stopping more supplies reaching the Cuban military from Russia. The blockade even though the blockade did not include attacking anyone, it was still seen as an act of aggression by the Soviet Union. The U.S was

Imagine that you are John F. Kennedy in 1962, and you find out that your ally, Cuba, has your enemy, Soviet Union, has ICBMS (intermediate- range ballistic missiles) & Ilyushin Il-28 light bombers, that could reach the United States and aimed toward the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen-day confrontation between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Cuba had the missiles there for like three months before one of the U.S had a spy plane that figured out that Cuba had the Soviets Missiles. For a while, the U.S had Intel that Cuba had the missiles but JFK did not believe that Cuba was betraying them. These missiles were only ninety miles away from Florida the U.S. issued a military blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba. When all the offensive missiles and light bombers were taken from Cuba the blockade was initially ended on November 21, 1962. Although the Cuban Missile Crisis ruined relations with the United States of America and Cuba, it impacted the blockade between the United States of America and Cuba, the respect for the United States of America, and the Bay of the Pigs.

The Cuban Missile Crisis has long been a subject of controversy. While at the same time just the mention of the name John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, has sparked much debate, especially regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the first year of Kennedy’s presidency, November 1961, a covert program, code named Operation Mongoose, was initiated by the United States to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. A retaliatory response by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was the installation of nuclear armed missiles in Cuba, just ninety miles from the U.S. shore.!

The Missile Crisis developed in 1962 because Fidel Castro believed that America would soon try again to invade his country. He asked the Soviet Union for help in defending his island nation. The Soviet Union replied by sending small arms, tanks, and infantry units to Cuba, as well as secretly transferring nuclear missiles to missile silos that were under construction in Cuba. The Americans were shocked when one of their U-2 spy planes discovered the nuclear silos under construction in Cuba because it meant that for the first time the Soviet missiles were within range of most major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. This created a very difficult problem for American President John F. Kennedy for which he needed to find a solution. He could not allow the missile silos to finish being constructed because that would place the United States in danger. That meant that either he would have to try diplomatic means to attempt to negotiate the removal of the weapons, or he would have to use the might of the American military to remove the weapons by force. Neither option looked particularly favourable. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (the President's military advisors) urged a swift and strong military invasion to destroy the silos before the Soviets could react. Kennedy was concerned, however, of the possibility of Soviet nuclear retaliation for the invasion because invasion was clearly an act of war. Up until that point, neither side had been willing to risk direct

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 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most terrifying thirteen days in the history of American. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the closest that the world has ever came to the nuclear war (Boyd). On October 15, 1962, a U-2 found the missiles in Cuba (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). On October 16, 1962, more photos were shown that proves Cuba has long ranging missiles from the Soviet Union. Robert Kennedy meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Gromyko explains to Robert Kennedy that the Soviet Union is helping Cuba in advancing their agriculture. Gromyko also explains to Robert Kennedy that the nuclear weapons are for protection (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). Since Cuba is closer than the Soviet Union to America, it makes more sense for the Soviet Union to keep their nuclear weapons in Cuba. If the Soviet Union had missiles that could launch from the Soviet Union to America, why else would they have them in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Soviet Union put their nuclear weapon into Cuba. America’s weapons were strong enough to launch from America into the Soviet Union from America. Therefore, America was farther ahead in the arms race than the Soviet Union (Boyd). In the Excomm meeting on October 19, 1962, they member suggest to send ships from the United States to Cuba to stop the Soviet Union (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). They called this act a quarantine instead of a blockade. Since a blockade in used as a war tactic, the Excomm members did not want to call the quarantine a blockade to give people the wrong idea. A simple mistake, like that, could have been enough to start another war (“Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline”). In this Excomm meeting President John F. Kennedy was not able to attend. When President John F. Kennedy finds out what the Excomm suggest, he heads back to Washington to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis (“Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missile crisis was a 13 day standoff between the United states and Soviet Union in October 1962 regarding nuclear missiles placed by the Soviet Union in Cuba, only 90 miles away from the United States. (History.com) United States also had nuclear weapons placed in Turkey (Willis).This was a very on edge time for Americans and fear was deeply implanted in many people's minds. The United states needed a leader and that is exactly what Kennedy gave them. Considering the fate of American rested in Kennedy’s hands, ultimate disaster was avoided. Kennedy made the agreement not to invade Cuba for the removal of the missiles and agreed the the United States to remove their missiles from Turkey (Holland).

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. The crisis was a major confrontation between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The confrontation was caused by the Soviets putting missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States of America. The world was in the hands of President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khruchchev. These two men would have to reach a compromise or else the results would be fatal.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day crisis that occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union. This crisis occurred on October 14, 1962 and ended on October 28, 1962. The crisis involved the placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union and the caused concern for the United States due to the closeness of Cuba. This placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba was due to the failed Bay of Pigs fiasco and Cuba’s need for protection against the United States invading in the future. The Bay of Pigs was a failed mission of the United States that happened in April of 1961. The United States wanted to overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro, but was ultimately defeated within just three days. Due to this failure, Cuba contacted the Soviet Union to get them to place nuclear missiles so that Cuba could defend their country from the United States. With this failure under John F. Kennedy’s presidency, he had to figure out a different way of forcing the dictatorship of Fidel Castro without strengthening him even more. Before they could plan another invasion into Cuba, a U-2 plane had flown close range to the Cuban border and had captured photographic evidence of nuclear missile facilities being built. According to Marfleet (2000), “Kennedy was privately belligerent—a condition sparked largely by anger at what he perceived to be Soviet attempts to deceive him” (p 547). While it was a small part of a bigger problem, it was the key defining event of the Cold War

Introduction: After the end of the Second World War, the United States of America took initiative against the Soviet Union by placing medium range ballistic missiles in the Soviet Union 's’ neighboring country, Turkey, in 1961. To counter this, the Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles of their own to Cuba, and once the United States of America discovered this, a standoff ensued called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although it appears that the Cuban Missile Crisis further separated the United States and the Soviet Union, the years after the crisis showed a growth in trust between the two nations through the process of negotiations, removal of offensive warheads, and multiple treaties.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening moment for the entire world. It started October 14th, 1962 after the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles inn Cuba. The U.S. found out that these missiles were being planted without their knowledge, but the Soviet Union continued the construction of these nuclear missile sites, even after President Kennedy, the president of the U.S., sent out a warning against these weapons in Cuba. Even after this warning, Kennedy once again found out that the construction was still happening. Following the discovery of the ongoing construction, Kennedy wanted to meet with people at the White House to solve the problem that they were encountering. There were multiple sides during their talk about the missiles. Some of the people at the meeting wanted to take a more aggressive approach and destroy these missiles and then follow up with an attack. Kennedy eventually decided to quarantine Cuba. After Kennedy quarantined Cuba, there were many messages sent between the White House and the Kremlin to try and solve the problem. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for thirteen extremely tense days. At the end of these thirteen days, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis greatly impacted history. It strengthened the bond between the United States and Soviet Union, showed people how to come to a