The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in 1963 in a setting that was the high point of tension in the Cold War. The most significant background cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the underlying cold war ideology of capitalism vs communism. This was dramatically increased by the second key cause, a series of events that quickly built tensions between the super powers from 1959 such as the U2 incident, JFK’s response to the Berlin Wall, and the Bay of Pigs incident. The third cause was the relationship between the leaders Khrushchev and Kennedy. It can be argued that the short-term consequences of the Crisis were concentrated geographically on the people of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during and immediately after the event. …show more content…
They divided it into 4 sections, one each for France, the UK, the USA and Russia. Berlin the capital of Germany and most important city was in the Russian sector, however all 4 countries wanted it, and so Berlin was split up in the same manner as the rest of Germany. Russia was given the largest sector because they had suffered the most during the war. It was also at Yalta that Russia declared war on Japan and the idea of a United Nation Organisation to help keep world peace was first introduced. Another example of the first cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain was the border between the East and West and acted as a buffer zone for Russia, protecting her against attack from the West. Churchill first coined the phrase in March 1946 when he was speaking at Fulton, Missouri. “From…the Baltic to…the Adriatic, and Iron Curtain has descended across the continent”. Churchill believed that Russia was attempting world domination by slowly expanding her borders. That Stalin was going to destroy democracy by spreading Communism, a communist government had already been set up in Poland. These actions were seen as a sign of aggression by the West, further creating a gap between the East and the West. A further example of the difference between the East and West ideologies was the Berlin Blockade. The Blockade began on June 24th 1948 when Russia closed all the roads, canals and railways from Berlin to West Germany after
World War III is an alarming event to ponder on right? Especially if that war would be nuclear. This event almost happened on multiple occasions, but this is going to be about a nerve-racking time in 1962. What happened in 1962 you may ask? The Cuban Missile Crisis. Just as the year was coming to an end an American spy plane took pictures of missiles in an island 103 miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba. Can theorize who put the missiles there? The USSR put them there because Cuba was a neighboring communist country to the US, so if the US were to do something the USSR could shoot the missiles. Mind you, these weapons are nuclear and as we should all know that is never excellent. After this very stressful time for the US and the USSR how did
“I know there is a God--and I see a storm coming; If he has a place for me, I believe I am ready,” is the Abraham Lincoln quote, written on a slip of paper, that President John F. Kennedy kept in his pocket (Dobbs 14). And if ever there was a storm coming, it was evident to Kennedy the morning of October 16, 1962: the date Kennedy was made aware of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This was the testing ground, the closest the world has ever been to nuclear war, the Cuban Missile Crisis, 16-28 October, 1962. The future for millions of lives depended upon the ability of United States President John F. Kennedy and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev to reach an agreement in which both did not lose face, and more importantly, the world survived.
Identification and Evaluation of Sources “How real was the threat of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis?” That is to say would either country actually have turned the key and pushed the button, sinking the world into nuclear warfare or was the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction too great to have allowed for such catastrophe to occur? All of the sources used were found on the internet but were all found from highly reputable sources. One online source came from the Library of Congress’s website.
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 Cuban Missile Crisis was a product of a series of factors: American Paranoia, the Cuban want for freedom from America, and the USSR’s intentions.
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 began in October of 1962. During a dismaying 13 day standoff, people were on the tip of their toes not knowing if they would see their children again as they dropped them off for school. They wandered when they laid down at night to go to sleep, if they would wake up to see another day. They did not know if they would wake to see a country obliterated by an atomic bomb. As the United States was on the brink of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union and Cuba, nobody was certain what laid around the corner, in five minutes the world could be devastated and millions of people could be dead.
Explanation: Like what it is said. North Korea can and will be a threat, and we need to keep a close watch on them before it is too late. Everybody needs to be ready. Kim Jong Un looks like an innocent man but behind closed doors, that is where he is most dangerous. He can be planning and preparing an attack that nobody even know.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, a standoff between the Soviet Union and U.S. Could have possibly lead to an outbreak of a nuclear war. The dangerous outcome of the Cold War, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, took things into his own hands. The events during the crisis left Americans scared. How Kennedy accomplished everything may have been the best way to prevent an all out World War III.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a harsh time during the Cold War. About 50 years ago the USA and the USSR were at each others throat for a very pointless reason. This basically started because USSR planted nuclear bombs in Cuba which was pretty close to Florida. John F. Kennedy was the president at this time and he was not to fond of that idea. October 1962, JFK was warned that the USSR had the nuclear weapons set up in Cuba ready to attack and as a result of this situation, Kennedy then also placed nuclear bombs in Cuba. The USSR found out about Kennedy’s plans and this was the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Both the United States and the USSR were at each others throat, and if they were to continue the stalemate any longer, they would have started a nuclear war. According to the treaty between the US and the USSR, it basically states that although many people believe that the US did not have the right to do what they did, they actually had every right to do it. There are two main reasons why the US had the right to do this and it is because the treaty between the US and the USSR states that the US was able to and had the right to intervene and because the US did not sign the peace treaty that USSR offered them so they were able to attack.
Following the events of World War II, in 1945 the United States and the Soviet Union entered a state of tension due to disagreements between the two countries during the war. With the United States being a capitalist nation and the Soviet Union being a communist nation, friction easily escalated into The Cold War which resulted in intense competition for many years after. The United States greatly feared the spread of communism beginning with the first Red Scare during World War I and adopted the containment policy after the second Red Scare to prevent further spread of communism. Tensions peaked at an all-time high during John F. Kennedy’s presidency, (1961-1963) along with the Soviet leadership of Nikita Khrushchev and the Nuclear Arms
The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban missile crisis was the most dangerous of the Cold War, but
In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis in American history one must first understand the Cold War drama, Castro’s rise to power, and the American operations that set up the crisis. “The term Cold War refers
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
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.