Cold War Flashcards
(3 cards)
Prior to 1960 and Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis
In the early 1950s America had a very close relationship with Cuba.
The island of Cuba is only 140km off the coast of Florida.
America bought Cuba’s main crop, sugar and American companies controlled Cuba’s industries
In 1959, Fidel Castro and a small group of communists overthrew the American backed government of Fulgencio Batista.
Castro nationalised the Cuban sugar plantations and took over American businesses.
In retaliation, America refused to buy Cuban sugar.
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took advantage of this and started to buy Cuban sugar.
The Soviets also started to provide Cuba with weapons
Course of The Cuban Missile Crisis
The CIA and President Kennedy supported an invasion of Cuba, by Cuban exiles living in the USA.
The 1,400 paramilitaries, trained by the Americans, landed in the Bay of Pigs on 17th April 1961.
The invasion was a complete disaster, it was easily defeated within three days.
The failed invasion made America look weak, increased Castro’s status as a hero to the Cuban people and drove Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.
Castro asked Khrushchev for more weapons, to help defend against another invasion.
America had stationed missiles in Turkey and Italy, which had worried the Soviets.
They offered to build missile bases on Cuba, that would be able to hit cities all over America.
In October 1962, an American U2 Spy plane photographed missiles being built in Cuba.
President Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba, which would prevent any ship arriving on the island, until the missiles were removed.
Soviet ships continued to sail for Cuba and the world seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war.
For thirteen days, the two superpowers were in a tense stand-off, where neither side was willing to compromise.
Eventually, an agreement was struck, where Kennedy
publicly announced that he would not invade Cuba.
Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove the US missiles stationed in Turkey.
Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missiles and remove them from Cuba and the Soviet ships sailed home
Consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Both superpowers took steps to avoid nuclear war in the future.
A telephone hotline was set up, between Washington and Moscow, to deal with potential crises as they arose.
A Nuclear Test Ban treaty was agreed between the superpowers and other countries.
This prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons on land, at sea and in space.
The Cuban communist government survived and the USA and Cuba viewed eachother
officially as enemies until 2014
