The Cuban Missile Crisis

1
The Cuban Missile Crisis

• October 1962
• Read your book pg 271 - 279

2
Background to the events in Cuba

• Cuba, small island, 160 km from coast of Florida
• US ally, US businesses US military base
  (Guantanamo)
• 1959, Fidel Castro overthrows Battista (US-backed
  dictator), establishing Communist government.

Why was Cuba so important to the Americans?
3
US Cuban relations in the 60s

• Castro takes over US businesses
• January 1961, US breaks off diplomatic relations
• April, 1961, Bay of Pigs 1,400 anti-Cuban
  exiles attempted to overthrow Castro

The US committed 100 million to overthrowing
Castro, the CIA tried to sabotage the economy,
they even planned to send him an exploding cigar!
Why did they go to such lengths after April 1961?
4
Why was the USSR interested in helping Cuba?

• Cuba was a new Communist state
• Cuba was launch base for USSR inter-continental
  (ballistic) missiles (ICMs or ICBMs)
• Khrushchev wanted to test strength of new US
  president, JFK
• Khrushchev wanted to force JFK into bargaining
  over US missiles in Europe

Why does this cartoonist think that Khrushchev
was interested in Cuba?
5
13 dangerous days

• 14 October 1962, US U2 spy plane takes photos of
  suspected USSR missile sites on Cuba
• US spy planes identify 20 Soviet ships bound for
  Cuba carrying missiles the most dangerous 13
  days in History start (16 Oct, 1962 28th of
  October 1962)

6
What happened? (in short)

• In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union
  dispatched a fleet of commercial cargo ships
  filled with nuclear missiles, launchers and
  anti-aircraft guns--all under false
  manifests--across the Atlantic Ocean to Fidel
  Castro's Cuba.
• Forty thousand Soviet soldiers and technicians
  began clandestinely erecting an extensive array
  of armed missile sites, and aiming their
  nuclear-tipped medium range ballistic missiles at
  the United States.

7
What happened? (in short)

• Nikita Khruschev and his key military advisors
  thought that the missiles would remain unnoticed
  until November, and then he planned to suddenly
  reveal them to the United States as a fait
  accompli. They were nearly successful.
• But in mid-October, with the Soviet tankers still
  enroute, American U-2 spy planes and CIA photo
  analysts detected several Medium Range Ballistic
  Missiles (MRBMs) on Cuban soil, their sites still
  under construction.

8
What happened? (in short)

• In the weeks that followed, the US government
  decided to do all they could to ensure the
  removal of the missiles.
• Never before in history has the world come closer
  to a general nuclear war.
• Homework this week Read page 271 279.
• See page 275 278 for a day by day account of
  the crisis.

9
US Missiles in Turkey
10
USSR missiles in Cuba
11
Missile sites in Cuba in 60s
12
Movies 13 days The Fog of War
13
What was the outcome of the crisis?

• Cuba remained Communist heavily armed (without
  nuclear missiles)
• Both leaders didnt lose face and came away with
  concessions
• Helped renew the thaw (détente) world saw the
  futility of MAD
• Permanent hotline between White House Kremlin
  set up
• Supported theory of containment co-existence
  because alternatives unimaginable

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP7YkJxQT_0Y
• Original footage of Kennedy TV announcement

22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
MSN Messenger in History - The Cuban Missile
Crisis

• What if JFK and Khrushchev had negotiated via
  MSN Messenger? Thirteen Days becomes Four
  Minutes. And also, there are more laughs.
  www.thesomethingorothers.com
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vuUzOktgBBrg