Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War by

Map showing the capability of short, medium and long range missiles based in Cuba

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 15:57:01 UTC

Americans were terrified that the small island of Cuba might have the power to launch nuclear weapons at nearly every state in the union. President Kennedy needed to do something to stop Cuba getting this power.

Front page of the New York Times 23rd October, 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 15:57:44 UTC

Front of the New York Times, 24th October, 1962

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Front page of the New York Times, 25th October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 15:59:30 UTC

New Yo

Front page of the New York Times, 26th October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:01:34 UTC

Thant was the Secretary General of the United nations, and acted as a mediator between Russians and America during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Front page of the New York Times, 27th October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:02:24 UTC

Front page of the New York Times, 28th October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:02:55 UTC

Front page of the New York Times, 29th October, 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:04:01 UTC

President Kennedy tells the American people about Soviet missiles in Cuba, 22nd October, 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:07:24 UTC

Historian writing in 2021

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:38:06 UTC

Kennedy demanded the removal of Soviet missiles to keep the support of the American public. Kennedy also felt he needed to recover from the Vienna Summit of 1961, where Khrushchev had got the better of him.

Kruschev and Kennedy at the Vienna Summit of 1961

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:40:18 UTC

Historian writing in 1997

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:41:46 UTC

In 1962 Castro agreed to the placing of 64 nuclear missiles on 9 bases in Cuba. In October, 43,000 Soviet servicemen arrived in Cuba, along with hundreds of tanks and anti-aircraft missiles to operate and defend the bases. The equipment was unloaded at night and the servicemen arrived on cruise ships dressed as holidaymakers.

Historian writing in 2014

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:45:26 UTC

The Americans thought that the Soviets were getting ready for war by putting missiles on Cuba. The Americans' spy photographs showed that dozens of missiles were pointed directly at major American cities. It was estimated that within a few minutes of them being fired, 80 million Americans would be dead.

Kennedy's address to the American people on the 22nd of October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 16:49:51 UTC

American citizens have become adjusted to living daily on the Bull's-eye of Soviet missiles located inside the U.S.S.R. or in submarines.

In that sense, missiles in Cuba add to an already clear and present danger.

But this secret, swift, and extraordinary build up of Communist missiles is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country.

Your task

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 17:04:51 UTC

Answer the question

Explain the reasons why the USA became involved in a crisis over Cuba in 1962

You will need to mention at least three points.

Write your answer in your jotter.

Use the ABC(D) method of organising your answer.

Answer. Because. Comment. Develop

The USA became involved in a crisis over Cuba because Kennedy needed to show that he could stand up to the Soviets. He needed to stand up to Kruschev after performing poorly in Vienna.

How to write Explain answers

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 17:05:37 UTC

Cover of the Daily Sketch on the 16th October, 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 17:12:34 UTC

Cuban anti-aircraft guns, 27th October 1962

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Soviet FKR missile deployed in Cuba

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U.S.-backed Cuban exiles captured during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba, 1961.

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 17:17:53 UTC

Running the Blockade, 23rd October 1962

ddacain734 — 2024-03-24 17:21:04 UTC

The most iconic quote from the Cuban Missile Crisis appeared in a Saturday Evening Post retrospective weeks afterwards, describing a confrontation at the blockade line between U.S. warships and missile-carrying Soviet freighters in which the Soviet ships backed off. The article quoted Secretary of State Dean Rusk saying, on October 24, “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.”

In fact, the confrontation never happened. Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight, put together Soviet shipping records and U.S. intelligence reports, along with U.S. Navy charts obtained by the National Security Archive, to prove that the Soviet ships supposedly involved actually had turned around the day before (October 23) and were 500 miles away at the time of the Rusk quotation.