Cuban Missile Crisis

  • After America invaded Cuba, it was shown that the USA wanted to replace Castro with a governmnt that benefitted the USA more
  • Castro's Cuba could not defend against America for much longer, unless it had the support of another communist country


Here is the timeline of the events building up to the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • 7 February 1962: USA officially banned all trading with Cuba, as it was concerned that Castro's Cuba was profitting from exporting/selling to the USA
  • April 1962: America's nuclear weapons were put in Turkey
  • July 1962: First, Castro was advised by the Soviets to possess nuclear weapons within Cuba to prevent a planned second American invasion. Military training of the US soldiers in the Caribbean began to train troops for the second invasion
  • September 1962: The first nuclear missiles secretly arrive in Cuba, with American reports about the missiles appearing
  • 15 October 1962: American U2 spy planes take photographs of missile launchers noticed in Cuba, and inform Kennedy, the US President


Reasons of Cuba's possession of nuclear missiles

  • Political Reasons
    • People in the USSR wanted Khrushchev to be more aggressive against America
    • Khruschev needed to prove that he was strong and could stand up to the USA
    • Missiles were sent to protect a communist ally, Cuba, and act as a deterrent
  • Military Reasons
    • USA had recently put missiles in Turkey which was next to the USSR
    • Placing missiles in Cuba, the closest base to America (only 90 miels away) would lessen the USA's military advantage


Kennedy's Options
  • After the presence of nuclear weapons in Cuba was confirmed, Kennedy had many options
  • Here are the options that he could take on a range of how aggressive it was, with option 1 being the most defensive and option 6 being the most offensive


  1. Taking no action
  2. Diplomatically negotiating with the USSR and Cuba to remove missiles
  3. Warning Castro to remove the missiles or bear consequences
  4. Using ships to cut off supplies to Cuba and prevent missiles from further entering Cuba (naval blockade)
  5. Destroying the Cuban military base through air strikes
  6. Invading Cuba with soldiers on ground to remove the missiles and maybe even Castro


The risk of nuclear war

There were several events that followed which was extremely close to starting a nuclear war.

  • October 22: Kennedy publicly announced Cuba's possession of the missiles and put a ring of ships to "quarantine Cuba" by launching a naval blockade and preventing more missiles from entering. Kennedy also declared that if a missile was launched from Cuba, it would be viewed as an attack by the USSR
  • October 23: Kennedy planned for the air force and 125,000 soldiers to attack Cuba
  • October 25: Kennedy issued DEFCON 2, a readiness of combat forces to be launchedd in the following hours. This was the alert level right below nuclear war
  • October 26: Khruschev wanted to prevent the nuclear war that seemed to be coming, and offered to remove the missiles if the USA did not invade Cuba
  • October 27: A U2 spy plane was shot right over Cuba, and this was seen as a form of aggression, with many politicians urging Kennedy to launch the air strike. The world was on the brink of nuclear war
  • October 28: Khruschev announced that he would remove the missiles and trusted that USA would not invade Cuba. The issue had been peacefully settled


War was avoided on the agreement for the Soviets to withdraw their missiles on the condition that the USA did not invade Cuba. A separate deal being secret for 25 years also agreed that USA removed their missiles from Turkey



Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Americans were proud as the leader of Russia had finally backed down for the first time in 20 years after Kennedy confronted Khruschev
  • Cuba was not yet a communist state before the crisis, even though Castro had declared himself to be Marxist. After the crisis, Cuba was heavily dependent on the USSR like the other Eastern-European communist states
  • The US military were not satisfied with just the removal of the missiles and thought Kennedy let Cuba and the USSR off too easy
  • Khruschev's withdrawal of missiles was slightly humiliating
  • However, US and USSR relations had improved as Khruschev backed down while trusting the US and also did not fail to guarantee that Cuba was not invaded


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