In 1961, the US tried to overthrow Cuba’s new communist government. Cuba asked the U.S.S.R for help so Nikita Khrushchev deployed missiles to Cuba. On the 16th of October, 1962, the US had an emergency meeting about what to do about the missiles and they decided to airstrike the missile sites in Cuba and invade Cuba. JFK decided that wasn’t the best plan and decided that the US would intercept all shipments to Cuba. Khrushchev considered this an act of war and wrote JFK a letter, “the violation of freedom to use international waters and international airspaces is an act of aggression which pushes man kind toward the abyss of world nuclear missile war.”
The US demanded that the U.S.S.R remove the missiles from CUba but they refused and said they were only there for defense. Even so, the US prepared itself for a possible invasion. On the 27th of October, a spy plane was shot down by a soviet missile and the same day a soviet submarine was hit by a small depth charge from a US navy vessel trying to sign it to come up but the soviets thought it was a sign that war had begun and they started to prepare to launch a nuclear torpedo. For this to happen, all 3 generals on board had to agree on what was going to happen and 2 generals agreed that the torpedo would be launched but the 3rd general, Vasili Arkhipov, said no and by saying that, he stopped a giant war from happening. The US set itself to DEF CON 2 which is when the armed forces are ready to deploy in less than 6 hours. In Washington DC, Robert Kennedy met with soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to negotiate the situation. They finally decided that if the US would remove their missiles from Turkey and Italy and promise to never invade Cuba than the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba under UN inspection. The next day at 9am, a message arrived to Cuba from the Soviets saying that they will remove the missiles. |
john f. kennedyThe President of the United States from 1961 till he was assassinated in 1963.
Nikita KhrushchevA Soviet statesmen who led the Soviet Union during the cold war.
Fidal castroThe Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959-1976 and President from 1976-2008
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missile range
Sources
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis