Cuban missile crisis II

• What were the causes of the Cuban missile crisis?

  •September 1962: Khrushchev started installing ballistic missiles in Cuba because of the missile bases in Italy and Turkey

  • 14 October: U2 spy plane saw the installation, by November IRBMs would be ready to launch and hit US cities
• What did having Soviet nukes in Cuba mean?

  Mutually assured destruction is not there (reduces reaction time for US from 15 to 5 minutes)
• What does the USA decide to do about the missiles in Cuba?


  They blockade the Soviet container ships
• What happened on 22 October 1962?


  Kennedys speech addressing the nation on the missile crisis
• What happened on 23 October 1962?


  It’s announced to the whole world of the blockade and that all container ships will be stopped and checked
• What happened on 24 October 1962?


  • 18 Soviet ships try to run the blockade, they ended up turning back

  • Kennedy tells Khrushchev that the nukes must be removed otherwise US will invade Cuba
• What happened on 26 October 1962?


  Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy saying he will get rid of the nukes if he publicly announces that they will not invade Cuba (they think that the person who wrote it was sleep deprived)
• What happened on 27 October 1962?


  •Khrushchev sent second letter saying that Soviet will only remove nukes if the US remove their nukes from Turkey (the CIA suspected that Khrushchev had been overthrown)

  • U2 plane was shot down by Cubans
• What happened on 28 October 1962?


  Kennedy accepts the first letter; they told a KGB spy in Washington that they will quietly remove nukes from Turkey
• Consequences of the Cuban missile crisis

  • Khrushchev was criticised by Mao Zedong (China’s leader), and many thought he had failed: led to his removal in 1964

  • The hotline

  • Treaties
• What was the hotline?


  A telephone link created between the White House and the Kremlin in Moscow: they wanted clearer communication after they had almost gone to war
• What were the treaties?

  • limited test ban treaty (August 1963): USA and Soviet union agreed to stop testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere

  • outer space treaty (1968): USA Soviet Union and other countries agreed to use space for peaceful purposes, no nuclear weapons were to be in orbit

  • Nuclear non-proliferation treaty (1968): China, France, USA and Soviet Union agreed not to develop nuclear weapons

  • Strategic arms limitation talks