Confrontation between the superpowers

• Cuban Missile crisis - Oct 1962 (lasted 13 days)
• Why were tensions already developing to a high between the USA and Cuba from 1952 - 62?

  • America had shown little significant support for the Bastista regime during Castro's revolution
  • USA was willing to let it run its course
  • Nixon and Eisenhower agreed to not offer unconditional American support to dictators
  • Ordered an embargo on further arms shipments to Batista
• Why were tensions already developing to a high between the USA and Cuba from 1959 - 62?

  • May 1959, Castro introduced a programme a agarian reform, led to considerable amounts of American owned property being seized by the state
  • First shipment of crude oil from the USSR arrived in Cuba in April 1960, when US owned oil companies refused to refine it. Castro nationalised it
• Why were tensions already developing to a high between the USA and Cuba from 1959 - 62?

  • America imposed economic sanctions on Cuba and replaced their imports of Cuban sugar by 95%
  • Castro seized $1 billion worth US assets of Cuba in Oct 1960
• How was the CMC resolved?

  • Meeting with Soviet ambassador, Dobrynin with Robert Kennedy was authorised to inform Dobrynin that president was willing to remove the US missiles in Turkey
  • Not immediately, Kennedy recognised the fairness of such a trade off but could not allow USA's NATO allies to view it as it as a concession to Soviet pressure
• How was the CMC resolved?

  • NATO was told explicity secret agreement had been reached
  • Diplomacy was a success. Sunday morning, 28th October Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles
  • For Castro it was a humiliating betrayal by Khrushchev
• How was the CMC resolved?

  • Refused to allow inspections of the missiles sites once they had been dismantled
  • Soviet ships removing the missiles revealed the contents of their cargoes to US inspectors
• What were the key consequences of the CMC for both powers, their leaders and for relations between the two? Why did it lead to a Detente (calming tensions) period?

  • USA using its superior military power to pressure the Soviets to withdraw the missiles. Perceived humiliation for the USSR
  • Perceived cold war defeat for the Soviet Union/constraint on Soviet freedom of action in the international arena
  • Treaty banning Nuclear weapons test. Treaty was a major contributory factor in the development of detente later in the decade