The Crisis

• 14 October 1962: An American spy plane took pictures showing that the Soviet Union was building missile launch sites in Cuba.

  • Missiles launched from these sites would be able to reach most US cities.
• The American intelligence agencies informed Kennedy that a fleet of Soviet ships were already headed towards Cuba, bringing further supplies and equipment to enable nuclear missiles to be fired at the USA.
• Why was Khrushchev doing this?

  NATO had military bases in Turkey, only a short distance from the Soviet Union - Khrushchev wanted the USA to understand how it feels to be under threat

  • His aim was also to have the missiles in Turkey removed.

  The Berlin wall was presented as a failure for Khrushchev by many soviet critics. If he could outwit Kennedy over Cuba it would help to restore his reputation

  Khrushchev may have feared another American attack. If the Americans overthrew Castro, it would be another defeat for communism.
• The Soviet Union could have fired nuclear missiles at the USA from their own territory and so placing missiles in Cuba did not make a huge deal of practical difference, but it made a huge political one.