Cuba

• Reasons for the Cuban Missile Crisis?

  • Castro takes control and sets up a communist government
  • Spy planes proved missiles had been placed in Cuba
  • These missiles could strike any major US city
  • The Soviets were testing new president JFK
  • The failure of the Bay of Pigs made America look bad
  • America refused to buy sugar from Cuba so Soviets bought it instead
• Results of the crisis?

  • France withdrew from NATO
  • A blockade was set up to stop missiles
  • Khrushchev was sacked
  • A hotline was set up between the white house and kremlin
  • China criticized the soviets for backing down
  • US missiles were removed from turkey
  • Nuclear war was avoided
  • Intensified the arms race
• Domestic pressures on Kennedy?

  • Many senators put pressure on him to win the space race
  • Kennedy had to ensure advantage in the arms race
  • The civil rights movement urged him to take action against racism
  • He needed to tackle unemployment during the economic crisis
  • He tried to lower taxes
  • Kennedy intervened against racism
• Khrushchev domestic pressures?

  • De-Stalinization
  • He criticised the purges and communist fear
  • Khrushchev took different roads to socialism
• The monroe doctrine declared that the United States would not allow European countries to interfere with independent governments in the Americas.