The Cuban Missile Crisis

• The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred

  1962
• Cuban Missile Crisis


  The Soviet Union began to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, and the United States refused to allow this
• The Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles in Cuba


  The United States refused to allow this
• Resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  1. 13 tense days of secret negotiations

  2. Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles
• The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war during the Cold War
• Prior to the crisis

  • The United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro and the current government of Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion
  • The United States had installed several nuclear missile sites in Turkey and Italy with the range to strike Moscow
• The Soviet Union felt they needed missile sites that could strike at the United States


  The Cuban government wanted protection from the United States
• How the Cuban Missile Crisis began

  1. On October 14, 1962 an American U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba captured pictures of long range Soviet missiles in Cuba

  2. President Kennedy called a meeting with his main security advisors

  3. They considered a number of options from diplomacy to a full scale attack and invasion on Cuba

  4. The Joint Chiefs of Staff voted to invade

  5. Kennedy opted to set up a naval blockade
• Kennedy's announcement of the blockade

  1. He showed the world the missile bases and said the United States would be putting Cuba under "quarantine"

  2. He said any attack on the US from Cuba would be considered an act of war from the Soviet Union
• Negotiations to resolve the crisis

  1. The Soviet Union was secretly negotiating with the United States

  2. The Soviet Union would remove the missiles from Cuba as long as the United States agreed to never invade Cuba again

  3. In secret, the US also had to agree to remove their nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy
• The crisis was President Kennedy's greatest moment, as his leadership had come into question after the Bay of Pigs failure and the Berlin Wall
• Interesting facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Khrushchev thought Kennedy was weak and would back down
  • A Washington DC to Moscow hotline was established between the president and the leader of Soviet Union
  • Fidel Castro was not happy as he was left out of the negotiations
  • General Curtis LeMay called it the worst defeat in US history
  • Khrushchev wrote a personal letter to President Kennedy during the crisis asking that they come to an agreement to avoid war
• Gorbachev


  • Became leader of the USSR in 1985
  • Wished to end the Cold War and set up democratic governments
  • Wanted to improve living conditions in the USSR
  • Followed a policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform)
  • Closed down prison camps, released prisoners, granted freedom of religion, ended censorship
  • Tried to develop an open economy
  • Withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan
  • Said he would not use Soviet troops to protect unpopular Communist regimes
• The end of the Cold War

  1. During 1989 the people of Eastern Europe took advantage of this situation to overthrow their Communist masters and set up democratic governments

  2. On the night of 9 November 1989, the people of Berlin tore down the Berlin wall that divided their country

  3. The people of East Germany now demanded union with West Germany

  4. The Poles and Soviets feared a revived Germany but accepted unification when the Germans promised to accept the frontiers fixed in 1945

  5. On 2 October 1990, the two Germanies united and on 2 November they held their first free election since 1933!
• The Cold War was over