Cuban Missile Crisis

List causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Nuclear imbalance

• US missiles in Europe

• Cuban security

• Khrushchev’s prestige aims

Describe nuclear imbalance

• By 1962, the US had over 3,000 nuclear warheads,

  • compared to the USSR’s ~300.

• Placing missiles in Cuba promised to achieve rapid strategic parity.

Describe US missiles in Europe

• Deployment of Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Italy (1961–62) heightened Soviet insecurity

• gave Khrushchev justification for countermeasures.

Describe Cuban security

• After the Bay of Pigs invasion (Apr 1961) and Operation Mongoose (1961–62),

• Castro sought Soviet missiles to guarantee regime survival.

Describe Khruschev’s prestige aims

• Installing missiles in Cuba would strengthen his hand over Berlin

• demonstrate Soviet ideological reach into the Western Hemisphere.

Evaluate causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The crisis stemmed from both geopolitical insecurity (USSR parity, Cuban survival) and superpower prestige politics, with Berlin and the global balance at stake.

List course of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• discovery

• Kennedy’s response

• Escalation

• Black Saturday

• Resolution

Describe Discovery

Discovery (14 Oct 1962):

• U-2 flights revealed Soviet MRBMs under construction in Cuba.

Describe Kennedy’s response

• Convened EXCOMM (16 Oct);

• rejected immediate airstrikes,

• opting for a naval “quarantine.”

Describe escalation

• On 24 Oct, the US Navy enforced the blockade;

• some Soviet ships turned back, others pressed on,

• creating tense standoffs.

Describe Black Saturday

“Black Saturday” (27 Oct):

• A U-2 was shot down over Cuba (killing Major Rudolf Anderson),

• while another strayed over the USSR,

• heightening risk of miscalculation.

Describe resolution

Resolution (28 Oct):

• Khrushchev agreed to withdraw missiles in exchange for a US non-invasion pledge,

• plus a secret deal to remove Jupiters from Turkey and Italy.

Evaluate the course of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The course showed both the peril of brinkmanship and the value of back-channel diplomacy in averting catastrophe.

List impact and significance of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• risk and restraint

• political outcomes

• Cuba’s role

• arms race consequences

Describe risk and restraint

• The crisis was the closest the world came to nuclear war,

• but it spurred safeguards:

  • the Moscow–Washington hotline (1963)

  • the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963).

Describe political outcomes

• Khrushchev’s standing weakened at home;

  • he was removed in 1964, partly for mishandling the crisis.

• Kennedy emerged with enhanced credibility in the US and abroad.

Describe Cuba’s role

• Cuba remained a permanent Soviet ally,

• later exporting revolution with Soviet support (e.g. Angola, Ethiopia in the 1970s).

Describe arms race consequences

• Both superpowers accelerated the development of ICBMs and SLBMs

  • to avoid future vulnerability.

• By the late 1970s, each side held 20,000+ warheads,

  • embedding long-term nuclear overkill.

Evaluate the impact and significance of the Cuban Missile Crisis 

The crisis marked a turning point: it demonstrated the dangers of nuclear confrontation, encouraged short-term restraint, but also intensified the arms race, embedding Cold War rivalry at even higher stakes.