Cuban Missile Crisis and Detente

Unit 4: Section 3

JFK

President of USA during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Bay of Pigs

Failed CIA-backed military invasion of Cuba in April 1961, aiming to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba

Domino Theory

Belief that if one country became communist, nearby countries would also become communist

Cuban Missile Crisis

Confrontation between the USA and USSR over Soviet missiles in Cuba; brought the world close to nuclear war

Detente

Period of reduced tensions and improved relations between the USA and USSR during the 1970s

SALT I

Agreement between the USA and USSR limiting nuclear weapons (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)

Limiting ICBMs (Intercontinential Balistic Missiles)

Helsinki Accords

Recognized Post-WW2 borders, particularly of the Soviet Union and supported human rights

Leonid Brezhnev

Leader of USSR during detente

He was very involved in detente

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba after 1959

Richard Nixon

US president who improved relations with the USSR and China

He was very involved in detente

Ostpolitik

A policy by West Germany to improve relations with East Germany and Eastern Europe

Willy Brandt

Leader of West Germany pushing for Ostpolitik

SALT II

It limited MRVs and banned mobile ICBMs, it is not ratified in US