Cuban Missile Crisis

what happened 14th Oct 1962

a U-2 spy plane flight produced images that were evidence of a R-12 missile site at San Cristobal

when were the missiles in Cuba spotted

14 October 1962

when was JFK made aware of the missiles

16th Oct

what happened 16th Oct

Kennedy made aware of missiles & assembled ExComm

who were the members of ExComm

the president, secretary of state, defence secretary, attorney general

ExComm consisted of ‘hawks’ who called for … and ‘doves’ who favoured a diplomatic solution.

US military action

ExComm consisted of ‘hawks’ who called for US military action and ‘doves’ who….

favoured a diplomatic solution

why was the USA in a difficult position concerning the missiles?

The USA could do nothing that might risk splitting the NATO alliance by appearing to ignore the interests of Europe in favour of a purely American policy.

why were the US unable to conduct a air strike against the missiles

There were too many missiles to guarantee the destruction of them all before any Soviet retaliation against the USA

what was Kennedy’s response to the missiles

Kennedy opted for a naval blockade

why was the naval blockade called a quarantine

a blockade would have constituted an act of war, so the US referred to it as a quarantine

who proposed the blockade

 McNamara on the 20th October

what was the purpose of the quarantine

stem the flow of missiles entering Cuba.

apart from the blockade how else did the USA respond

US bases were also put on maximum alert in preparation for a possible military strike against Cuba

what was the problem with brinkmanship

Brinkmanship was a high-risk strategy in international relations and could only be successful if both sides recognised that any form of military confrontation in a nuclear age would be undesirable

why were the Jupiter missiles a good bargaining chip

The Jupiter missiles posed the same threat to the USSR as nuclear weapons in Cuba posed to the USA

what were the Jupiter missiles

US missiles in Turkey

what happened on the 26th oct

Khrushchev sent a telegraph to Kennedy, he proposed that if the USA made a non-invasion pledge, then the USSR would remove its military presence in Cuba.

how did Castro make finding a peaceful resolution hard

he ordered Cuban anti-aircraft forces to start firing on low-level reconnaissance planes

what did Khrushchev do on the 27th oct

sent another telegram attempting to redefine the conditions under which the USSR would consider removing missiles from Cuba.

ExComm opposed the decision to …

remove missiles from Turkey,

how did Kennedy resolve the situation

chose to only respond to Khrushchev’s second letter. Kennedy arranged a meeting with the Soviet Ambassador, Robert Kennedy informed him that the president was willing to remove the Turkey missiles, this meeting and the agreements made were kept private to the public. Kennedy could not allow the USAs NATO allies to view it as a concession to Soviet pressure.

what happened on the 28th oct

hrushchev agreed to remove the missiles.

how did Castro feel about the crisis

Casto felt that this was a humiliating betrayal and resisted the US-Soviet agreement.