Cold War Crises - Cuban Missile Crisis

Causes - Castro revolution, takeover of Havana (when, war since)

January 1959, doing guerrilla warfare since 1956

Causes - Bay of Pigs incident (4)

17 April 1961, 1500 exiles, cancelled air support, defeat in 72 hours

Causes - American sphere of influence (2)

Cuba in American sphere, Monroe Doctrine (Euro powers don’t intervene in America)

Causes - Deterioration of Cuba-US relations (3)

US supported Batista, CIA mission to kill Castro, breaking economic relations

Causes - Building of Cuba-USSR relations (2)

USSR support Castro, buying Soviet oil

Soviet Motives (2)

Nuclear parity (Turkey, Italy), Nuclear base to threaten US with

Secret Soviet Cuban Accord

August 1962

U2 planes seeing some arms + JFK public warning to USSR

4 September 1962

U2 pictures of missiles (3 - day, missile type, response)

14 October, MRBMs and IRBMs, Some advisors pushing for airstrike on Cuba

Start of naval “quarantine” (3 - date, action, status)

22 October, letter to K, DEFCON 3

Soviet response (4 - date, responses, status)

24 October, seen as “aggression”, challenging blockade, brinkmanship, DEFCON 2

Unclear message from Khrushchev (2 - date, contents)

26 October, didn’t want nuclear war, would remove missiles if USA promised to never invade Cuba

U2 spy plane shot down by soviet missile

27 October

Second message from Khrushchev (2 - date, content)

27 October, demanding removal of missiles from Turkey

JFK response to 1st message (3 - date, contents)

27 October, proposed plan to remove Soviet missiles, US never to invade Cuba

Secret meeting between Rob Kennedy and Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin (2 - Date, content)

27 October, US to remove missiles from Turkey (secretly)

Khrushchev announcement (2 - Date, content)

28 October, Soviet missiles to be removed from Cuba

US “quarantine” lifted

20 November, 1962

Hotline Kremlin to White House established

1963

Impact - Long Peace (3)

More communication, mutually assured destruction, no more brinkmanship

Impact - Nuclear weapons (3)

April 1963 US missiles withdrawn from Turkey, 1963 Test ban treaty, USSR not equal to US

Impact - Spheres of Influence & Coexistence (2)

Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, US not allowed to invade Cuba

Impact - Detente developments (2)

1967 NATO commits to Detente, 1968 Non-proliferation treaty