Cuban+Missile+Crisis

created by Ben Amisano and Colton Dorion =** Background **= In 1933, the corrupt administration of Fulgencio Batista came into power. He was not a true leader for Cuba though, through his time in office the US often bullied him into making decisions and doing actions that benefited the United States of America more than Cuba itself. Cuba's main export, sugar, was heavily controlled by the US, as well as most of their economy.

As one can imagine, the people of Cuba were not very happy with the government not having a backbone. Fidel Castro and his guerrilla force were quick to start a revolution to change the government, but the Americans obviously did not want this. The initial government was a left wing, marxist style but it soon began to evolve. The US launched an invasion called the Bay of Pigs, where the US trained and armed Cubans to try and stop Castro from coming to power. This turned out to be a big failure and an embarrassment towards the US but specifically the Kennedy administration.

The cubans began to rely less and less on the United States as industry was nationalized all around them. Previous american companies, big ones such as Woolworth's and Esso were forced out of the country in exchange for nationalized versions. Cuba and the US slowly grew apart during these years, and in July 1960 the US made the largest move yet, it stopped purchasing the Cuban’s sugar.

Due to the Americans non-involvement in the Cuban economy, they had to seek somebody else to buy all of there sugar. That is where the Soviets came in, they gladly bought their sugar and even gave Cuba a loan which started a strong relationship between them.

** The Crisis **
The US had stationed missiles in Turkey which made the Soviets fear the Americans power, so in 1962, the USSR made a bold move by deciding to deploy missiles to Cuba. The missiles that the Soviets possessed could only reach western Europe from their launch sites, so putting their arms on cuba made it sort of an even playing field between them.

On October 14 1962, a spy plane noticed that missile basis where being built in Cuba which were obviously funded and supported by the Soviets. This was quite evident since Cuba had neither the infrastructure nor intelligence to create such machines. It was soon discovered that these missiles were in fact of Russian origin. The US quickly sprang into action as Kennedy alerted the nation of the impending threat.

=The American Response= The United States had no plan in place because the they were convinced that the Soviets would never install nuclear missiles in Cuba. However once it was evident there was, they quickly discussed several possible courses of action, including:
 * 1) Do nothing: //American vulnerability to Soviet missiles was not new. Newly placed missiles in Cuba made little strategic difference in the military balance of power.//
 * 2) Diplomacy: //Use diplomatic pressure to get the Soviet Union to remove the missiles.//
 * 3) Warning: //Send a message to Castro to warn him of the grave danger he, and Cuba were in.//
 * 4) Blockade: //Use the US Navy to block any missiles from arriving in Cuba.//
 * 5) Air strike: //Use the US Air Force to attack all known missile sites.//
 * 6) Invasion: //Full force invasion of Cuba and overthrow of Castro.//

The response decided was to stop the Soviets ships from bringing missiles over the Atlantic, Kennedy set up a quarantine zone around Cuba blocking any ships from entering. Krushchev would not back down though, his fleet continued on and tensions grew to an all time high. The soviet ships did eventually turn around, but it was clear that an agreement between both sides would have to happen.

=The Resolution= Two letters were written by Soviet Leader Khurschev that proposed an end. In the first, he simply didn’t want an invasion of Cuba. Things got more serious in the second, as it was demanded that the missiles be removed from Turkey. Kennedy secretly agreed to withdraw his missiles from Turkey and south Italy but under one condition, Krushchev could not tell his people that Kennedy agreed to do this. Doing this made Krushchev look weak to his people and it wasn't long till he was gone. At the end of all the disputes, they set up a direct phone line between the Kremlin and the White House, helping avoid any communication delays like what happened with the letters between the two.

=Video on The Cuban Missile Crisis= media type="youtube" key="W50RNAbmy3M" width="408" height="308" align="center"

=Sources= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis http://www.history.com/topics/cuban-missile-crisis http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq90-1.htm History 12 Student Workbook - Cuban Missile Crisis Page 142, 144-149