Cuban Missile Crisis By George T.B. Hogan and Madelyn Martin The Confrontation ● October 1962; lasted 13 days ● America had observed Soviet nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba ○ ○ ○ U-2 spy plane photographed a missile being assembled Cuba was friendly to the Soviets, and Cuba relied on Soviet aid 90 miles from US shores; missiles could easily hit targets in the eastern United States ○ ○ The challenge was to find a solution without escalating the situation to nuclear war US put naval blockade around Cuba ○ This led to widespread feelings of impending doom, knowing that we were on the brink of annihilation ● Russians felt this made it even, since US had missiles in Easter EU and Turkey ● President Kennedy told the American people about it and stated the US was willing to utilize military force should the Soviets get jiggy with it ● Tensions reached a boiling point when a US recon plane was shot down over Cuba The Outcome ● ● ● ● ● ● The U.S. put Cuba under a naval quarantine or blockade on October 22, 1962 ○ This prevented future shipments of nuclear weapons to and from Cuba ○ Served as direct communication between the U.S. president and Soviet premier Tensions rose between the U.S. and the Soviet Union On October 28, Soviet premier Krushchev told Kennedy that he would stop work in the missile sites in Cuba, and all the missiles in Cuba would be sent back to the Soviet Union In return, Kennedy committed the U.S. to never invading Cuba, and promised to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey In the following weeks both countries fulfilled their promises to each other, and by late November the crisis was no longer existent. The Cuban missile crisis led these two powerful countries to realize the necessity of communication between the two, and so the Moscow-Washington hotline was created. What If… ● The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world had ever come to nuclear war ● If it had escalated to that point, devastation on a worldwide scale would have occured ● The US anticipated it might come to this point, and even had a 180,000strong invasion force readied in Florida ● One Soviet sub captain gave the go-ahead to fire upon a US warship with a nuclear weapon, but he was talked out of it ● “The most terrifying moment in my life was October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I did not know all the facts - we have learned only recently how close we were to war - but I knew enough to make me tremble.” - Joseph Rotblat Video Sources: ● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dI3oQqalwo ● https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis ● https://www.willbhurd.com/cuban-missilecrisis/#:~:text=This%20action%20would%20have%20turned,them%20to%20 prevent%20a%20catastrophe. ● https://www.azquotes.com/quote/252207?ref=cuban-missile-crisis ● https://www.britannica.com/event/Cuban-missile-crisis
