Cuban Missile Crisis
- This was the thirteen day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other in October 1962, during the Cold War.
- It started with the unsuccessful attempts of the US to overthrow Cuba. From then on, the Cubans and Soviets started building medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba with the ability to strike America.
- An effect from this was America starting to build their own nuclear medium range ballistics. From then on it was an arms race to see who could build more dangerous and a larger amount of nuclear weapons.
- Then, the United States militaristically blockaded Cuba, not allowing any weapons to be sent there. Also, the demanded that the Soviets stop building the missiles in Cuba. The Soviets responded saying that the US’s blockade acted as an act of aggression “propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war.”
- Finally, President John F. Kennedy and the United Nations Secretary – General U Thant made a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. This was the resolution that ended the Cold War: Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement to never invade Cuba. Secretly, the US agreed to dismantle all American made missiles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
- This website contains information that goes into the specifics of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This includes the earlier actions of the United States, the balance of power between the Soviets and America, the Soviet deployment of missiles in Cuba, Cuba's positioning, missiles reported, operational plans, the Blockade or "Quarantine," secret negotiations, and the end of the crisis.
- This summarizes the 13 day conflict and the events of it. It focuses on actions of American president John F Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
- This website is an overview and summary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.