Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 1962 Lecture # 6 Objective~ Understand how the world dodged a nuclear war
Brinkmanship “Superpowers willingness to go to nuclear war”
Cuba led by communist dictator Fidel Castro (1959) *Helped from the U.S.S.R *Denounced US as evil capitalist empire
USSR- led by Krushchev 1962-secretly began to build 42 missile sites in Cuba *Cuba is only 90 miles from the US
United States Response John F. Kennedy attempted to bring down the communist regime Bay of Pigs Invasion U.S. Imposed a Trade Embargo Still in Effect Today
Kennedy demanded Soviets to take nukes out of Cuba *Ready to go to war (Nuclear) Soviets took down nukes “Kennedy & Khruschev both knew that once blood was spilled, it would be very hard to keep any crisis under control”
Aftermath Castro completely dependent on the USSR 1991 USSR collapses=problems for Cuba
Vocabulary~ Due Domino Theory Mao Zedong Great Leap Forward Cuban missile crisis Fidel Castro Ho Chi Minh 38th parallel Nikita Khrushchev