1. Cuban Missile Crisis 14th-28th October 1962
US spy planes detect missiles sites
In Cuba. (hard evidence)
Khrushchev announces over Radio Moscow that he has agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba.
Title of 2 videos:
-World Revolution for students: Castro and the Cuban Revolution
-ABC News Classroom edition: The Cold War escalates
(Time line of Cuban Missile Crisis)

2. Players involved John F. Kennedy President USA Fidel Castro
Nikita Khrushchev
Premier of USSR
Fidel Castro
President of Cuba

3. What were the national interests of the following countries in the late 1950s-1960s?
-Cuba
-USA
-USSR

4. Who was making use of whom?
-USA making use of Cuba?
-USSR making use of Cuba?
-Cuba making use of USSR?

5. Therefore, who was to blame for the Cuban Missile Crisis?
-America? Over-reacted to presence of a leftist regime in Cuba, threatened Cuba’s security by threatening invasion, which pushed her into USSR’s arms, thus leading to an escalation of tensions?
-USSR? Took advantage of the situation in Cuba to gain a foothold in an area that was crucial to America’s security. This act led to the escalation of tensions and changed the nature of the dispute, from between two neighbouring countries into a high-stakes dispute between two superpowers?
-Cuba? Paranoid about American invasion, and subsequently manipulated super-power politics to forestall American invasion and guarantee her security?

6. Concept: Brinkmanship
The policy of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of disaster (to the limits of safety) in order to win an advantage from a threatening or tenacious foe
Give one example of Brinkmanship that failed.
Which party had most to gain from the
Brinkmanship practiced in Cuba?