1. The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cold War almost goes hot

2. Cold War Strategies Deterrence Proxy Wars Espionage The Space Race
Brinkmanship
Balance
Of Power
Defense Systems
Propaganda
Arms Race
Prestige
Race

3. Deterrence
Espionage
Cold War
Strategies
Brinkmanship
Balance
Of Power

4. Cuba & the USA
After World War II, USA and Cuba were close trading partners
Cuba exported sugar to USA. This was the basis of their entire economy

5. Castro
In the late 1950’s a group of revolutionaries lead by Fidel Castro take over Cuba from the dictator Batista
Castro’s new government began to nationalize many foreign-owned businesses, many of them American
Americans pull out of Cuba and boycott Cuban sugar
Castro now had to find a new market for Cuban exports, or else the economy would collapse

6. Castro and Khrushchev The Soviet Union offered to buy Cuban sugar
Offered to help Castro and Cuba defend itself from further ‘American Imperialism’
The USSR began selling weapons to Castro and equipping his army
However, it wasn’t just conventional (non-nuclear) weapons that ended up in Cuba…

7. Bay of Pigs
In 1961 the USA tried to help anti-Castro Cuban rebels invade and overthrow Castro
The attempted invasion was a complete disaster, with Castro’s army killing or capturing all of the rebels within three days
Embarrassed Kennedy and the USA on the world stage, made Castro even more worried about US intervention in Cuba

8. The Crisis starts
In mid October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane took photographs of nuclear missile sites and bomber bases in Cuba
Everyone quickly realized these missiles had the range to hit every major American city except Seattle, and could do it in about 5 minutes
How would that affect the ideas of deterrence and balance of power?

9. You’re President Kennedy: What do you do?
Nothing
Try Diplomacy
Warn off Castro
Blockade Cuba
Air Strikes
Invade Cuba

10. Brinkmanship
The American blockade and the Soviet near-attempt to run it was the height of the tactic called brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the tactic of pushing the other side to the very edge or brink of war
In a lot of playgrounds and school grounds, this same idea goes by another name: The Game of ‘Chicken’

11. Back from the Brink In playground terms, the Soviet’s ‘blinked’ first.
Russian ships stopped and didn’t run the blockade
Kennedy and Khrushchev made a deal
The USA promised never to invade Cuba, or help others do the same
The USSR would remove all nuclear weapons from Cuba
The USA would remove their nuclear weapons from Turkey and Italy