Post on 15-Feb-2016
description
Kennedy’ Adminstration
The Cuban Missile
Crisis
The Cuban Missile
Crisis
Post World War II
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Becoming Communist
• In 1959 Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba and set up a communist government, supported by the Soviet Union.
Communist Cuba
• The US felt threatened to have a communist country so close.
• Cuba is 90 miles from Florida
Fidel Castro
• Castro put all private companies, including many US companies, under the control of the government.
• The US responded by cutting off diplomatic relations with Cuba
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Occurred in the summer of 1962• The Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in
Cuba.
US Response
• President Kennedy debated what to do about the missiles.
• The US could attack Cuba, but that would lead to war with the Soviet Union.
US Response
• Kennedy sent American Navy ships to quarantine (blockade) Cuba to prevent any more missiles from being delivered.
• Kennedy also told the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, to remove the missiles.
The world was on the brink of nuclear war
October, 1962
• The Soviets agreed to withdraw the Soviet missiles from Cuba
• The blockade had been successful!
• In return, the US agreed not to invade Cuba and to remove it’s missiles from Turkey (on the Soviet Union’s southern border)
The end of the Crisis
• The world had avoided a nuclear war, but the Cold War continued.