The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• The Cold War– USA (capitalism) vs the Soviet Union (communism)

• Cuba– Fidel Castro & Communism

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Nuclear weapons– ICBM – InterContinental Ballistic Missile

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• U2 – American spyplane, which is able to take pictures from the air.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Russian ICBMs on Cuba discovered by American spyplane.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Panic amongst Kennedy-administration, now possible for the Soviet Unioins to attack from Cuba.

• Assembled EXCOMM, which was a group of important people working around the President. What to do?

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Four options what to do:– Some of Kennedy’s generals and military officers

wanted to bomb Cuba. – Some called for an invasion of Cuba.– Some wanted a naval blockade.– Some wanted to use diplomatic pressure to get

the Soviet Union to remove the missiles.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Kennedy didn’t want to bomb or invade Cuba in fear of a full-out nuclear war.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Kennedy chose the option of quarantine, which is very close to a naval blockade.

• The difference lies in the fact that only weapons would be prevented from reaching Cuba, with a quarantine in effect.

• Announces this through a speech on TV.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• The world holds its breath…

• Secret negotiations between USA and the Soviet Union, where the Soviet Union refuses to admit that there are Russian ICBMs on Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Kennedy orders pilots of U2 to fly lower and take better pictures, so the evidence would be overwhelming, when taking the case to the UN.

The Cuban Misslie Crisis 1962

• The U.S. takes the case to the UN, where the Soviet Union still refuses to admit and says that USA is lying.

• Then the diplomat Adlai Stevenson shows the overwhelming evidence with the newly taken photographs.

• The world now believes the U.S., and world opinion is now in favour of the U.S.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• The Soviet Union and the U.S. now secretly negotiate again.

• The Soviet Union agrees to withdraw all ICBMs from Cuba.

• U.S. agrees to withdraw ICBMs from Turkey where they have had ICBMs for some time.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• The crisis is finally solved and considered to be a victory for the U.S.

• It is also seen as the finest moment of President Kennedy, who solved the crisis in a good way, avoiding a nuclear war

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• The closest ever the world has been to a nuclear war, the cold war almost got way too hot…