THE USA: FROM CRISIS TO WORLD DOMINATION

NIKITA KRUSHEV 1894-1971 FIDEL CASTRO Born 1926 John Fitzgerald KENNEDY 1917-1963

I) THE KOREAN WAR: 1950-1953.

see Appendix 1

II) THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: 1962.

A) Long term causes:

-America had become heavily involved in the island of Cuba. It supported the dictator Batista and had a naval base there. American businessmen owned much of the industry in Cuba and made huge profits.

- However, most Cubans lived in poverty. Batista's rule had degenerated into repression and gangsterism. In 1959 Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and set up what looked to the Americans like a communist regime. Relations between Cuba and America grew gradually worse. The Soviet Union was on friendly terms with Cuba, which worried the USA as Cuba is on America's doorstep.

B The Bay of Pigs:

-When Kennedy became President in 1961 there were already plans for Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. The invasion took place in April 1961. A total of 1,400 men landed at the Bay of Pigs.

- The whole affair was a disaster. The Cuban people did not support them and they were easily defeated. Everyone knew America and the C.I.A were behind the invasion and it pushed Castro even more into the arms of Russia.

- These events show how relations between Cuba and America had deteriorated since Castro had come to power.

C) Short-term causes: Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

-Short-term causes sparked off the crisis. Feeling more threatened than ever by America, Castro turned to Russia for support. Russia, meanwhile, was feeling threatened by US nuclear missiles in Europe and Turkey.

- Russia started to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 100 miles away from the US coast. The missiles were medium range, able to reach most of the major cities of the USA.( see maps) On 16 October 1962, two spy-planes brought back photographs of the missile bases in Cuba.

- Why did Russia put missiles in Cuba?

As something to bargain with, Russia could demand that America withdraw her missiles from Turkey, or demand that the Western powers withdraw from Berlin.

• Khrushev knew Russia was weaker than America and thought missiles on Cuba would even things up.

• To defend Cuba against America. ,

• To test the new President, Kennedy.

D) Main events of the Crisis : tense days.

On 16 October, President Kennedy was informed that a U2 plane had detected several missiles near Havana. His Executive Committee( Excomm) discussed various options: he could

Do nothing	This would make America look weak and the missiles could be used at any time by Russia
Use an air attack to destroy the bases	Russia might retaliate, and there was no guarantee all the bases would be destroyed.
Invade Cuba	This would get rid of Castro and the missiles, but might lead out to a nuclear war.
Blockade Cuba, stopping more missiles from arriving	Without using force, this would show that the USA would not tolerate the missiles, and would give Russia a way out of the crisis.

Kennedy decided on option 4. On 22 October 1962 he announced a naval blockade of Cuba and that all missiles in Cuba should be removed.

Now Krushchev had to decide what to do.

24 October	Russian ships approaching Cuba turned round, but work on the missile base continued.
26 October	Khrushev offered to destroy the bases if America promised it would not attack Cuba, and if the blockade was lifted.
27 October	Khrushev demanded that American missiles in Turkey be removed
27 October	Kennedy decided to accepted Khrushev’s first offer.
28 October	Khrushev agreed. Kennedy also secretly agreed to take American missiles out of Turkey some time in the future.

E_) Results of the crisis.

-The crisis brought the world close to nuclear war. This had positive consequences because it made Russia and America realise how easily such a war could begin.

- This led to the following measures:

• Both sides were now more ready to settle these differences by talking. The first evidence of this was when they set up a telephone hotline between them to make it easy for the two leaders to contact each other.

• In 1963 they signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which limited tests of nuclear weapons.

• Cuba remained a communist country on America's doorstep. However, the missiles had gone and Cuba was no longer a threat to the USA.

• President Kennedy's reputation was strengthened. He had shown he could stand up to the Russians.

• The results for Khrushev were mixed. He could claim that he had helped maintain peace, and that American missiles in Turkey would be removed. However, some people in Russia did not like the fact that he had caused the crisis and had then backed down. In 1964 he was sacked.

The Cuban Missile Crisis actually led to improved relations between Russia and America.