Notes
- American’s supported a corrupt regime under Fulgencio Batista until the Cuban revolution in 1959
- Fidel Castro took over
- Alligned with the Soviets
- The Bay of Pigs (Failed invasion of Cuba)
- 1962 Soviets begin to put Nuclear weapons into Cuba (Noticed by U2 spy planes)
The Crisis
- The US had 3 options:
- Diplomatic solution (negotiated settlement)
- A conventional attack (air attack followed by invasion)
- A naval blockade
- Robert Kennedy, attorney general, convinced Security Council to go with blockade
- Ships turn around at the quarantine
- 2 Letters sent from Krushchev to Kennedy
- Brinkmanship ensues (U.N. gets involved)
- Russians pull out of Cuba in exchange for a removal of missiles in Turkey at a later date
- Directly resulted in the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1962
- Hotline--> phone between US and Russia
Summary
Cuba was the place to party because of organized crime. When Cuba aligned with Russia under control of Fidel Castro and turned Cuba communist the mobs lost all their land and money. Bay of Pigs failed because JFK pulled out of air support. After the first missiles were placed in Cuba, the world went into crisis. After considering options JFK took the advice of his brother of setting up a naval blockade to stop more missiles coming in.
Quote
John F. Kennedy, speech in Berlin, 19638
"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked."
"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked."
subjunctive question
Would Russia have fired the missiles if the US had never detected them coming over?