The Cuban Missile crisis was an event that put the whole world on tenterhooks as two of the World's super powers got engaged in a cold war, which almost led to a nuclear war. The conflict began with U.S' discovery of offensive weapons in Cuba. The whole world watched with bated breath as the two leaders Nikita Khrushchev and John F Kennedy tried to get the better of each other. Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba supported the Soviet Union and encouraged Khrushchev to launch an attack on the U.S. The Cubans called it the "October Crisis", the Soviet Union called it the "Caribbean Crisis" and the U.S called it the "Cuban Missile Crisis".
[...] The Soviets were building six sites for the R-12 missiles and three sites for R-14 missiles totaling nine sites. Discovery The arrival of these missiles in Cuba was noticed by the Cuban populace. Of all the reports received by the U.S Intelligence, only five reports bothered them. These reports described huge trucks laden with some large canvas covered cylindrical object that had to be taken through town only by backing up the trucks and maneuvering them. Defensive missiles did not need any of these. [...]
[...] The U.S Ambassador Adlai Stevenson suggested that the U.S must be willing to withdraw its missiles from Turkey and Italy if the Soviets agreed to withdraw their weapons from Cuba. Additionally, he said that the U.S must be willing to surrender its naval base at Guantanamo Bay. October 21st The President met the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense, a few air force officers and the Attorney General. Since the President understood that a perfect military air strike was impossible, he decided on the naval blockade of Cuba, also called “quarantine”. [...]
[...] Fear of a Cuban invasion and its subsequent loss Soviet Insecurity The U.S president Kennedy had repeatedly said that U.S had lesser number of missiles in comparison to the Soviet Union despite the Pentagon assuring him otherwise. So Khrushchev wanted to test the President and he built a wall around West Berlin in 1961. Khrushchev already knew that the U.S had more missiles than the USSR and that they were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. Khrushchev had a feeling that his enemies were getting the better of him. [...]
[...] The build-up The Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceives the idea of placing their intermediate range nuclear missiles in Cuba in May This was a reaction to the placement of Jupiter IRBMs and Thor IRBMs in Turkey and Italy by the United States. The Soviets called this operation the “Maskirovka” and continued operations under cover while explicitly denying it. All the planning, preparation and deployment happened with utmost secrecy. A group of Soviet military and missile construction experts reached Cuba by accompanying an agricultural delegation to Havana in 1962. [...]
[...] Khrushchev seemed to have lost face as the removal of the Jupiter and Thor missiles were part of a secret agreement and were not made public. The perception was and is that Kennedy won the battle with Khrushchev. This crisis paved the way for the Hotline Agreement, which created the Moscow-Washington hot line, which allowed direct communication between Washington D.C and Moscow. Conclusion The Cuban missile crisis was one of the most stressful events in history. The whole world would have been in a nuclear war had the crisis not been averted. Both [...]
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