cuban missile crisis?

  • Thread starter Thread starter lovebaby
  • Start date Start date
L

lovebaby

Guest
why is the cuban missile crisis such a big event during the cold war?

can you guys give me a BRIEF summary of what it is so i can write my paper.. because i didn't really understand when i was reading it from wiki
 
Very briefly, the Cuban Missle Crisis arose when the USSR began installing nuclear missles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy refused to permit nukes so close to the United States, and blockaded Cuba to prevent any additional missles from being delivered. He also demanded that the installed missles be dismanteled and removed from Cuba. This caused a great deal of tension around the world as it played out. Eventually, the U.S. and USSR reached an agreement that the USSR would remove the missles in exchange for a promise that the U.S. would never invade Cuba while Fidel Castro was president.
 
why was it important it.........it was important because the u.s. came to the brink of annihilation and the brink of a nuclear war the world would have been destroyed
 
The U.S.S.R. decided to exploit it's relationship with communist Cuba by putting short range Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in Cuba. In part this was retaliation for similar missiles placed by the U.S. in Turkey. This was alarming to the U.S. because there would be little warning and less response time available to missiles launched from Cuba as opposed to missiles launched from the U.S.S.R. and so the administration, led by President John Kennedy, demanded their removal.

The Soviet Union first denied their existence, but aerial reconnaissance proved otherwise. Then they refused to remove them so the U.S. instituted a naval blockade on Cuba to prevent additional missile placement and maintenance. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were "toe to toe" and an all-out nuclear exchange seemed possible. Finally, the story goes, the Soviets "blinked" and agreed to remove the ICBMs from Cuba, but actually it was a negotiated deal, because the U.S. agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey.

President Kennedy is often regarded by the public as a good and popular President, the guy who was "tough on the Commies and made the Russians back down," but in fact due to a series of miscalculations on his and his administration's part, the world came closer to World War III then it had ever been before or since. Some would say that was guts, but others would say it was sheer stupidity.
 
Back
Top