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- Background. Cuba is an island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Until 1959, it was closely allied to the United States under the leadership of the right-wing dictator, General Batista.
- The US response to the Cuban Revolution. Trade embargo: The US imposed a trade embargo on Cuban goods, depriving Cubans of a market for their sugar and tobacco and the income to import oil and other essential goods.
- Discovery of the missiles. On 14 October 1962, an American spy plane flying over Cuba took pictures that showed the construction of Soviet missile launch sites.
- The threat to the USA. Cuba was only 90 miles from the coast of Florida meaning that the USA, including many of its biggest cities like Washington DC and New York, would be well within range of these missiles.
Jun 25, 2024 · Cuban missile crisis, major confrontation at the height of the Cold War that brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of a shooting war in October 1962 over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The crisis lasted from 16 to 28 October 1962. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war. [3] In 1961, the US government put Jupiter nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey.
- Discovering The Missiles
- A New Threat to The U.S.
- Kennedy Weighs The Options
- Showdown at Sea: U.S. Blockades Cuba
- A Deal Ends The Standoff
After seizing power in the Caribbean island nation of Cuba in 1959, leftist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) aligned himself with the Soviet Union. Under Castro, Cuba grew dependent on the Soviets for military and economic aid. During this time, the U.S. and the Soviets (and their respective allies) were engaged in the Cold War(1945-91...
For the American officials, the urgency of the situation stemmed from the fact that the nuclear-armed Cuban missiles were being installed so close to the U.S. mainland–just 90 miles south of Florida. From that launch point, they were capable of quickly reaching targets in the eastern U.S. If allowed to become operational, the missiles would fundame...
From the outset of the crisis, Kennedy and ExComm determined that the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba was unacceptable. The challenge facing them was to orchestrate their removal without initiating a wider conflict–and possibly a nuclear war. In deliberations that stretched on for nearly a week, they came up with a variety of options, including...
A crucial moment in the unfolding crisis arrived on October 24, when Soviet ships bound for Cuba neared the line of U.S. vessels enforcing the blockade. An attempt by the Soviets to breach the blockade would likely have sparked a military confrontation that could have quickly escalated to a nuclear exchange. But the Soviet ships stopped short of th...
Despite the enormous tension, Soviet and American leaders found a way out of the impasse. During the crisis, the Americans and Soviets had exchanged letters and other communications, and on October 26, Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy in which he offered to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for a promise by U.S. leaders not to invade Cuba. ...
Jun 17, 2019 · The Cuban Missile Crisis was among the most frightening events of the Cold War. The 13-day showdown brought the world’s two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict.
Jun 27, 2024 · During the Cold War, extra-continental military interventions were the preserve of the two superpowers, a few West European countries, and Cuba. Moreover, West European military interventions in the thirty years between the rise of Fidel Castro and the end of the Cold War pale in size and daring compared to those of Cuba.
