Cuban Missile Crisis

Eliza Nimrichter

April 18th, 2011

Am. Hist.

Period 1

Cold War Presidents: John F. Kennedy

1. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which occurred in 1962, consisted of a standoff between U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

2. At the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. military forced Spain to surrender Cuba, thus leading to rocky relations between Cuba and the United States.

3. Although Cuba was inaugurated as an independent nation, President William McKinley introduced the Platt Amendment, which allowed U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs, in 1901.

4. The Platt Amendment was only valid through 1934; Since then, Cuba had been ruled intermittently by dictators.

5. Fidel Castro stepped up to take over the dictatorship of Cuba in 1959.

6. The Kennedy administration tried countless times to overthrow Castro, failing most of the time.

7. In December 1961, Castro officially declared his conversion to Marxist-Leninist ideology.

8. Cuba’s conversion to communism opened a window of opportunity for the Soviet Union, which desired both the expansion of communist doctrine worldwide and the threat to the U.S.

9. The Soviet Union began the transport of nuclear ballistic missiles in October 1962. Kennedy received aerial photos of the missiles in transit.

10. On October 28, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear arms on the condition that the U.S. declared publicly that it would not attack Cuba. They also privately withdrew arms from Turkey.

Although the Cuban Missile Crisis only lasted 13 days, it was a huge turning point in the Cold War. Kennedy had to decide exactly how to deal with the idea of nuclear weaponry being so close to the U.S. In essence, he had three choices: One was to go “all out” and invade Cuba, thus risking the firing of said nukes; Two, do absolutely nothing, removing the idea of invasion, but adding the possibility of a random nuclear attack; Or three, push the event to the verge of disaster in order to achieve the...