10.1.2 Cuban Missile Crisis -TEACH-

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 3

10. The Time of Television and Computers

10.1.2 The Cuban Missile Crisis

people in this lesson

Krushchev

leader

USSR

Fidel Castro

leader

Cuba

Mao Zedong

Leader

China

Kennedy

president

USA

Important dates in this lesson:

1945:  First atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (by USA)

1949: USSR makes its own atomic bomb

          China becomes a communist state

1953: Stalin dies. His successor is Nikita Khrushchev

1957: first satellite (Sputnik) sent into orbit (by USSR)

1961: first man in space: Yuri Gagarin (USSR)

          Bay of Pigs invasion

1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

1969: first man on the moon: Neil Armstrong   (USA)

Missiles at a Soviet Military Parade in Moscow. These missiles had nuclear warheads and a range of 1,100 miles. Dated 1961.

Nuclear arms race

Soviet Communist leader Joseph Stalin lying in state in the hall of Trade Union House, Moscow. (March 12, 1953). Photo by Keystone/Getty 

Nikita Krushchev

• peaceful Coexistence
• Destalinisation

In the fall of 1959, at the height of the Cold War, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev spent 12 days touring the United States at the invitation of President Eisenhower.

In the picture you can see Eisenhower holding a miniature Sputnik, a present from Krushchev. 

although liberated by the Soviets, the new Yugoslav peresident Tito was able to break his country free from Stalin's control in 1948.

Source A

Banknote in Cuba showing Fidel Castro and rebel soldiers entering Havana after his victory in 1959.

When Cuba signed a trade agreement with China, the American president decided to intervene and authorise a plan to overthrow Castro. Many Cubans had travelled to the USA after Castro’s takeover and the Americans trained these exiles to invade Cuba. In April 1961, over 1,400 paramilitaries landed at a beach named the Bay of Pigs, while eight USA-supplied bombers attacked Cuban airfields. However, the Cuban Army defeated the invaders within three days, so the Bay of Pigs Invasion failed. When the USA involvement in the failed invasion became known to the world, the already poor relationship between the two countries worsened.

LEOMINSTER DAILY ENTERPRISE, Massachusetts MA April 17, 1961 

Next slide: a video about the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Watch if you are interested only.

Fearing another American invasion, Castro turned to the Soviet Union. They developed close military and intelligence ties and agreed to place nuclear missiles on the island. But the American government discovered this plan when a spy plane took photos of missile preparations in Cuba. This led to the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The USA, who feared a missile strike from Cuba, established a military blockade to prevent more SS-4 Missiles from reaching Cuba. At the same time, US President John F. Kennedy demanded that the missiles already on Cuba should be removed and the sites there dismantled. 

Watch the video clip in the next slide and listen what Kennedy said in his speech adressing the American people:

A picture, taken by an American spy plane, clearly shows rocket installations being constructed on the Island of Cuba.

This evidence led to the Cuba Crisis.

Source C

This newspaper map from the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis shows the distances from Cuba to various cities on the North American continent.

 The end of the Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet cargo ship ‘Anesov’, escorted by a US Navy plane and the destroyer ‘USS Barry’, as it leaves Cuba loaded with missiles. October 1962.

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