International Developments in the post World War 2 World
  • Home
  • The Cold War
    • Causes of the Cold War
    • Yalta Conference of February 1945
    • The Cold War Goals for the United States
    • The Cold War Goals for the Soviet Union
  • Importance of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall
    • Truman Doctrine and its impact upon the Cold War
    • The Marshall Plan and its impact upon the Cold War
    • The originations of both the Korean War and Vietnam
  • Tiananmen Square (1989)
    • The causes/outcome of the uprising in Hungary (1956)
    • Berlin Airlift
    • Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Organizations of the Cold War
    • NATO
    • Warsaw Pact
    • SEATO
  • Nationalism

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Picture
The Cuban missile crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war.During his presidential campaign, Kennedy had repeatedly spoken of a missile gap between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Despite being briefed by the Pentagon that the U.S. had more missiles than the Soviets, Kennedy maintained his claim that the U.S. had less. After the 1960 election, Khrushchev began to test the new president. In the summer of 1961 Khrushchev applied pressure to Berlin and eventually built a wall surrounding West Berlin. In response, the Kennedy Administration felt it necessary to reveal to Khrushchev that there was in fact no missile gap. Khrushchev had always known the U.S. had more missiles but now he knew that the Americans knew. Khrushchev also knew that Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union.






Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.