The Cuban Missile Crisis.

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Julie Corral

U.S. History AP

Period 3

11 April 2003

The Cuban Missile Crisis

        The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war.  The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend Cuba if it was invaded.  Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was prevented.  

        In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race.  Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union.  In late April 1962, Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba.  A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real restriction to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.  

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        Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the U.S.  Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable.  Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev’s plan to place missiles on the island.  In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.

        For the United States, the crisis began on October 15, 1962 when scouting photographs revealed soviet missiles under construction in Cuba.  Early the next day, President John Kennedy was informed of the missile ...

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