The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

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The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

  1. The relations between the United States and Cuba got steadily worse ever since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, after a guerrilla campaign, overthrowing the American-backed dictator Batista. From 1959 to 1961 the relations between Cuba and the Americans were bitter, but without any direct confrontation. In the summer of 1960 the USA realised that the Soviet Union was sending arms to Cuba, therefore in January 1961 the USA broke off diplomatic relations with this country. In April 1961 John Kennedy supplied 1400 anti-Castro exiles with arms, equipment and transport to overthrow him. The Bay of Pigs invasion, however, was a total disaster. It further tensed the relations between Cuba and the US. After the invasion, the Soviet Union announced that it would supply Cuba with arms. By September 1962 Cuba had the best army in Latin America, with tanks, jets and missiles. The USA was very alarmed at this, and in September Kennedy warned the USSR not to put a nuclear missile base in Cuba. However, by October 1962 the Americans had evidence that the USSR was building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. During the following days, the October Crisis, the relationship between Cuba and the USA worsened dramatically, to the point of getting close to war. Only when Khrushchev started negotiating a possible removal of the missiles did the relationship thaw.
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  1. The Cuban Missile Crisis involved the two superpowers of the time – the Soviet Union and the United States. Any conflict between them was likely to involve the rest of the word, affecting every country that was allied to either of them. Since both countries were threatening the other to invade with missiles, people feared the coming of a Third World War, a much more devastating war than the previous two, because it would be a nuclear war. People dreaded this war, because they knew that millions would die in a matter of minutes. For instance, the USSR ...

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