History

Name: Sebastin Morales

Course: I DP A
Date: 24-5-2016
The Cuban Missile Crisis

Fifty years ago the United States and the Soviet Union stood closer to Armageddon
than at any other moment in history
In October 1962 President John F. Kennedy was informed of a U-2 spy-planes
discovery of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba
A war would have meant the deaths of 100 million Americans and more than 100
million Russians
Kennedy announced the discovery to the world and imposed a naval blockade on
further shipments of armaments to Cuba
Soviet nuclear missile bases remained on the island and were rapidly becoming
operational
Pressure on President Kennedy to order an air strike or invasion was mounting,
especially after an American l -2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba
Hopes that a satisfactory resolution to the crisis could be reached between
Washington and Moscow had dimmed
President Kennedy decided on a dual strategya formal letter to Khrushchev
accepting the implicit terms of his October 26 letter (a U.S. non-invasion pledge in
exchange for the verifiable departure of Soviet nuclear missiles), coupled with
private assurances to Khrushchev that the United States would speedily take out its
missiles from Turkey
U.S. officials maintained that neither John nor Robert Kennedy promised to
withdraw the Jupiters as a quid pro quo, or concession, in exchange for the removal
of the Soviet missiles from Cuba, or as part of an explicit agreement
A public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet
Union withdrew its missiles
A private ultimatum threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer was
rejected
A secret sweetener that promised to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey within six
months
The crisis was resolved at the last minute when Khrushchev accepted the U.S. offer

Bay of Pigs

steps taken by the CIA to remove Castro

a brigade of about 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles was raised
The CIA decided to use this force in a large-scale invasion of the island, with the
backing of its own air force
would trigger mass risings and overthrow Castros government Eisenhower
recognised the risks of failure and hesitated
John F. Kennedy, would be left to decide whether or not to launch the invasion
Castro hoped that a new president would be less hostile to his revolution
Kennedy had used Cuba repeatedly in the election campaign, accusing his
Republican opponents of being soft on communism, insisting that Cuba was
Americas most glaring failure
If Castro was left unpunished he might start a fashion for nationalizing US
investments in Latin America, and vocal Cuban exile groups, were determined not
to allow him to forget it.
Castros survival was an affront to American pride
Kennedy became obsessed with the fear that Castro might prove able to export his
revolution to other Latin American nations
Kennedy was probably unaware that there were risks attached to the CIAs plan
Kennedy approved the project, which was put together in a remarkably slipshod
manner.
If no mass risings occurred, then the brigade of Cuban exiles was expected to
withdraw into the interior and launch a guerrilla campaign
the chosen landing ground, called the Bay of Pigs, led only to a swamp and
so there was no possibility of this happening
Kennedy was convinced it would be possible to launch this invasion without the
world being aware of American involvement
Kennedy appears to have been swept along by a sense of urgency, and
warnings that the whole idea was half-baked, for example from Undersecretary
of State Chester Bowles, were ignored
Kennedy was not the only one to delude himself. He made it very clear to the
CIA that US forces would not intervene if the plan went awry
Convinced that once the invasion was launched, US prestige would be so
bound up in its success that Kennedy would have to support it
In April 1961, they were willing to commit about 1,400 ill-trained, poorly
equipped exiles to what became a humiliating fiasco
Air attacks failed to destroy Castros air force completely
Most of the ammunition and communications equipment was destroyed before
it could be landed
Castros forces fought well, and enjoyed massive popular support
There were no risings, and US forces did nothing to support the exiles
Within two days over 100 exiles had been killed and nearly 1,200 had
surrendered

Source Analysis
Harvard Kennedy School. (s.f.). Cuban Missile Crisis. Retrieved from
http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org/background/
Hershberg, J. (1995). The National Security Archive . Retrieved from
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/moment.htm
Jim Hershberg is a teacher in a US university who focuses on Cold War, who
published a bulletin about cold war. Which is mainly directed to students of
history because there it can be found specific information about Cold war,
there are many perspectives for example from Nikita K. or John F. Kennedy
and gives the documents signed in events happened in history which would
be so useful.
Presidential Library and Museum. (s.f.). John F. Kennedy . Retrieved from
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx
Swift, J. (March de 2007). HistoryToday. Retrieved from
http://www.historytoday.com/john-swift/
This source was published by John Swift in the webpage "HistoryToday"
which is only focused on historical topic, which are directed to historians or
students to get a good information about any historical topic. Talking about
Cold War, the author takes the Cuban Revolution and the events happened
before and then what happened in the missile Crisis or Bay of Pigs, which in
some way is a good way to contextualize history. The problem in here is that
every topic of Cuba are brief information about them and there isn't a deep
investigation of the topic that want to be taken.