THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS OF 1962 BY GINES ALACID RIQUELME.

The missile crisis, also called the Caribbean crisis, was a conflict between the United
States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba what happened in 1962.
Many people said that is one of the biggest crises of the Cold War, as it was
very close to the start of a nuclear war.

The develompment of the missile crisis

First of all,Kennedy sent a televised message in which he informed the American people
that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba and that he had decided to put a naval fence
around the island. The next day,a large number of US warplanes and ships were deployed
in the Caribbean Sea area.

After that, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed Kennedy that his country considered
the naval blockade an aggression against the country,the United States Secretary of
Political Affairs imposed sanctions on the Cuban government and established a naval
blockade to prevent the arrival of Soviet ships to the island.
Faced with the possibility of the start of a war, Khrushchev told Kennedy that he would
withdraw his ships from the Caribbean if the US government gave up trying to defeat Fidel
Castro's regime.
Soviet air defenses shot down an American spy plane that was flying over the island.
When they learned of the incident, Khrushchev proposed to Kennedy the dismantling of
the Soviet ramps in Cuba, in exchange for a guarantee that the United States would not
carry out or support an invasion of the Caribbean island and that they would dismantle
NATO missile bases located in Turkey.
Soviet and American diplomats conducted secret negotiations.Kennedy accepted the offer,
with which an agreement was reached and the crisis was overcome.
US aerial espionage gave notice that Soviet ships were withdrawing the nuclear weapons
deployed in Cuba.On November 20, the United States government ended its naval patrols.
Two days later, Fidel Castro's regime was informed that its military presence on the island
would be limited to the use of conventional weapons.
Some causes of the conflict were:

One of the main causes that caused the conflict to break out was the attempt by the United
States to defeat the government of Fidel Castro, also a very important factor was the
rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States during the course of the Cold War.
and finally, another cause was the installation in Turkey of NATO missiles that were aimed
at Soviet cities.

A few consequences were this:

The main consequences of the conflict were that an American pilot who was driving the
spy plane was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft defenses, that the missiles that NATO had
installed in Turkey were removed and finally, due to the conflict, the so-called red
telephone was installed, it was a line that put the leaders of the United States and the
Soviet Union in communication so that they could reach diplomatic agreements quickly
and safely.

Next, all the protagonists of the missile war conflict:

The first protagonist I would like to mention is Nikita Khrushchev who was the leader of the
Soviet Union during the missile crisis. He had the idea of installing missiles in Cuba and
asked to remove them to avoid a possible nuclear war. The second person I want to name
is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, he was the president of the United States, he was also in
favor with the Soviet Union to withdraw the missiles from Cuba.
On the other hand, we have Fidel Castro, he was a Cuban political leader, he led the
island's government during the missile crisis, another person involved in the conflict was
Ernesto Che Guevara, he was a communist revolutionary who was born in Argentina but
participated in the Cuban revolution. In 1962 an agreement was reached between Cuba
and the Soviet Union to install missile bases on the island.
I would like to highlight two films that talk about this conflict:
One of them is ¨Trece dias¨, this film tells from the American side what happens during the
13 days after seeing that the supports for nuclear missiles were being built in Cuba, and
the other film related with this is called ¨Dear Eleanor¨ which is about two girls who decide
to travel through America during the missile crisis, many adventures happen to them
during the trip that make the film so interesting.