Cuban Missile Crisis
Storyboard Text
- After the USA failed to overthrow the communist government in Cuba (Bay of Pigs), Cuba decided to partner with the Soviet Union due to their shared interests in communism. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev secretly deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba.
- In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba.
- LAUNCH
- NO
- After many discussions, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade around Cuba on 22 October 1962. The aim of this quarantine, as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies to build missiles.
- REMOVE ALL MISSILES
- A navel blockade was considered an act of war. The Soviets announced that the violation of freedom to use international waters is an act of aggression which will lead to war. Tension rose between the US and the Soviet Union.
- NAVEL BLOCKADE = ACT OF AGRESSION
- On 27 October 1962, a nuclear armed Soviet submarine was hit by a US depth charge. The commanders on the submarine were too deep to communicate with the surface and thought that war had begun. They prepared to launch the missile but was stopped by Vasili Arkhipov. His decision prevented a nuclear war.
- On 28 October 1962,The leaders of both sides finally come to a negotiation and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba and destroy their missiles as well.
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