Summary: The Cuban Missile Crisis

One of the most intense parts of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The conflict of the Cuban Missile Crisis happened when Fidel Castro overthrew the previous leader, Fulgencio Batista. The book “John F. Kennedy Vs. Nikita Khrushchev” by Ellis Roxburgh states, "In 1959, Fidel Castro led a rebellion on the island to overthrow the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. The United States had supported Batista and had many business interests in Cuba.” The U.S. approved of the previous leader, Fulgencio Batista, but disapproved of Fidel Castro. Castro struck up a friendship with the Soviet Union, that made the U.S. even angrier. In the database article “Cuba Signs a Commercial Agreement with the Soviet Union, February 11, 1966” it says, “On

Most of the flights were U-2 planes, and their job was to take pictures of Cuba and Cuba’s missiles. The U.S. thought that the height the U-2 planes flew was too high for the Cuban’s anti-aircraft guns and their missiles. A U-2 plane flying over Cuba was shot down by one of Cuba’s missiles by orders from Castro. That was disastrous for the U.S. and Khrushchev. The order from Khrushchev was not to fire at U-2 planes, but Castro told all of his soldiers the opposite. In the database article “The Cuban Missile Crisis” it expresses, "The crisis peaked on October 27, when an American U-2 surveillance plane was shot down over Cuba by a surface-to-air missile.” In the database article “Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962” it indicates, "A U.S. U-2 flight over Cuba was shot down that day by Soviet SAMs, which had just become operational.” The U.S.S.R. also sent some soldiers and mechanics to Cuba along with the nuclear missiles. In the database "UXL Encyclopedia: Cuban Missile Crisis” it says, “On October 27, 1962, a Soviet missile shot down a U.S. U2 plane, and its pilot was killed. All totaled, the Soviet Union had sent sixty-six missiles to Cuba along with twenty-two thousand troops and technicians.” The soldier who shot the missile didn’t know whose order to follow, Khrushchev’s or Castro’s. After that, the tensions were even higher than before. Cuba and the U.S. were on the brink of a nuclear war. The

sent two letters to John F. Kennedy. The first one was a friendly offer, an offer that if the Americans moved the naval blockade then he would remove the missiles out of Cuba. The second one was a demand ordering that the U.S. President to remove the missiles from Turkey. After this they sent some telegrams, arguing with each other over what they were to do. In the database article “Telegram from the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State, October 26, 1962” it says, "Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev (1894-1971) sent this letter to President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), via a telegram from the U.S. embassy in Moscow, in the midst of the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy had responded aggressively four days later in a televised speech, demanding that newly placed Soviet nuclear missiles be pulled out of Cuba and ordering a naval blockade, which he called a ‘quarantine’ to try to avoid making it an overt act of war, around the island.” Sending telegrams made it possible to send and receive messages faster, and it also allowed them to communicate without as many other people knowing. Nevertheless the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. used the