USSR's Involvement in Cuba

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To what extent was the USSR’s involvement in Cuba Motivated by defensive needs?

Table of Contents

A. Plan of investigation
B. Summary of Evidence
C. Evaluation of sources
D. Analysis
E. Conclusion
F. Bibliography

A. Plan of Investigation

The investigation assesses the extent to which the USSR’s involvement in Cuba during the Missile Crisis of 1962 was motivated by defensive needs, rather than offensive motives against the United States. It analyses this issue in relation to three main motives for the deployment of missiles. These are defending Cuba, attaining an advantage in the arms race, and attaining a bargaining chip over US missiles in Europe. The sources used in this investigation are taken predominantly from case studies, letters, reports, speeches and biographies. The two of the main sources- a letter from Khrushchev to President Kennedy sent on October 26th 1962 and an extract from J.F. Kennedy’s biography ‘Thirteen Days’- are then evaluated for their origins, purpose, values and limitations

This investigation does not assess possible advantages concerning Berlin or any nations other than the USA, Cuba and the USSR.

B. Summary of Evidence

After the Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown in January 19592, the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro started to nationalize Cuban industry . A lot of Cuban land and industry was owned by Americans and in 1960 the nationalization of all American owned businesses in Cuba took place without compensation . On the 19th of October 1960 the USA imposed an embargo on almost all exports to Cuba and reduced the Cuban sugar quota in US market to zero. Before this, sugar sales to the US were 3 million tons annually, half of Cuban crop sales1.In January 1961 US-Cuban rel...

... middle of paper ...

...rteen Days. Nortan: W.W. Nortan& Company, Inc.

Websites

http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/sanctions-cuba-60-3.pdf.

http://www.historytoday.com/john-swift/cuban-missile-crisis.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/620725%20Review%20of%20Op.%20Mongoose.pdf. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html.l

http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/guatemala.asp.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1962/10/27.htm.

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis/timeline.htm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12159943 .

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2612437?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103532547371.

http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch24t65.html.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032

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