2. Introduction
90 miles of the coast of Florida lies the country
of Cuba, and in October of 1962 The United
States found proof that the country was building
several nuclear missile basis. The Soviet Union
were helping to supply Cuba with these missiles.
This left most of the continental U.S.
susceptible to a nuclear attack.
3. United States and Soviet Relations
The U.S. and the Soviet Union had a
“superpower” rivalry that had manly to do with
their different political systems.
The United states had a federal constitutional republic, where the President,
Congress, and judiciary power share powers reserved to national
government. The federal government shares sovereignty with state
government.
The Soviet Union ran under a communist system, where there is a single-
party ruler.
Although the two countries allied during the
second world war; they were driven apart by
the race for nuclear and missile arms race.
4. U.S. and Soviet Relations contd.
The Soviet felt threatened by the presence of
United State missiles located in Turkey, only 150
miles from the Soviet Union.
5. United States and Cuba
At the time Cuba was running under a
Communist system, and their leader was
Fidel Castro.
The United States tried to invade Cuba in
operations such as ‘The Bay of Pigs.’
The United states also banned Cuban products from coming into the united states
6. The Soviet Union and Cuba
The Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned to The
Soviet Union for protection from the United
states, because they felt that the U.S. would
invade.
Both Countries had a communist government; something the United States did
not like.
With the Cuba on their side The Soviet Union
had the perfect place to store nuclear missiles.
8. Gathering The Information
The information about
the missiles was found
on October 14, 1962
while a United States
Air Force were on a
photoreconnaissance
mission.
Photoreconnaissance are
missions that are used to
gather information on an
enemy; wether it be during
peacetime or war.
9. Preparing for Imminent Danger
After this
information was
found The U.S.
was at its highest
state of readiness.
Cuba was
authorized to use
tactical nuclear
defense, if any
U.S. forces tried
to invade the
country.
10. The Executive Committee
Once the news of missiles made it to the
president at the time, John F. Kennedy, he called
the EX-COMM together.
The EX-COMM was a committee that Kennedy created, and it contained 19
men that helped kennedy through the crisis. They worked to find the best course
of action
The committee was made up of the best and the brightest men in the United
States.
They feared that no matter what course of
action they took they would meet retaliation.
12. Developing a Plan
President Kennedy continued with Campaign
trips to maintain secrecy.
He did meet with The Soviet Union Foreign
Minister, Andrie Gromyko.
Kennedy told Gromyko that The United States would not tolerate nuclear
weapons in Cuba; Gromyko denied that The Soviet Union had anything of that
nature on the island.
13. A Plan of “Attack”
Kennedy returned to
D.C. and again met
with the EX-COMM
and went over ideas to
get rid of the missiles in
cuba.
His original idea was for the United
States Air Force to take out the
missiles, but after finding out that
would mean 10 to 20,000 military and
civilian casualties he vetoed the plan.
The committee decided to set up a
blockade around Cuba.
14. Soviets First Retreat
On Wednesday, October 24
Soviet ships went out and
when they met up with
where the U.S. blockade
ships were stationed they
turned around.
But the crisis wasn’t over.....
The next day the U.S. alert was
raised to DEFCON 2 (the highest in
U.S. history.) The United States was
prepared to launch an attack on the
Soviet Union or Cuba at a moments
notice
15. The Crisis Ends?
By Friday, October 26 EX-COMM received a
letter from Soviet leader Khrushchev that stated
if the U.S. promised never to invade Cuba, that
the Soviets would remove their missiles from
Cuba.
But after another photoreconnaissance mission the United States found that
the Soviets were only camouflaging the missiles.
16. Height Of The Crisis
The next day an American plane was shot down
when it mistakenly flew over Russia.
Another plane was then shot down when
attempting to take pictures of Cuba.
The orders to shoot down this plane did not come from Moscow, and
Khrushchev was worried that with poor communication similar incidents
could happen again.
17. Crisis Resolved
By Sunday of that week Khrushchev, over
Moscow radio, announced that the Soviet Union
would dismantle their nuclear missiles in Cuba.
Khrushchev did not demand anything more from the U.S. other than them
not invading Cuba, because he did not demand more and backed down his
career was ruined.
