Cuban Missile Crisis
Year Event
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1898 Spanish-American War
1901 Cuba became independent
1952 General Batista staged
military coup
1954 Invasion of Guatemala
Nov 1958 Khrushchev demanded
Western powers to leave
Berlin
1 Jan 1959 Castro overthrew Batista,
won the Cuban Revolution
Apr 1959 Castro visited USA
Summer 1959 Nationalisation of
plantations owned by
American businessmen;
distribution of land to poor
peasants
Feb 1960 Soviet deputy Premier
Mikoyan visited Cuba
Mar 1960 American reactions -
stopped buying Cuban
sugar
Soviets permitted Cubans
to buy weapons
Jun-Jul 1960 Continuation of
nationalisation policies
Jul 1960 Khrushchev extended
nuclear protection to Cuba
Sep 1960 Castro travelled to New
York for UN meetings
Oct 1960 War scare
Khrushchev issued public
commitment to Cuba
Nov 1960 Castro public proclamation
of being a communist
Jan 1961 Another war scare
Rise of John F. Kennedy
15 Apr 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion
Jun 1961 Khrushchev tried to
threaten Western powers
to leave Berlin again
Made by @ryonwl
Key Ideas
US perceived the American hemisphere as part of its influence
All Western powers ignored him
Castro not communist but had similar goals with communism -
redistribute resources, limit big businesses
very popular; Americans in Apr 1959 was not critical of Castro but
curious
Castro said that he was against dictatorship and communism;
Might be because he was wary of American intervention - invasion
of Guatemala in 1954
Carried out arrests of counter-revolutionaries and anyone who
expressed pro-Batista sentiments
Start of Soviet-Cuban relations
Establishment of trade relations - done so as a safety net as Castro
expected retaliation from nationalisation policies
Perception of Cuba driven by monolithic communism
President Eisenhower approved plans to overthrow Castro;
economic embargo - stopped buying sugar
Due to rumours of American invasion
Met up with Khrushchev and together denounced the American
way of life
Castro believed there was an impending American invasion
Castro constantly lived in fear; believed that USSR had protected
Cuba
Said to gain support from USSR (militarily, politically and
economically)
Official cut of US-Cuba relations
An attempt to overthrow Castro
Met with failure as a result of poor planning and underestimation
of Castro’s domestic popularity
Weakened Kennedy’s political position because his tough talking
rhetoric against Cuba backfired and he had to exchange $53 mil
worth of supplies for exiles who were captured
Khrushchev hope to take advantage of young and inexperienced
Kennedy
Kennedy instead needed up the US military and said that they
“seek peace, but we shall not surrender”

Aug 1961 Construction of Berlin Wall
22 Oct 1961 Khrushchev asked East
German police in Berlin to
check identities of all
vehicles
27 Oct 1961 US officials tried to cross
the zonal boundary -
brought along US tanks
30 Nov 1961 Operation Mongoose
Dec 1961 USSR broke off diplomatic
relations with Albania
Castro declared himself a
communist
1961 Sino Soviet-Split
31 Jan 1962 Cuba’s membership
revoked from Organisation
of American States
1961-1962 Arms Race
Apr 1962 Operation Anadyr -
deployment of missiles and
military equipment
May 1962 Khrushchev’s visit to
Bulgaria
Aug 1962 US received reports of a
Soviet military build-up
Sep 1962 Declaration by Soviet
JFK interview
Deployment of missiles
complete
15-16 Oct 1962 USA discovered missiles in
Cuba
16 Oct 1962 Start of Crisis
18-22 Oct 1962 Kennedy and EXCOM
debated regarding the
nature of response to take
against the Cubans and
Soviets
22 Oct 1962 Kennedy’s televised speech
about missiles - Decision to
order a Naval Quarantine
Made by @ryonwl
Khrushchev was completely humiliated
Many were trying to leave East Germany due to difference in
standards of living of the Western zone; Khrushchev humiliated;
Admission of weakness from Khrushchev
US and British officials stopped
Violation of Potsdam agreement - all occupying powers can move
across different zones
Soviet tanks slowly withdrew, followed by American tanks - USSR
backed down again and Khrushchev humiliated
An attempt to assassinate Castro and undermine his support base
in Cuba
Escalation os Sino-Soviet dispute
Put pressure on Khrushchev to adopt a tougher policy in response
to critics accusing him of not doing enough to support
communism
US had more missiles, better missiles than USSR and had missiles
pointing at the USSR, but USSR did not
Done through the use of Soviet merchant ships and the operation
was tightly concealed
Khrushchev had the idea of installing missile warheads in Cuba
without letting the Americans find out they were there until it is
too late to do anything about them
Kennedy did not take action after repeated assurances from the
Soviet government that USSR were not deploying missiles in Cuba
stated that USSR had neither intent nor need to place missiles
outside USSR
JFK said that USA will respond strongly if missiles were deployed in
Cuba
Photographs taken by U2 spy plane
1. Land invasion of Cuba
2. Air strike of missile sites
3. Naval blockade
USA were hesitant on the first 2 actions as it might kill thousands
of Soviet personnel and trigger a Soviet counter attack on a target
such as Berlin. Soviet troops stationed in Cuba were also obligated
to protect Cuba.
USA would carry out an inspection of all ships destined for the
island and ships with military equipment would be turned away
After the speech, Khrushchev raised alert level for Soviet and
Warsaw Pact militaries
 Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy and warned that USSR may
not respect the quarantine (tactic of brinkmanship)
Khrushchev sent a letter to Castro to reassure him of Soviet
support
USA and member countries “any nuclear missile launched from Cuba would be seen as an
of OAS issued a warning attack on the US and would be followed by a full-scale military
response”
23 Oct 1962 Khrushchev said in a letter to Kennedy that “missiles are intended
solely for defensive purposes” - missiles were medium ranges and
could hit major cities like NYC and Washington → Huge cause for
concern

Kennedy responded that “USSR started the crisis by secretly

placing missiles in Cuba”
24 Oct 1962 Naval quarantine came into
effect
Soviet submarine was
forced to surface by an
American warship
25 Oct 1962 Soviet ships approaching Threat of war was real
blockade met by US Soviet ships eventually turned back (tactic of brinkmanship) -
warships made Khrushchev look weak again
26 Oct 1962 1st appeal for peace Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles in return by US
undertaking not to invade Cuba
Castro sends a letter to Khrushchev to urge him to nuke USA.
Khrushchev ignored him.
27 Oct 1962 2nd appeal for peace Lack of response by USA made Khrushchev anxious and
Khrushchev demanded that USA must remove its Jupiter missiles
from Turkey as well

Kennedy agreed to both conditions but the removal of missiles ust

be done in a secret (not known to historians until decades later)
→
ensure Americans do not look weak in handling the crisis
Cuba shot down a U2 spy pressured both superpowers to quickly resolve the crisis
plane
28 Oct 1962 Khrushchev announcement USSR had agreed to recall the Soviet supply ships bound for Cuba
and dismantle missiles in missile bases on the island
Us provided informal guarantees that the Jupiter missiles would
be taken out of Cuba

Castro begged Khrushchev not to remove missiles; verbal

guarantee by the USA not sufficient for him, wanted military
assurances
End of Crisis
Nov 1962 Khrushchev sent Mikoyan Aims:
to Cuba to appease Castro 1. Negotiate a smooth withdrawal of missiles without
and attain 3 aims provoking the US
2. Get Castro to accept inspections
3. Keep Cuba as a close ally
Jan 1963 Khrushchev attempted to Invited Castro to visit USSR in May/Jun 1963 to talk things out
convince Castro that the
outcome was beneficial on
Cuba

Made by @ryonwl
 Apr 1963 US missiles withdrawn Not made public until 1969
30 Aug 1963 Establishment of a hotline Avoid any future miscommunication that could lead to an
between Washington and accidental war
Moscow
7 Oct 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty Limited atomic testing to underground sites
Treaty was hailed as an important first step toward the control of
nuclear weapons
22 Nov 1963 Kennedy assassinated
Oct 1964 Brezhnev launched a coup ● Khrushchev appeared weak in public because Turkey deal
which removed was a secret
Khrushchev; ● Soviet politburo could not tolerate his brinkmanship and
Politburo removed foreign policies humiliations
Khrushchev from power ● Did not achieve original goal of expelling Western powers
from Berlin
● USA only provided a verbal agreement not to invade Cuba
- ongoing security threat

Khrushchev placed under house arrest till his death in 1971

Late 1960s Massive Nuclear Build-up USSR wanted to achieve nuclear parity with the USA
programme
1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Prevented the transfer and spread of nuclear weapons from
Treaty existing nuclear powers to other countries
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missiles Treaty Reduced the number of ABMS that were used to defend their
countries from a possible nuclear attack.
Hopes that this would serve as a greater deterrent in using nuclear
weapons since both countries were now more susceptible to a
nuclear attack.

Made by @ryonwl