ÿþ<html> <head> <title> WHKMLA : History of the Early Cold War : The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 </title> <!-- copyright Alexander Ganse, 2001 --> </head> <body bgcolor = "lightgreen"> <div align = "center"> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../index.html"> <img src = "../../banner.jpg" border = "0"> </A></TD></TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> Soviet Clampdown <BR> of Democratic Movements </B></font></TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../region/europe/clampdown.html"> <img src = "../../region/arrowleft.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"> </A></TD> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "xecw.html"> <img src = "../banners/banecw.jpg" border = "0"> </A></TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../military/earlycoldwar/vietnamwar.html"> <img src = "../../region/arrowright.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"></A> </TD> <TD width = "150" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> Vietnam War </B></font></TD></TR></TABLE> <BR><BR><BR> <script language="JavaScript"> <!-- function SymError() { return true; } window.onerror = SymError; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-0213752126925919"; google_alternate_color = "FFFFE1"; google_ad_width = 728; google_ad_height = 90; google_ad_format = "728x90_as"; google_ad_channel ="4814426207"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_page_url = document.location; google_color_border = "FF3300"; google_color_bg = "FFFFE1"; google_color_link = "0000CC"; google_color_url = "008000"; google_color_text = "6F6F6F"; //--></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <BR><BR><BR> </div> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "900" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "6" face = "arial"><B> Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) </B></font> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <BR><BR> <font size = "4" face = "Times Roman"> Cuba has gained its independence in the aftermath of the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR of 1898. US citizens had come to look upon Cuba as a friendly island which functioned as a popular tourist resort with casinos and a nightlife outlawed in most of the lower 48 states. US public opinion therefore was surprised to read in the newspaper in 1959, that FIDEL CASTRO and his followers had expelled dictator BATTISTA and had established a PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY communist style. <BR> Khrushchev saw the opportunity to get back on the USA for its policy of surrounding the USSR with a network of US allies (NATO, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan) where US missiles were stationed, directed at targets in the USSR. The USSR signed trade treaties favourable to Cuba, would purchase all the sugar Cuba could produce, at rates favourable to Cuba, and supplied the island nation with petrol. <BR><BR> Cuban exiles trained by the CIA landed in the BAY OF PIGS; the attempt to topple the government ended in a miserable failure. Then US reconnaissance planes spotted sites on Cuba which were interpreted as missile launch sites. Soviet ships transporting large cargo (it turned out to be the missiles suspected) were on their way. <BR> US President John F. Kennedy gambled by threatening the USSR with nuclear war if they would go through with the project. KHRUSHCHEV finally gave in; the missiles were not installed. Yet Cuba remained a communist nation, nemesis of the US, in its closest vicinity. <BR><BR><BR> <TABLE border = "3" cellspace="5" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" valign = "top" align = "center" bgcolor="#FFFACD"> <font size = "3" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> EXTERNAL <BR> FILES </font></TD> <TD width = "700" valign = "top" align = "left" bgcolor = "#FFFACD"> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> Cuban Missile Crisis, from <A HREF = "http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/russian/Cold_War__Cuban_Missile_Crisis.html"><B> Library of Congress Documents from Soviet Archives</B></A> </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "3" cellspace="5" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" valign = "top" align = "center" bgcolor="#FFFACD"> <font size = "3" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> DOCUMENTS </font></TD> <TD width = "700" valign = "top" align = "left" bgcolor = "#FFFACD"> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> The Real Thirteen Days : The Hidden History of the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, from <A HREF = "http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/"><B>National Security Archive</B></A> <BR> Cuban History : Missile Crisis, from <A HREF = "http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/subject/missile-crisis/"><B>marxists.org</B></A> <BR> Collective Memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, from <A HREF = "http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/missile_crisis_34.html"> <B>Brown Univ.</B></A> <BR> Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy : Cuban Missile Crisis, from <A HREF = "http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba.htm"> <B>Mt. Holyoke</B></A> <BR> Correspondence Khrushchev-Kennedy, 1961, edited by <A HREF = "http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/russian/x2jfk.doc"><B>P.Jones</B></A> </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "3" cellspace="5" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" valign = "top" align = "center" bgcolor="#FFFACD"> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> REFERENCE </font></TD> <TD width = "700" valign = "top" align = "left" bgcolor = "#FFFACD"> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"> </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <BR><BR><BR> <TABLE border="5" cellspace="10" cellpadding="10" align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><TR> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="center"> <font size = "3" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"><i>This page is part of <B>World History at KMLA</b></i></font><BR> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman" color = "#000000"><i>First posted on July 11th 2001, last revised on November 14th 2004</i></font> <BR><BR> <font size = "2" face = "Times Roman"> Click here to go <A HREF = "../../index.html">Home</A> <BR> Click here to go to <A HREF = "../../about.html">Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster</A> <BR> Click here to go to <A HREF = "../../links.html">Statistics</A><BR> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR><BR><BR> </DIV> <DIV align="center"> <A href="mailto:aganse@hotmail.com"> <IMG src="../../email.gif" border="0"></a><BR> </DIV><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <!-- Start of CH Counter --> <script type="text/javascript"> //<!-- // chCounter v2.0.0 // settings: cstatus = "active"; visible = "0"; path_to_counterfile = "http://www.zum.de/whkmla/counter/counter.php"; urlhp = "http://www.zum.de"; //////////////// url = unescape(location.href); file = url.substring(url.lastIndexOf(urlhp) + urlhp.length, url.length); file = (file.charAt(0) != "/") ? 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