Download The Cold War: Cuban Missile Crisis and Impact on America

The Cold War:
Cuban Missile Crisis and
the Cold War at Home
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Background
 CUBA – site of Cold War
confrontations
 Missile crisis = example of
CONTAINMENT
 FIDEL CASTRO led a
COMMUNIST revolution that
took over Cuba in the late
1950s – many Cubans fled
to FLORIDA
Background, cont.
 JOHN F. KENNEDY elected president in
1960
 YOUNGEST man elected president (43 years
old)
 First ROMAN CATHOLIC president
 U.S. CONCERNED about Cuba since
Fidel Castro’s TAKEOVER of the country
in 1959
 Island is about 90 MILES off Florida COAST
 Castro developed ties to the SOVIET UNION
Bay of Pigs Invasion
 CIA was training group of Cubans to
INVADE CUBA, OVERTHROW
CASTRO
 Kennedy, advisors expected CUBAN
PEOPLE to help invaders defeat Castro
 Invasion took place in 1961 – TOTAL
DISASTER
 Result: America LOST much GLOBAL
PRESTIGE, SOVIET UNION promised
to support Castro
Thirteen Days
 October 16, 1962: PHOTOGRAPHS
taken from an American SPY PLANE
revealed that the SOVIETS were
building MISSILES
in Cuba

4 possible responses:
1.
2.
3.
4.
NEGOTIATE with Khrushchev
INVADE Cuba
BLOCKADE Cuba
BOMB the missile sites
 Monday, October 22: KENNEDY
announced his decision to authorize a
NAVAL “QUARANTINE” around Cuba
Eyeball to Eyeball
 The TWO MOST POWERFUL nations in
the world stood “EYEBALL TO EYEBALL”,
on the brink of disaster for 7 DAYS
Timeline of crisis
 October 15 – RECONNAISSANCE
aircraft photographs several nuclear
missiles in Cuba
 October 16 – CRISIS begins,
Kennedy convenes advisors
 October 22 – announcement of
QUARANTINE
 October 23 – DEFCON 2 in effect
 October 24 – quarantine in effect,
SOVIET SHIPS heading toward
blockade
 October 26 – Khrushchev’s first
LETTER to Kennedy
 October 27 – American
reconnaissance plane SHOT DOWN
over Cuba
 October 28 – Khrushchev “BLINKED”:
he ordered all Soviet ships away from
Cuba, AGREED TO REMOVE
MISSILES
After-Effects of Missile Crisis
 KENNEDY and KHRUSHCHEV established a
“HOT LINE”
 LIMITED TEST BAN TREATY: U.S., Soviet
Union, UK signed treaty BANNING nuclear
testing ABOVE
GROUND
COLD WAR AT HOME
Government Response
 The FEAR of communism and the
THREAT of NUCLEAR WAR affected
American life throughout the Cold War
 House UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
Committee
 Probed HOLLYWOOD movie
industry for SUPPORT of
communism,
MEMBERS of Communist
party
 McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
 DISCRIMINATED against potential
immigrants from Asia,
Southern/Central Europe
Meeting the Technology Challenge
 Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 
U.S. responded by creating the NATIONAL
AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
ADMINISTRATION (NASA) in 1958
 Congress also passed the NATIONAL
DEFENSE EDUCATION ACT (designed to
improve science/math instruction in
schools)
Spy Cases
 The convictions of ALGER HISS
and Julius & Ethel ROSENBERG
for SPYING for the Soviet Union
helped fuel SUSPICION about a
CONSPIRACY within the U.S. to
help Communists.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
were FIRST U.S. CIVILIANS
to be executed for
espionage
Alger Hiss went to
PRISON for 4 years
after being
CONVICTED OF
LYING to a federal
grand jury
investigating him for
espionage
Sen. McCarthy and “McCarthyism”
 Sen. JOSEPH
MCCARTHY of
Wisconsin played on
American fears of
communism by
RECKLESSLY
ACCUSING many
government officials
and citizens of being
COMMUNISTS
 His accusations were
based on FLIMSY OR
NO EVIDENCE
 This led to the coining of the term
MCCARTHYISM – the making of false
accusations based on RUMOR or GUILT
BY ASSOCIATION
Civilian Response
 During the 1950s and 1960s, American
SCHOOLS regularly held DRILLS to train
children what to do in case of a NUCLEAR
ATTACK
 American citizens were urged by the
government to build BOMB or FALLOUT
SHELTERS in their BASEMENTS
Cold War and Culture
Other effects of the Cold War
 The Cold War made FOREIGN POLICY a
major issue in EVERY PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION during the period
 HEAVY MILITARY SPENDING throughout
the Cold War benefited VIRGINIA’S
economy more than any other state
 HAMPTON ROADS  naval and air bases
 NORTHERN VIRGINIA  home to Pentagon,
defense contractors