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Cubin Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis
occurred in 1962 when the
Soviet Union began to
install nuclear missiles in
Cuba. The United States
refused to allow this and
after thirteen tense days
and many secret
negotiations, the Soviet
Union agreed to remove the
missiles.
This is perhaps the closest
that the United States and
the Soviet Union came to
nuclear war during the Cold
War.
Leading up to the Crisis
 Prior to the crisis the U.S. had attempted to
overthrow Castro and the current government of
Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion.
 The U.S. had installed several nuclear missile
sites in Turkey and Italy with the range to strike
Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union.
 As a result, the Soviet Union felt they needed
missile sites that could strike at the U.S. At the
same time the Cuban government wanted
protection from the United States. They decided to
work together and have the Soviet Union put
nuclear missiles in Cuba that could strike most any
How the Crisis Began
 On October 14,
1962 an American
U-2 spy plane
flying over Cuba
captured pictures
of long range
Soviet missiles in
Cuba. This was a
crisis like never
before. These
missiles could
reach any point of
the U.S. with
nuclear warheads
causing mass
destruction.
 President
Kennedy called a
meeting with his
main security
advisors. They
considered a
number of options
from diplomacy to
a full scale attack
and invasion on
Cuba. The Joint
Chiefs of Staff
voted to invade.
They felt this was
the only viable
option. However,
Kennedy was
concerned that
Blockade
Kennedy announced his plan on October
22, 1962. He showed the world the missile
bases and said that the U.S. would be
putting Cuba under “quarantine”. This
meant that no offensive weapons would be
allowed to enter Cuba. He also said that any
attack on the U.S. from Cuba would be
considered an act of war from the Soviet
Union.
Over the next several days the crisis
became more intense. The Soviet Union
said they would not back down. By the
24th, Kennedy believed the U.S. would have
to invade Cuba.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50R
Negotiations and Results
Although the Soviet Union was publicly saying they would never back down, they
were secretly negotiating with the United States. Eventually the two sides reached an
agreement. The Soviet Union would remove the missiles from Cuba as long as the
United States agreed to never invade Cuba again. In secret, the U.S. also had to agree
to remove their nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy. The crisis was over.
The crisis was President Kennedy’s greatest moment. After the Bay of Pigs failure
and the Berlin Wall, his leadership had come into question. The world could feel
confident in the leader of the United States again.
Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev, left, and
U.S. President John F.
Kennedy
Collapse of the Soviet
Union
The collapse of the Soviet
Union started in the late
1980s and was complete
when the country broke
up into 15 independent
states on December 25,
1991. This signaled the
end of the Cold War
between the Soviet
Union and the United
States.
Mikhail Gorbachev Becomes
General Secretary
 Elected General
Secretary of the
Soviet Union in
1985. When he
took over the
economy was in
bad shape and his
idea was to
reform the
economy and
modernize the
political situation
in the country.
Glasnost
 Allowed more freedom of speech and
openness in government.
 Government officials would be held
accountable to the people for their
actions.
 Although Glasnost was a good thing
for the people, it also allowed people to
protest and the media to report on
issues for the first time. Many of the
outlying states used this new found
freedom to express their desire for
independence.
Perestroika
 Means “restructuring”
Gorbachev meant to restructure the Soviet economy to work more efficiently. He
allowed some private ownership and released some of the tight control the
government had on the economy.
 However, the people and economy of the Soviet Union were used to the government
doing everything…things got worse before they got better!
Baltic Region
With the new
found freedom of
Gorbachev’s
reforms, some
outlying Soviet
states began to
rebel. The first to
demand their
freedom were the
Baltic states of
Estonia, Lithuania,
and Latvia.
Nationalist Movement Spreads
Soon more states
wanted their
independence
including Armenia,
Moldova, Ukraine,
and Georgia. The
central government
of the Soviet Union
began to feel the
pressure of so many
states wanting
independence.
Attempted Takeover of the
Government
With the communist government on the verge of collapse, Soviet hardliners decided
to take action. In August of 1991, they kidnapped Gorbachev and announced to the
world that he was too sick to govern. They would be taking over. When the Soviet
citizens began to protest, the hardliners called in the military to shut them down.
However, the soldiers refused to shoot and arrest their own people. Without the
military to back them up, the takeover had failed.
The Soviet Union Breaks Up
On December 24, 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. At the same tie Mikhail
Gorbachev announced his resignation. The Soviet Union divided up into 15 separate
independent countries including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Estonia
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan