Cuban Missile Crisis
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The United States was ready to pounce on Cuban territory and on the Soviet Union was willing to go nuclear in defense of the island. The two men that can be said to have been responsible for averting the war are President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The whole scene began when the Soviet Union conceived the idea of deploying intermediate range missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev thought this to be an appropriate idea so that they could have the United States within their range and thus reduce the risk of a potential attack on the part of the American government. This was otherwise impossible because the Union lacked such long range missiles that could target the United States from their homeland.
Feeling the constant threat of another armed attack on the little island Fidel Castro more than agreed with the plan of the Soviet Premier. The work began in 1962 when the Union started to build their missile installations in Cuba in a secret manner. However they got caught red handed when the reconnaissance photographs captured the under construction sites in Cuba. When hearing the news the president Kennedy set up the EX-COMM who reached to a general agreement to deploy a naval quarantine around the waters of Cuba. Following this the news; was that any launch from Cuba would be considered as a war on the United States. With the navy preventing further Soviet Union approach President John F. Kennedy demanded them to back out of the plan. The navy was pulled back and after which the Soviet Premier proposed to remove the missiles based on the guarantee that the U.S would not attack Cuba. The next day a U2 was shot down with a follow up letter from the Premier asking the American government to remove their missiles from Turkey in exchange. As a strategic move the American Government decided to ignore the second letter and settle for the first deal. As a result Khrushchev announced that he would take back the missiles to Soviet territory claiming that he would trust the U.S not to attack Cuba. In the next few days the deal was formalized with the United states putting forward their complete proposal which included the removal of Soviet light bombers as well in return for the assurance that the United States would not attack Cuba. |
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