Historical Context of The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the soviet union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. It was 1962 and in all of its glory and gore, world war two had ended 17 years prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis which was during the tough and murky waters of the cold war. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a future invasion.

A consensus was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July of 1962, which ended in the construction of a number of missile sites later that summer. The 1962 elections were underway and the white house had denied charges that it was ignoring dangerous ballistic missiles 90 miles away from Florida. However, the missile preparations were confirmed when an air force u-2 produced a clear photograph of evidence of medium range and intermediate range ballistic missile facilities. The United States established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba; oval office tapes later showed that Kennedy had also put the blockade in place in an attempt to provoke Soviet-backed forces in Berlin as well. It was announced that the united states would not permit offensive weapons to be shipped to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba were to be dismantled and sent back to Russia.

After 13 days of these long and tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between President Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the soviet union subject to the united nations verification, in exchange for a United States public declaration and avoid invading Cuba again. Secretly the united states also agreed that they would dismantle all United States- built Jupiter MRMBs which had been deployed in turkey against the soviet union; there has been a debate on whether or not Italy has been a part of this agreement as sufficient evidence on this has not been released yet. When all offensive missiles and Ilyushin 11-28 light bombers had been withdrawn from Cuba, the naval blockade was formally ended on November 21, 1962.

The negotiations between the United States and the soviet union pointed out the necessity of quick, clear and direct communication line between Washington and Moscow. As a result, the Washington-Moscow line was established. A series of us-soviet tensions were reduced for several years.