Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The causes of the Cuban
missile crisis 1962
- The Cuban Revolution 1959
- Since 1898 - Cuba had been under political
and economic influence of USA
- By mid 1900s - USA owned much of Cuban economy
- From 1933 - Cuba ruled by Batista - ruthless military dictator
- Encouraged economic involvement with USA in return for
US support of his brutal, corrupt and unpopular regime
- Jan 1959 - Batista overthrown by revolutionaries -
led by Castro - Batista fled into exile
- Growing US-Cuban tension 1959-1961
- Initially - Castro seemed to be a liberal nationalist - and
had no programme to nationalise US interests in Cuba
- However - relations soon deteriorated and Castro became
increasingly dependent on the USSR
- Tensions between Cuba and US increased due to:
- Castro's meeting with US Vice-President Nixon in New York -April
59 - didn't go well - Nixon concluded that Castro was a communist
- Castro's imprisonment and execution of some of
Batista's supporters was condemned by US
- Many Batista supporters fled to USA where they campaigned for
a US backed invasion of Cuba - this hardened Castro's attitude
- Castro wanted to make Cuba independent of US influence -
so he distributed land to poor peasants who had previously
been exploited by Batista and US businesses
- US-owned oil companies in Cuba refused to refine the cheaper
Soviet oil - Castro responded by nationalising the refineries
- Feb 1960 - Castro signed trade deal with USSR to nationalise US
interests in Cuba that were worth over $1 billion
- July 60 - US imposed economic blockade on Cuba - thereby
refusing to buy its sugar - USSR bought the crop and sent Castro
petrol after the USA refused to ship supplies
- Early 1961 - Castro formally embraced communism
- Bay of Pigs Invasion April 1961
- 61 - Kennedy authorised CIA-backed invasion of Cuba
- Aim - spark popular revolt to overthrow Castro
- Some 1400 lightly-armed anti-Castro exiles
landed at the Bay of Pigs
- They were quickly overwhelmed by the Cuban army and air force
- Failure was deep humiliation for Kennedy who
could not conceal the USA's involvement
- Castro reacted by entering into a defensive agreement with the USSR -
which brought Soviet weapons and military advisers to Cuba
- By early 62 - K had supplied Cuba with MiG jets and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs)
- Operation Mongoose October 1961
- 6 months after Bay of Pigs - CIA with Kennedy's
support launched Operation Mongoose
- A secret programme designed to destablise the
Cuban regime and topple Castro
- Jan-July 1962 - 60000 acts of sabotage - ranging
from murder to arson - were carried out
- USA also held large scale military exercises in
the Caribbean to increase pressure on Cuba and
demonstrate US's armed might
- Both Castro and USSR expected USA to invade
- Soviet nuclear weapons on Cuba 1962
- Early september 1962 - USSR secretly started to
install 24 medium range ballistic missile launchers and
16 longer range ones in Cuba
- Each launcher would hold 2 missiles - both containing
a one megaton warheard
- Soviets also sent:
- 42 jet bombers
- 42 jet fighters
- 24 advanced SAMs
- 4 elite army regiments
- 2 tank battalions
- over 40,000 troops and other personnel
- Khrushchev described this build up as 'throwing a
hedgehog down Uncle Sam's underpants'
- Khrushchev's Precise motives for this aren't
clear but probably include the following
- to defend Cuba from an expected US invasion
- to bargain for removal of US
missiles in Turkey and Italy
- to further humiliate Kennedy after Bay of Pigs failure
- to put pressure on West to leave Berlin
- to achieve nuclear parity with USA by making US
cities more vulnerable to attack