My report is about the Cuba Crisis which was a
highlight in the Cold War between the superpowers USA
and USSR (Soviet
Union). Among highlights were the Corean war (1950-1953), the construction
of Berlin wall (1961), the Vietnamese war
(1946-1975) and the cutthroat of both systems in the Third
World.
The Cold War wasn't really a war in it's
ordinary meaning. There wasn't any direct military contact, but there were many
fierce economic, diplomatic and ideological conflicts since 1917, in which the Soviet Union had been founded and declared war on the
western system.
Now I am going to tell you the facts, which
led to the Cuba
crisis. It started in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over in Cuba. One year later he began to nationalize
companies, also american. That was part of his revolution. The american weren't
pleased with that action and so they stopped trading with Cuba. So Cuba made friendship with Russia,
economically and politically.
The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) planed
the invasion of Cuba.
About 1300 exile-cubans, equiped with US-weapons, had to go in two days from south
Cuba to Havana (capital). There they had the order to
overthrow Castro. The CIA thought, that many cubans and maybe some cuban armed
forces would join them. John F. Kennedy, the successor of Dwight D. Eisenhower,
permitted the plan. So the exile-cubans landed on Cuba on the 17th of April in 1961.
But the cubans hit the invaders back. After 2 days of hard fight 100 invaders
had been killed and about 1200 arrested by cuban armed forces.
After that failed invasion the american
government and the CIA had been denounced inner- and outerpolitically.
Especially the russian government was shocked. In summer 1962 the russians deployed
some rockets on Cuba to
protect the island of following attacks and to have an advantage over the
armament race between the US
and the USSR.
In mid-October american scout planes discovered the russian military bases. In
the evening of the 22nd of October in 1962 John F. Kennedy said in a broadcast
that the United States of
America wouldn't except that action. From
the 24th of October on the US
would stop all ships with destination Cuba, search for offensive weapons
and if these are existing, send the ships back. At the same time american
forces on the whole world had been put on the alert. Planes with atomic bombs
were all time long in the air, waiting for the call from Washington
to bomb Moscow. The situation seemed to escalate from the
Cold War to the Hot War. And this would have been the 3rd World War with use of
nuclear weapons.
On the 28th of October 1962 the russian
president Nikita Chruschtschow decided, after intensive negotiations, to remove
the military bases. In return for that action the US
won't do an invasion of Cuba
again and they removed Moscow- faced rockets from
the Turkey.
1963 the Cuba
crisis ended. Both superpowers installed the "hot line", a direct connected
telegraph connection from the "white house" (Washington)
to the "Kremlin" (Moscow)
to communicate in a better way. And even to resolve problems faster. They also
ran a worldwide policy of détente, or better: they tried to. They began to run
a policy of detente in the 70s. The Cold War ended with the break down of the Soviet Union in the early 90s.
