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.
