Cuban Missile Crisis

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overthrow Fidel Castro and implement a more U.S.-friendly government, but the force was crushed in an embarrassing defeat. This left the world stunned. How could President Kennedy allow such a thing to happen? It marked the first of many events that led to the , which occurred over a year later. The Bay of Pigs incident broke all of the little trust that the Cubans had left I the United States, and ignited the support of Castro by the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's strong backing of his ally was a direct result of the invasion. The day of the incident, he wrote a note to Washington expressing his unhappiness and pledging that he would give "all necessary assistance to Castro" (Walton p104). This in turn alarmed the U.S. The last thing a nation that was stricken with fear of Communism needed was Soviet support a mere 90 miles from its coast. With Cuba and the Soviets now banded together, it was only a matter of time before their interests would clash with those of the United States. There ...

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In May of 1962, he ordered the Cubans to create bases from which mid-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles could be launched. These missiles had the capability of carrying nuclear warheads that could potentially threaten the entire southeastern United States. Whether Khrushchev's actions were typical military secrecy or not, he always maintained that his motives were purely defensive. He clearly felt no more wrong than the United States in its questionable military positioning in Turkey and other locations, and said as much in his September 11 statement: The whole world knows that the United States of America has ringed the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries with bases. ...

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