The Cuban Missile Crisis was what happened when Cuba built missile sites in 1962. It was a period of tension between Cuba and the United States.

Cuba took over some American businesses which were making things there. America refused to buy anything from Cuba after that. Cuba had to sell things to the Russians and the USA and Russia were not friendly. America was worried that Russia would attack America through Cuba, since Cuba is near enough to the United States that the missiles could reach any important American city.

America blocked ships from going into Cuba. the Russians and Cubans agreed to remove the missiles if America didn't invade Cuba. America later removed some missiles from the country of Turkey, near Russia. But whether anyone "won" isn't really known, and Russia lost China's support over it.

Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro took power from Colonel Batista in Cuba in 1959. Batista was a dictator in Cuba, and very right-wing. Normally, the United States would have nothing to do with Cuba if it were not for the many businesses that they had there. The countries were also military friends. This was shown by the US base at Guantánamo Bay. When Castro came to power in Cuba, he nationalised American companies in Cuba. This was considered an insult to American business.^[1] The United States decided to break off economic relations with Cuba^[2] (which means that they would stop buying things from them). They stopped all aid going to Cuba and stopped buying Cuban sugar (which was Cuba's main export). This was a disaster for Castro, because America bought the most Cuban sugar. Because of this, Cuba got much of their economic resources from the United States. Castro had to try and find another country to sell sugar to in order to avoid Cuba losing all its money.

The Solution

Castro turned to the USSR, still powerful in that time. He signed a contract with Nikita Krushchev, the Russian president at the time. The contract said that the USSR would buy 1 million tonnes of Cuban sugar once a year, every year. But Castro had to become a Communist.

The reasons that Krushchev wanted to help Cuba were the following:

He wanted a Communist state close to United States.
He wanted to test the new president John F. Kennedy.
He wanted a chance to get the American missile sites off of Turkey, which was close to Russia.

The Bay of Pigs

The United States was worried that Castro had become a Communist. This was a threat to American security. The CIA organised an operation called the Bay of Pigs. The goal was for Cuban people who were still loyal to Colonel Batista to attack Cuba, with the help of the American airforce, and overthrow Castro.

As the troops set off to attack Cuba, Kennedy grew nervous. He thought that an American backed operation against a Communist state would lead to a full scale war against Krushchev. Kennedy decided not to provide American air support at the last moment. This led to the Bay of Pigs being a complete failure. Kennedy was humiliated in the United States and also the USSR.

The results of the Bay of Pigs

Castro wanted to feel safe from the United States. He knew that if a second Bay of Pigs happened, that Cuba might loose and he would be removed from power. He asked Krushchev for missile sites to be built on Cuba so that he could defend himself against any American threat. The USSR agreed to this and started building missile sites on Cuba. These missles could hit every major city in the United States.
When Kennedy found out about the missile sites on October 16^[3] by sending a spy plane to take pictures of Cuba,^[4] he saw the missile sites and immediatly came to the worst conclusion: that Cuba was preparing to attack the USA.

Kennedy's Options

The United States was outraged when they found out about the missile sites. Kennedy had to act fast. His options were:

Options	For	Against
Do nothing	Avoids a war	Kennedy would become unpopular. A threat to US security
Attack	Would destroy missile sites.	Casualties would be great. Could lead to a war
Diplomatic pressure	Would avoid a war	USSR could win
Build a Blockade	No casualties. Could make Castro fall	Missile sites would still be there.

Kennedy chose to build a blockade around Cuba to stop all ships going there.^[5] The blockade was put in place on October 20.

Krushchev's Options

The USSR's first ships arrived at the blockade on October 25 and were turned away. Krushchev sent a letter to Kennedy saying that he would remove the missile sites if he promised not to invade Cuba. An invasion of Cuba would make Krushchev look bad and could also lead to a nuclear war. This was the reaction that Kennedy wanted.

Krushchev then sent a second letter saying that Kennedy should also remove some American missile sites in Turkey to make things fair. Kennedy removed the sites after the crisis was over.

On November 1, the missile sites were removed and the problems were over.

Who won the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Nobody really knows who won the Cuban Missile Crisis. Krushchev said that he had won because the United States never bothered Cuba again and the missile sites in Turkey were removed. But he had lost respect from China. China broke off relations with the USSR and Krushchev had to quit.

Khrushchev goals in the crisis had various results:

A communist country was close the the United States. Cuba came out of the crisis still a communist country.
Kennedy was pushed in the crisis. In the end, his desire for peace was important to ending the crisis.
The missle sites in Turkey were removed, but not in the way that Khrushchev had wanted.

The United States saw Kennedy as the hero who had fought Communism and won.