Cuba

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.