HIS344 Final Exam Study Notes (2) - HIS344 Final Exam Study...

HIS344 Final Exam Study Notes
1 st Semester:
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Causes:
 The Cuban Revolution of 1959 + Bay of Pigs 1961 = growing American Animosity
 Soviet support of Cuba (replacing American influence); Khrushchev’s unease over USSR
lag in arms race
 Growing tensions between US & USSR especially after Berlin Crisis of 1961
Consequences:
 Both sides alienated their allies: Cuba was angry with USSR for succumbing to the
American ultimatum; Turkey was angry with US because they didn’t include them in the
discussion about the removal of the Jupiter IRBMs
 Cuba remained communist & was isolated from the rest of Latin America; 1964 OAS
countries suspended diplomatic & trade relations with the country
 This shaped US policy towards Latin America for the following years because of the
perceived threat of Cuba and the spread of communism in Latin America – led to
unilateral interference in those states throughout the 1970s-80s
Timeline
1959 – Cuban Revolution; in April Fidel visits US and promotes cooperation & friendliness but
Eisenhower wouldn’t even directly meet with him
– Agrarian Reform Law implemented by Castro, land expropriated, US companies stood to
lose 1.6 million acres of land
Feb 1960 – Deputy Chairman of Soviet Council of Ministers goes to Havana to negotiate
economic partnership (already growing military partnership); Moscow agrees
to give Cuba $200 million in low-interest loans & committed to buying 4 million
tonnes of sugar every year
September 1960 – Castro goes to NYC, UN General Assembly meeting, Khrushchev boasts
about their alliance
October 1960 – Castro nationalizes all commercial enterprises
October 19 1960 – Eisenhower imposes embargo on Cuba on everything except medical supplies
and foodstuff
April 17 1961 – Bay of Pigs fiasco – 1,600 CIA trained Cuban exiles arrive at Playa de Giron,
assumed that Castro’s supporters would defect & they would be able to
remove the government from power, but the people on the island were
loyal & within 2 days all of the invaders were dead or in prison; Cuba was
seen as a serious threat to US national security – as a result, throughout 1961-
1962 there was a covert continued US attempt to destabilize Cuban gov’t
through Operation Mongoose

February 1962 – Kennedy in power; extends the Cuban embargo, eliminated the part about
allowing medical aid & foodstuff (what a dick)
April 1962 – Cuba asks USSR for weapons as defense against possible US attack. USSR gives it
to them and also offers nuclear weapons as well; never before had USSR
offered transfer of nuclear weapons to any other territory not even Eastern
Europe or China; Khrushchev assumed that the US wouldn’t know about the
transfer of weapons and he would tell them once it was done and Kennedy
would be confronted with fait accompli
October 14 1962 – Kennedy authorizes U-2 mission, gets photographic evidence that Soviet
missile sites under construction in Cuba
Oct 16-20 – Ex Com meetings on how to handle the situation; they decided that merely