The Cuban Missile Crisis

Kennedy mainly dealt with issues surrounding the Cold war. In 1961, he gave approval to the CIA to use Cuban exiles to overthrow then Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. In April the CIA arrived in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to attempt setting of a general uprising. The mission however, was a failure and the CIA members were forced to surrender. This event strengthened the tensions between the United States and Cuba ultimately affecting the tensions with the Soviet Union.

Subsequently, the Cuban leader Castro was upset with the United States. Furthermore causing the Cuban missile crisis, which was also in the midst of the Cold War. The whole situation was based on the fear of one country taking over the other. The U.S discovered that the Russians were building underground sites in Cuba to launch missiles to the United States. The missiles, subsequently, could reach the United States in just minutes.

As the country began to panic, Kennedy announced that he was setting up a naval blockade of Cuba until the Soviets and Cubans had removed the weapons. A blockade stops any shipments in the blockade are and is considered an act of war. During this time period, the threat of nuclear war seemed likely. If the Soviet ships had challenged the United States blockade in fact, the American public believed it certain to call for nuclear war. Measures such as schools having bombing drills even had been taken. Days had gone by when the Soviet leader Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in Cuba on a plea that Kennedy not invade the island nation.

Although the Cuban Missile Crisis was a scare for many Americans, the situation ended more positively than not, especially for President Kennedy. By contacting the Soviets during such a crisis meant that both the United States and the Soviet Union could commerce openly, vital for being future allies. The Soviet Union, the United States, and almost one hundred other countries signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, outlawing the test of Nuclear Bombs in the Atmosphere in 1963.