US attitudes to Cuba and developments leading to the missile crisis
12. Confrontation between the superpowers
Historical background, pre 1959 The
- The Caribbean was regarded as the USA’s back yard, the Cuban
constitution gave the USA rights of intervention and required Cuba to The 13 days of the missile crisis
provide land for naval bases hence the US base at Guantanamo Bay - The soviet deployment of missiles in Cuba was supposed to be a secret
- Fidel Castro returned to Cuba in Dec 1956 with his brother Rual after a but this ended on 14th October when a U-2 spy plane showed an R-12
period in exile along with him also cam Guevara and 79 supporters missile site at San Cristobal
- These supporters were dubbed los barbudos and they started a - On 16th Oct Kennedy’s security advisor Bundy informed him of the
guerrilla campaign against Batista presence of soviet missiles in Cuba
- On 1st Jan 1959 Batista’s regime collapsed and Castro rode - Kennedy made a committee known as ExComm with the groups main
triumphantly into Cuba’s capital city Havan role to consider policy options and their consequences
- Other members of ExComm were Robert McNamara, Robert Kenedy,
General Taylor
- ExComm consisted of hawks and doves
- The USA didn’t want to take action that would risk splitting the NATO
Early developments, 1958-60 alliance - Brin
- The US showed little support for Batista during the uprising as there was no USSR reco
- Given the U2 spy plane information it was clear that an air strike
intervention in the uprising - Khru
wouldn’t be feasible appe
- In may 1958 Nixon conducted a goodwill visit to a number of Latin American states
which led to a shift in US policy about the region
- Kennedy opted for a naval blockade that would stem the flow of - Kenn
- The USA supported the creation of a regional banking institution and Eisenhower missiles entering Cuba after initially supporting a “no warning attack” 26th
trad
order an embargo on arms shipments to Batista - Along with this US bases were put on maximum alert for a possible
- Castro had to maintain his authority in Cuba despite the withdrawal of US - On t
military strike against Cuba as Kennedy hadn’t lost sight of a soviet non
economic aid, in may 1959 Castro announced a programme of land reform which
attack against Cuba seem
led to American owned property being seized
- Mikoyan visited Cuba in Feb 1960 and arranged $100 million in credits with Castro - The next day the UN met and the US ambassador to the UN Stevenson - On t
which tied Cuba to the USSR condemned the soviet deployment and referred to Cuba as “an plan
- In April 1960 when US owned oil refineries refused to refine USSR shipped oil - The
accomplice in the communist enterprise of world domination”
Castro seized them, then in Oct 1960 Castro seized $1 billion of US assets, by 1961 And
- Neither the soviet ambassador to the UN Zorin or the ambassador to strik
the USA decided it was time to remove Castro
the USA Dobrynin had been told of the deployment by Moscow Kenn
- Khrushchev called the blockade “an act of aggression pushing mankind - NAT
The Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose 1961 - Cast
towards the abyss of a world nuclear missile war”
- The invasion planned to enable 1500 anti Castro exiles to land in Cuba and and
carry out a military coup to remove him - By 24th Oct the 1st soviet ships to reach the quarantine either stopped
- Kennedy chose to support the CIA in this but it proved to be a disaster and a dead or turned around
humiliation to Kennedy and confirmed soviet fears about the USA’s
intentions for Cuba -
- 30th Nov 1961 Kennedy authorised Operation Mongoose, its aim was to
overthrow Castro and his regime primarily through the use of covert -
operations within Cuba to destabilise it
- Kennedy appointed General Lansdale to head the operation -
- The air strike plan called OPLAN 312 and land based one called OPLAN 314
- Though before now the US hadn’t stopped USSR arms shipments but in
12. Confrontation between the superpowers
Historical background, pre 1959 The
- The Caribbean was regarded as the USA’s back yard, the Cuban
constitution gave the USA rights of intervention and required Cuba to The 13 days of the missile crisis
provide land for naval bases hence the US base at Guantanamo Bay - The soviet deployment of missiles in Cuba was supposed to be a secret
- Fidel Castro returned to Cuba in Dec 1956 with his brother Rual after a but this ended on 14th October when a U-2 spy plane showed an R-12
period in exile along with him also cam Guevara and 79 supporters missile site at San Cristobal
- These supporters were dubbed los barbudos and they started a - On 16th Oct Kennedy’s security advisor Bundy informed him of the
guerrilla campaign against Batista presence of soviet missiles in Cuba
- On 1st Jan 1959 Batista’s regime collapsed and Castro rode - Kennedy made a committee known as ExComm with the groups main
triumphantly into Cuba’s capital city Havan role to consider policy options and their consequences
- Other members of ExComm were Robert McNamara, Robert Kenedy,
General Taylor
- ExComm consisted of hawks and doves
- The USA didn’t want to take action that would risk splitting the NATO
Early developments, 1958-60 alliance - Brin
- The US showed little support for Batista during the uprising as there was no USSR reco
- Given the U2 spy plane information it was clear that an air strike
intervention in the uprising - Khru
wouldn’t be feasible appe
- In may 1958 Nixon conducted a goodwill visit to a number of Latin American states
which led to a shift in US policy about the region
- Kennedy opted for a naval blockade that would stem the flow of - Kenn
- The USA supported the creation of a regional banking institution and Eisenhower missiles entering Cuba after initially supporting a “no warning attack” 26th
trad
order an embargo on arms shipments to Batista - Along with this US bases were put on maximum alert for a possible
- Castro had to maintain his authority in Cuba despite the withdrawal of US - On t
military strike against Cuba as Kennedy hadn’t lost sight of a soviet non
economic aid, in may 1959 Castro announced a programme of land reform which
attack against Cuba seem
led to American owned property being seized
- Mikoyan visited Cuba in Feb 1960 and arranged $100 million in credits with Castro - The next day the UN met and the US ambassador to the UN Stevenson - On t
which tied Cuba to the USSR condemned the soviet deployment and referred to Cuba as “an plan
- In April 1960 when US owned oil refineries refused to refine USSR shipped oil - The
accomplice in the communist enterprise of world domination”
Castro seized them, then in Oct 1960 Castro seized $1 billion of US assets, by 1961 And
- Neither the soviet ambassador to the UN Zorin or the ambassador to strik
the USA decided it was time to remove Castro
the USA Dobrynin had been told of the deployment by Moscow Kenn
- Khrushchev called the blockade “an act of aggression pushing mankind - NAT
The Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose 1961 - Cast
towards the abyss of a world nuclear missile war”
- The invasion planned to enable 1500 anti Castro exiles to land in Cuba and and
carry out a military coup to remove him - By 24th Oct the 1st soviet ships to reach the quarantine either stopped
- Kennedy chose to support the CIA in this but it proved to be a disaster and a dead or turned around
humiliation to Kennedy and confirmed soviet fears about the USA’s
intentions for Cuba -
- 30th Nov 1961 Kennedy authorised Operation Mongoose, its aim was to
overthrow Castro and his regime primarily through the use of covert -
operations within Cuba to destabilise it
- Kennedy appointed General Lansdale to head the operation -
- The air strike plan called OPLAN 312 and land based one called OPLAN 314
- Though before now the US hadn’t stopped USSR arms shipments but in
