A Review Lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis for St Gabriel's Secondary School using political cartoons. This presentation looks at the following inquiry question: 1. Why did the CMC break out? 2. Why did the CMC almost lead to nuclear conflict? 3. How was the CMC resolved? 4. What was the impact of the CMC?

1. http://www.slideshare.net/LloydYeo/cuban-missile-
crisis-review-lesson

2. Source Review
 Year
 Audience
 Author
 Main Message

4. Reasons for Cuban Missile Crisis

5. Background factor: Cold War Rivalry
in the 1960s
 Germany and the Berlin Wall: Khrushchev was angry that West
Germany was armed and allowed to join NATO. In 1961, Khrushchev
gave approval for East Germany to build the Berlin Wall to prevent East
German refugees from fleeing to the West. This wall symbolized the
ideological differences between Eastern and Western Europe.
British Cartoon, 17
Oct, 1962
US cartoon,
1957

6.  Nuclear Rivalry: The Soviet Union and USA competed
with each other to see which side had the most number
and most destructive kinds of nuclear weapons. They
included short range to long range missiles which could be
fired from submarines, high altitude bombers or from
missile silos which could be fired from miles away.
British Cartoon,
29 Oct 1962
Title : OK, Mr
President, Let’s Talk.

7. Local events in Cuba
 The Cuban Revolution: In 1959, Cuban rebel leader
Fidel Castro overthrew the government of President
Fulgencio Batista. Within the year, US-Cuba relations
began to get worse over economic policies which Castro
introduced.

8.  Cuban nationalization reforms: Cuba’s main
industry was sugar, tobacco and oil refining.

9.  US embargoes: The USA tried to get back at Cuba by
introducing various economic embargoes One example is
the Cuban Sugar Quota which limited the sale of Cuban
sugar in the USA.

10.  Worsening US-Cuban political relationship: Bay of Pigs Invasion:
In April 1961, US President Kennedy approved the Bay of Pigs Invasion
on Cuba. This was a CIA-plan to arm Cuban exiles with funds, weapons
and landing craft to land in Cuba, rally the Cubans to their side and
overthrow Castro. The Cuban army defeated the Cuban exiles

11.  Operation Mongoose: The USA continued to make
plans to overthrow the Cuban government through
Operation Mongoose

12.  Closer USSR-Cuban
Relationship

13. Missiles in Cuba
 The USSR secretly placed tactical
nuclear missiles for the following
reasons:
 To show Soviet sincerity and willingness
to defend communist countries like Cuba
 To address the Soviet sense of insecurity
especially because Jupiter Intermediate
Range Ballistic Missiles were based in
Turkey which threatened cities in the
Soviet Union.
 To use the missiles in Cuba to call for
further negotiation on other Cold War
issues, perhaps over Berlin and other
places. US Cartoon, Nov 1962

14. German cartoon, 30 Sept 1962. ‘What
do you mean: a menace? Surely it’s all
right to go fishing, isn’t it ?’ O
 On October 14 1962, an
American U2 spy plane
flying on a routine mission
discovered the first
evidence of Soviet nuclear
missile sites in Cuba but,
 USSR refused to admit
that they had placed
nuclear missiles in
Cuba.

16.  USA
 US military advisors
repeatedly wanted to use
military action to resolve
the conflict which could
have led to a nuclear war.
 US forces were at DEFCON 2

17. British Cartoon,
Oct 26, 1962
 USSR
 USA reacted with a 800 mile naval blockade around Cuba
 But Soviet ships however continued to head towards Cuba which
could have led to international incidents which could lead to war.
 Soviet forces in Cuba were also put on high alert and permission was
given to use their tactical nuclear missiles if attacked

18.  Accidents which almost led to war: A U2 spy plane was shot
down by a Soviet missile. The pilot was killed and the US army
wanted to retaliate by destroying the Soviet missile site.
Kennedy decided against it.
 A US warship dropped non-lethal depth charges on a nuclear-
armed Soviet submarine to force it to surface.

20.  Going against the advice of military
generals
 Both Khrushchev and Kennedy
understood the dangers of nuclear war
and ignored their commanders who
advised the use of military attacks to
resolve the conflict.

21.  Willingness to compromise
 The USSR agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for
a promise from the USA not to invade Cuba and to remove Jupiter
missiles from Turkey
 The USA give more assistance to authoritarian and repressive but pro-
US governments like in South Vietnam. This led to the Vietnam War.

22.  Use of secret back-
door diplomacy
 The USSR and the
USA changed to use
secret back-door
diplomacy to defuse
the crisis.
 Kennedy’s brother,
Robert F. Kennedy
and the Soviet
Ambassador Anatoly
Dobrynin worked
behind the scenes
and met secretly
three times to iron
out issues.

23.  Role of the United
Nations : U Thant
appealed for Soviet
vessels to stay away
from the blockade
area for a limited
time. U Thant also
appealed to Kennedy
to instruct US vessels
to do everything
possible to avoid
direct confrontation
with Soviet ships.

25.  Improved US-Soviet relations
 Within the year, a direct "hotline" telephone link was set
up between the White House and Kremlin to improve
communications between both superpowers

26.  Nuclear disarmament
 In August 1963, a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was
signed between the USA, the Soviet Union
and Britain. This agreement only allowed
nuclear tests to be carried underground and
was later extended to other nuclear powers.

27.  More proxy wars in
Third World
Countries
 The Cuban Missile
Crisis made US policy
makers more
confidant of
Containment
doctrine.
 It led to more support
for authoritarian, US
allies in countries like
South Vietnam,
leading to the
Vietnam War.

28.  Cuba remained
a Communist
state
 During the
Cuban Missile
Crisis, Kennedy
also promised in
a 'gentleman's
agreement' that
there would be
no US invasion
of Cuba.

29.  Fall of Khrushchev
from power
 In October 1964,
Khrushchev was
removed from power
and kept under house
arrest for seven years,
till his death in 1971.