Cuban Missile Crisis
In July of 1959, the Cuban people led a revolution against the ruthless dictator Batista. The revolution was led by a man named Fidel Castro. After the revolution was successful, the US tried to prevent Castro from adopting communism, but they failed. Once Cuba was officially communism, the US needed to oust Castro. Thus started the Bay of Pigs operation. The Bay of Pigs operation was a US effort to get Castro out of power by training rebels to start another revolution. The problem, though, was that when Kennedy went into office, he did not send extra US troops to back up the rebels. This led to the defeat of the rebels, and it also led to Fidel Castro being the man of the year.
In July of 1962, a US spy plane flying over Cuba discovered missile launchers. This led the US to find out that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was going to send missiles into Cuba, right on the United States' doorstep. The US had three options of how to handle the situation. The first was to simply attack Cuba. The second was to negotiate, but then the US would need to explain how they found out through the use of illegally flying their spy plane over Cuba's land. President Kennedy chose a third option, and that was to use brinkmanship. They would set up a blockade, and if the Soviet Union broke through the blockade, WWIII would start. This was what the entire world feared.
The Soviets ended up backing down, proving Kennedy to be a strong leader and Khrushchev a weak one. Kennedy, Castro, and Khrushchev sat down eventually and negotiated what the result of this incident would be. They concluded that the Soviet Union would need to remove their missiles and launchers from Cuba, but in return, the US would need to leave Cuba alone, as well as get rid of secret missiles in Turkey.
In July of 1962, a US spy plane flying over Cuba discovered missile launchers. This led the US to find out that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was going to send missiles into Cuba, right on the United States' doorstep. The US had three options of how to handle the situation. The first was to simply attack Cuba. The second was to negotiate, but then the US would need to explain how they found out through the use of illegally flying their spy plane over Cuba's land. President Kennedy chose a third option, and that was to use brinkmanship. They would set up a blockade, and if the Soviet Union broke through the blockade, WWIII would start. This was what the entire world feared.
The Soviets ended up backing down, proving Kennedy to be a strong leader and Khrushchev a weak one. Kennedy, Castro, and Khrushchev sat down eventually and negotiated what the result of this incident would be. They concluded that the Soviet Union would need to remove their missiles and launchers from Cuba, but in return, the US would need to leave Cuba alone, as well as get rid of secret missiles in Turkey.