Cuban Missile Crisis Image

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The Fifth image is a cartoon drawn by Victor Weisz, for The Evening Standard published 16 July 1963, the cartoon depicts Khrushchev negotiating with Kennedy and MacMillan over the Berlin wall and the image also shows Khrushchev acting aggressive behind the Chinese wall with Mao on the other side. This cartoon represents the two important problems that Khrushchev had between the before and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first being the Berlin Crisis, which started with Khrushchev trying to force the west out of Berlin and then the construction of the Berlin wall, which turned into the 16 hour tank standoff at checkpoint Charlie. Khrushchev used the event to test the waters after the bay of pigs invasion and see if he could get Berlin without any problems, he said "only a mad man would start a war over Berlin" referring to Kennedy. The crisis was a crucial event which effected Kennedy reaction with the Cuban Missile Crisis, during the crisis he was being hard line with the Soviets and refused to give West Berlin back, he said "we cannot and will not permit the communist to drive us out of Berlin" . At one point he was considering the use a small tactical nuclear strike on Soviet military targets, but he realised 'that there was no direct threat to West Berlin' so Kennedy backed down. This affected his decisions when it came to Cuba, he said on 19 October to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "our problem is not merely Cuba but it is also Berlin. And when we recognize the importance of Berlin to Europe, and recognise the importance of allies to us, that’s what has made this thing a dilemma for 3 days. Otherwise our answer would be quite easy" . The Sino-Soviet split was inevitable by the 1960's due to different views of communism and poor ...

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