The Cold War: The Cuban Missile Crisis

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Fear is defined as an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger(“Fear” Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary). Imagine waking up everyday in fear. Not knowing whether today would be the last day walking the earth. This is the fear that Americans lived in for thirteen straight days. The Cuban missile crisis consisted of thirteen days of an intense military standoff between the United states and the Soviet Union. In the 20th century, the Cuban missile crisis erupted along side the Cold War Era. Throughout World War II, the Soviet Union and the U.S. fought as allies, battling the axis powers. Although they were allies, America was worried about Stalin and USSR communism. (“The Cold War.”) This contributed …show more content…

Florida is located close to the Cuban coastline, which is about 90 miles off the Florida shore. This posed a great threat with location alone. The Havana site located in Cuba was the main location which housed their nuclear weapons. This allowed for Cuba to fire long range nuclear weapons on to American soil. The capability be able to reach any mass populated American city in less than three thousand miles (“Cuban Missile Crisis.” 2). To put this in perspective, this is about the whole width of the United States. Even though, this might seem like a long ways, the amount of destruction/danger this causes when you have a missile traveling at over five thousand meters/second is tremendous (“Cuban Missile Crisis: Missing Details.”). In addition to the location of Cuba being a factor in heightening the war, there was a history of past conflicts with Cuba that contributed as well. In 1898, the U.S. stepped in to help Cuba when they were being taken over by the Spanish. This lead to the United States fighting in the Spanish American War. After the war ended, Spain signed Cuba over to the United States (Lapsansky-Werner). This angered the Cubans because they still wanted to be …show more content…

A blockade is defined as an act of war by which a belligerent prevents access to or departure from a defined part of the enemy’s coasts” (“Cuban Missile Crisis.” 2). President Kennedy declared that any ships carrying nuclear weapons trying to pass into Cuban territory will be taken in control by the US Navy. Soviet Union ships attempted to find new ways around the Blockade. JFK, then sent a letter stating to the Soviets that “the United States would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, and demanded that the Soviets dismantled the missile bases already under construction or completed, and return all offensive weapons to the U.S.S.R”(“The Cold War.”). All of these events, lead to the start of a period of time that would be known as the darkest part of the Cold War. These thirteen days from October 16th - 28th, 1962 (“The Cold War.” ) were known as the darkest time. Moreover, President JFK went on national television to tell Americans what they had found in Cuba and how they were going to resolve the issue with nuclear weapons in

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