Write short note on the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Cuba went under communist rule in January 1959, when a guerilla army led by Fidel Castro ousted the corrupt Batista regime. U.S.A. had a lot of business interests in Cuba. Fidel Castro went immediately on the offensive and nationalized industries and concerned owned by U.S.A. Thousands of Cubans fled to the USA in boats.

President Dwight D Eisenhower of U.S.A., decided to adopt an aggressive policy towards Cuba. He began to develop a secret army of Cuban refugees in the USA for an attack on Cuba to oust the communist regime. His successor President John F. Kennedy gave the signal to this army to launch an attack from the USA military base in Guantanamo Bay.

The small force of Cuba about 1,400 men landed on the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. The operation was not well planned and Castro’s forces had no difficulty in wiping out the invaders assisted by U.S.A.

Meanwhie, the USSR had been giving Cuba a lot of economic assistance to tide over the crisis in their economy, caused by U.S.A.s policy of blockading Cuba in 1962, the Americans were shocked to learn that the Soviets had established missile bases inside Cuba and this was also proved by photographs taken from the satellites and aircraft’s.

This implied that in the event of a war, the USA could he bombarded with missiles and the Americans would have been directly threatened. The USSR resumed testing of bombs on the earth’s atmosphere on 1 September 1961, while the USA responded by beginning underground nuclear testing once again.

The UNO Secretary General U. Thant, who was from Burma (Myanmar), appealed to both sides to exercise restraint. The crisis lasted only a few days. Thanks to U. Thant’s efforts, Khrushchev promised to remove the missiles from Cuba provided the Americans agreed not to attack Cuba.

In return, President Kennedy of U.S.A. agreed to dismantle the American missiles in Turkey. A telephone link called the ‘hot line’ was established between the two leaders to facilitate swift consultation in the event of any crisis. In this way wars were checked at Cuba and of Chinese attack on India.