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The Cuban Missile Crisis Was A Twenty Day Crisis

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The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen day crisis that occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union. This crisis occurred on October 14, 1962 and ended on October 28, 1962. The crisis involved the placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union and the caused concern for the United States due to the closeness of Cuba. This placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba was due to the failed Bay of Pigs fiasco and Cuba’s need for protection against the United States invading in the future. The Bay of Pigs was a failed mission of the United States that happened in April of 1961. The United States wanted to overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro, but was ultimately defeated within just three days. Due to this failure, Cuba contacted the Soviet Union to get them to place nuclear missiles so that Cuba could defend their country from the United States. With this failure under John F. Kennedy’s presidency, he had to figure out a different way of forcing the dictatorship of Fidel Castro without strengthening him even more. Before they could plan another invasion into Cuba, a U-2 plane had flown close range to the Cuban border and had captured photographic evidence of nuclear missile facilities being built. According to Marfleet (2000), “Kennedy was privately belligerent—a condition sparked largely by anger at what he perceived to be Soviet attempts to deceive him” (p 547). While it was a small part of a bigger problem, it was the key defining event of the Cold War

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