HST 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Missile Crisis, Striking Distance
27 Mar 2017
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Served in the house of representatives and senate (from mass. ) 1st televised presidential debate = nixon vs. kennedy! By 1950: american-owned businesses controlled all of cuba"s oil production, 90% of its mines, and half of its railroads, sugar and cattle industries. U. s and cuba in the 1950s: cuba is under the control of u. s friendly military dictatorship of fulgencia. Eisenhower had approved a covert cia plan to topple castro (kennedy implements it) Aerial pictures shot by the u. s revealed that the soviets were building launching sites for short-range missiles in cuba within striking distance of the u. s: kennedy orders a naval blockade through diplomatic channels to avert disaster. Showed that diplomacy could work: jfk was able to contain the conflict without bowing to either cold war hysteria or the pressure of his military advisors. Revealed that u. s soviet relations could still benefit from negotiation. The french ask the u. s to help them defeat ho chi minh.
