1. Arms Race and the Cuban Missile Crisis

2. By the 1960’s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers.

3. Nuclear Tensions
The USA had shown its atomic power when it exploded the A­-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
The USSR was also developing atomic weapons/bombs.
 The USA and the USSR were in competition with each other to have the best, most powerful weapons in the world
This was called the Arms Race.

4. Beginning of the Cold War
The Arms Race marked the beginning of the Cold War, which was an intense period of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States.

8. Cuba
1959 – Fidel Castro overthrew the gov. of Cuba and established a communist dictatorship with strong ties to the Soviet Union.
1960 John F. Kennedy is elected President of the U.S. He learns that Eisenhower had developed a plan to use the CIA to overthrow Castro.

9. Cuba (cont’d)
Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution in Cuba caused thousands of Cubans to flee to the United States.
Castro—1950’s and 2006

10. Bay of Pigs
This was a failed military invasion of Cuba by the United States.
The CIA had trained and supplied a group of 1500 Cuban refugees to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

11. Bay of Pigs (cont’d)
The plan was set into motion on April 17, 1961, but Cuba found out about the invasion beforehand. The rebels were all captured and the plan failed to get anywhere close to Castro.

12. Bay of Pigs (cont’d)
The exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba, where they were easily defeated by Cuban forces, strengthening Fidel Castro and embarrassing the United States.
When the Americans surrendered on April 20, most troops were publicly interrogated and placed in Cuban prisons.

13. Bay of Pigs (cont’d)
Americans, two of whom were eventually executed, are arrested in April They were accused by the Cuban government of smuggling guns to anti­-Communist rebels a few days before the Bay of Pigs invasion.

14. The Cuban Missile Crisis

15. Cuban Missile Crisis
This was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles deployed in Cuba.

16. The Cuban Missile Crisis (cont’d)
A. In 1962 Khrushchev began to place nuclear missile sites in Cuba to counteract U.S. nuclear weapons placed in Turkey, close to the Soviet Union.

17. In October 1962, President Kennedy found out that Soviet ships carrying nuclear missiles were headed to Cuba, and U.S. officials were afraid that the Soviets would attack America.
So he ordered a blockade of Cuba to stop the ships from reaching Cuba.
JFK also warned the USSR that the U.S. would launch a nuclear attack if the USSR fired missiles.

18. C. Khrushchev agreed to send the. ships back and remove nuclear
C. Khrushchev agreed to send the ships back and remove nuclear missiles in Cuba if Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba.
Kennedy agreed.
In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than 25 years, the U.S. also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey.

19. The Cuban missile crisis brought the world close to nuclear war.

21. "I found myself in the difficult position of having to decide on a course of action which would answer the American threat but which would also avoid war. Any fool can start a war, and once he's done so, even the wisest of men are helpless to stop it ­­ especially if it’s a nuclear war.”   ­Nikita Khrushchev

22. Who were the major figures involved?
Arms Race: The United States and The Soviet Union
Bay of Pigs: The United States (Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy), and Cuba (Fidel Castro)
Cuban Missile Crisis: United States (President Kennedy), Soviet Union (Nikita Khrushchev), Cuba (Fidel Castro)

23. Summary
The Arms Race was the fight for nuclear superiority between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Bay of Pigs was when the U.S. attacked Cuba but failed to overthrow the Communist dictator, Fidel Castro.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba, which provoked the U.S. to enact a naval blockade around Cuba. The U.S. promised not to invade Cuba, and the Soviets removed the missiles.