Cuban Missile Crisis-
- United States started to build missile bases in Turkey and Italy in 1958 in range of attacking the Soviet Union
- The Soviet Union responded by building bases in Cuba within the range of the United States which caused tension. (they also built them there so that the U.S. didn't invade Cuba in response to the Bay of Pigs).
- JFK then reacted by forming EX-COMM which was a group of smart people that came up with forming a naval blockade around Cuba to make sure no more missle supplies got into Cuba.
- The US then demanded that the Soviet Union dismantle their bases in Cuba in exchange of the U.S. not to invade Cuba.
- The USSR then got rid of their bases and everything was all good.
- During October of 62 there was much fear of a nuclear war breaking out.
- They were both sitting on edge, if either of them made a wrong move, a nuclear war was very likely to break out (cuban missle crisis)
- During this time it was thought that thousands of people would die, but only one person ended up dying in compat and eleven others by a few planes being shot down.
- Krushchev was teh leader of the USSR during this time. There were several exchanges of communication during this time.
- Oct 15 was when the images were found of the bases and Kennedy was informed.
- Oct 22 Kennedy announced that there were missile bases
- Oct 28 Krushchev began to dismantle the bases, which ended the crisis. (13 days)
Ronald Regan's Strategic Defense Initiative:
- Was initiated on march 23, 1983 to develop an anti-ballistic missile system (code named star wars)
- Thought to protect us from missile attacks on other countries (soveit union)
- Our response to predicted nuclear attacks on other countries
- There were people against it because they thought it would waste money, not helped us, get the soviet union madder, wouldn't have enought room to set up research for this.
- They needed nuclear x-ray lasers that were computer guided and the weapons would take up a lot of space, a lot of power was needed, and billions of dollars to make it happen. Be able to intercept ballistic missles in the sky.
- To make it happen, we developed a Strategic Defense Initiative Orginization to oversee it. Lazer and mirror experiments were done. Money was raised to hlep, and research and development.
- At that time, the plan failed. Ideas were too much and wouldn't have worked. Too difficult to construct.
- Wasted 30 billion dollars. No mirror systems were ever created for the laser systems
- The Missle Defense Agency is still working on trying to get anti-missle ballistic technology. They are advancing and going more global all the time.
- They have ground and sea based defense missles.
- Russia is opposed to this. They would shoot missles at us, and we could get rid of them and then shoot them down.
(morganne brought twinikies shaped like missles:)
Berlin Blockade:
- During the blockade the Soviet Union blocked the railroads going into Berlin to block supply lines.
- We created a 'Berlin Airlift' where we dropped suplies from planes into the city. We had hundreds of planes dropping supplies in a day.
- Why blockaded? Berlin was split into two parts and it was in the Communist part of the part.
- The Soviets wanted to blockade West Berlin because it was inside the Soviet Zone, and we split it. They wanted all of it to be theirs.
- The Allied wanted to repair Germany, while the Soviets wanted to destroy it because they felt Germany had caused all the problems and they didn't want to worry about Germany again.
- The blockade lasted about eleven months.
- Soviets stopped the blockade because us bringing supplies in made the blockade make no sense, they couldn't attack our planes because it would start another war.
- Berlin was surviving off little food and electricity. Soviets offered to dropp in supplies but were rejected, maybe because they didn't want a lot of people to die.
- The U.S. set up bases in Great Britian incase the Soviets did decide to attack our planes, had B-29 bombers that could carry atomic bombs.
Nuclear Arms Race:
- The first Nuclear weapons were produced by the US. in the Matthattan Project in WW11.
- Although the Soviets were an Allied power, we didnt' trust them with knowing the secret of the weapons.
- The Soviets were secretly developing their nuclear missiles behing the scenes
- It was set off in 1949, was basically a copy of the fat man, we called it 'Joe 1' they called it the RDS-1
- After they both developed nuclear weapons they had a race to get better more efficient higher quality bombs.
- They developed missiles that were ICBMs Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. They could deliver missiles to any part of the world.
- When the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, it was feared that they might launch a nuclear missile attack from any part of the world. It also had a major role in starting the space race.
- There were satellites designed to detect a nuclear strike before it happened.
- They build fallout shelters and bunkers to save leaders and citizens in fallout shelters.
- People were taught how to react to a nuclear strike in an act of civil defense.
- Mutual Assured Destrucion (MAD) was the US and USSR's mutual understanding that a nuclear strike from either side would cause massive damage to both parties.
- Came into play during the 1950's when either side had enough power to obliterate the other side completely.
- Even if one launched and killed the other, in that time the enemy would have had a 'second strike' that would have killed the other anyways.
- Other countries that started getting nuclear weapons were: France, People's Republic of China, and the United Kingdom. This intensified it.
- Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were arranged to limit the size of each power's nuclear arsenal. There were three other bans placed on nuclear testing, anti-ballistic missile systems, and weapons in space.
- Did little to discourage producion of mass amounts of nuclear weapons.
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