Cuban Missile Crisis (EXTRA CREDIT)

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the United States ever came to a nuclear war. The US armed forces were very prepared and Soviet commanders in Cuba were ready to use battlefield nuclear weapons as the island's defense to any invasions. In 1962 the Soviets were behind the US in the arms race and had missiles that were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe. The United States' missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. At this time, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island from any US attack. He approved Khrushchev's plan and in the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly to secretly build its missile installations in Cuba. When word got out to the United States and photographs revealed the Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba, President John Kennedy organized a group of his twelve most important advisors, which was known as the EX-COMM, to handle the crisis. Many debates were taken place, causing Kennedy to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. He also wanted to prevent the arrival of anymore Soviet weapons. Tensions began to build on both sides. In a letter, Khrushchev proposed removing Soviet missiles if the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. The worst day of the crisis was October 27th when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. Some tension was eased on October 28th, when Khrushchev announced that he would remove the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, showing that he trusted tge United States would not invade Cuba. Both countries came to an agreement that Soviet light bombers should be removed from Cuba and the United States will not attack and invade Cuba.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

In the film, the United States and the USSR were competing on who would set the world record of breaking the sound barrier by making an airplane that was called MACH I. Both countries also wanted to be the first who brought man to space. By building spaceships, the Russians were ahead of the Americans . The US decided to gather a team of top notch astronauts were smart pilots and capable of taking the job. When testing the spacecraft, the US sent a monkey to space. Competing back was Russia who were the first ones to send the first man ever into space. The Russians were also first to put satelites in space. The Russians outsmarted the US and won the competition. The scenes that will help me remember the Cold War was when Russia and the U.S were competing against each other of whose the best country to break records like when the U.S broke the record of the sound barrier. I'll also remember how the US didn't want the press to write a report on their sound barrier breaking so the Russians won't get ahead of them. America wasn't very friendly with the Russians because they were a communist country.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO was also known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in which was a military alliance. It was an organization of countries that were involved in a mutual defense alliance, which meant that if one of the countries were attacked the allied countries would help defend them. The Warsaw Pact was another defensive alliance, but was an organization Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Western Europe and North America made up the NATO alliance. NATO was created to stop the spread od communism and help defend fellow countries from attacks. The Warsaw Pact was created because the communist military wanted to maintain power over Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union wound up gaining control over its neighboring European nations.