Table of Contents
- 1 What were people afraid of during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
- 2 How did the Cuban missile crisis cause tension?
- 3 What did the Soviet Union and United States as well as other Western countries fear about each other during the Cold War?
- 4 Did the Cuban Missile Crisis increase or decrease tensions between the US and Soviet Union?
What were people afraid of during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The date was unmistakable. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962. Fear of total human annihilation is a tough feeling to live with every day. For children growing up in the Cold War, mutually assured nuclear destruction literally haunted their dreams.
How did the Cuban missile crisis cause tension?
Tension increased when a U2 plane was shot down by a Russian missile and the pilot killed. However, Kennedy keeps his cool and opts to answer only the first telegram while privately offering to consider the removal of missiles from Turkey.
Why didn’t either the US or the Soviet Union initiate a first strike nuclear attack on the other?
This meant that both countries could destroy the other country in the case of attack. It wouldn’t matter how successful the first strike was, the other side could still retaliate and destroy the country which first attacked. For this reason, neither side ever used nuclear weapons. The cost was too high.
Why do you think it may have been important for Soviet missiles to reach the US cities shown above?
Why, according to Kennedy, did the presence of the missiles pose a threat to the United States? The medium range missiles Russia had placed in Cuba could reach many major US cities and caused massive devastation which likely would have led to a nuclear war. Kennedy referred to the 1930’s.
What did the Soviet Union and United States as well as other Western countries fear about each other during the Cold War?
The confrontation that followed, known as the Cuban missile crisis, brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles. The conflict showed that both superpowers were wary of using their nuclear weapons against each other for fear of mutual atomic annihilation.
Did the Cuban Missile Crisis increase or decrease tensions between the US and Soviet Union?
A period of increased cooperation and reduced tensions known as détente began almost immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis and continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s.