Question

What were the effects of the Cuban missile crisis?

Answer 1

Hint: In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, US and Soviet leaders engaged in a tense 13-day political and military standoff over the deployment of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from US shores. Kennedy also decided to strip US missiles from Turkey in secret.

Complete answer:
The Cuban missile crisis - The Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was the root of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This crisis had the primary effect of scaring both sides into being more vigilant. Both sides knew they had come dangerously close to going to war over the problem and that such a conflict had to be avoided.

Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US and the Soviet Union took measures to ensure that the world would once again come dangerously close to nuclear war. Between the White House and the Kremlin, a telephone contact connection known as the Hot Line was installed. Negotiations between the two countries ultimately culminated in nuclear test ban treaties. On the negative hand, the Soviet Union expanded its research into intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States from its territory.

The effects of the Cuban missile crisis -
- After the world was on the verge of nuclear war, the US and the Soviet Union started talks (following the crisis) to establish direct lines of communication between the two superpowers. In 1963, a direct “hot-line” between Washington and Moscow was established to enable Soviet and American leaders to communicate directly in the event of future conflicts. Two additional treaties on nuclear weapons and their use were also signed by the two nations.
- While some claim that Khrushchev's proposals to end the crisis resulted in a win-win agreement with the US government, the settlement eventually humiliated Khrushchev and the Soviet regime because no one knew about the secret deal to withdraw American missiles from Turkey. As a result, rather than being celebrated as a hero for his behavior against Kennedy, Khrushchev's popularity in the Soviet Union collapsed as his offer was seen as a retreat from the standoff and a huge win for the US. Khrushchev would be deposed from power just two years later, owing to the supposed humiliation he had caused the Soviet Union.
- Khrushchev's agreement was also viewed negatively in Cuba, as Castro and his regime felt misled by the Soviet Union. Not only had the decision to end the crisis been made exclusively between Khrushchev and Kennedy but Cuban interests, especially the American Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, had never been brought up during the negotiations. Furthermore, Cuban authorities were never satisfied with Khrushchev's decision to construct missile sites on Cuban soil in the first place, believing that such actions would only draw unwanted attention from the international community. Cuban-Soviet relations deteriorated quickly as a result of the crisis in the months, years, and decades that followed.

Note: In the end, the Soviet Union emerged victorious. Cuba was rescued from an invasion by the United States, which was Moscow's main strategic objective, along with maintaining the Castro regime. The USSR was threatened by missiles stationed in Turkey and Italy (and possibly the United Kingdom), but the tale was kept hidden for decades.