Cuban Missile Crisis

By Victoria Hannah

  • Fidel Castro assumes power

    Castro played a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After a six-year long revolution President Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister.

  • Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan negotiates economic and trade agreements

    During his trip to Cuba Soviet First Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan negotiates economic and trade agreements that help Fidel Castro to decrease Cuba's economic dependence on the United States.

  • The Soviet Union and Cuba establish diplomatic relations.

  • The United States ends its foreign aid program to Cuba.

  • US stops the import of Cuban sugar

    The United States stops the import of Cuban sugar, effectively cutting off 80 percent of Cuban exports to the United States.

  • Soviet Union buys sugar from Cuba

    The Soviet Union agrees to buy sugar previously destined for the U.S. market to help Cuba.

  • Soviet leader supports Cuba in dispute with the US

    Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev supports Cuba in dispute with U.S. over Guatanamo Bay military base.

  • Plan to poison Castro

    The U.S. plans to assassinate Fidel Castro by poisoning a box of Castro's favorite cigars.

  • US trade embargo against Cuba

    The United States imposes a trade embargo against Cuba. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s State Department imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba on Oct. 19, 1960. The embargo covered all U.S. exports to Cuba except for medicine and some foods.

  • Cuba joins the Soviet Union

    Cuba and the Soviet Union issue a joint communiqué in which Cuba openly aligns itself with the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet Union and indicates its solidarity with the Sino-Soviet Bloc.

  • The United States and Cuba sever diplomatic and consular relations.

  • JFK is inaugurated

    John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the thirty-fifth president of the United States.

  • Kennedy's speech on Bay of Pigs operation

    President Kennedy explains how there is a threat to the USA in Cuba. He will not send any military forces, but will set up a blockade around Cuba so no one will be able to enter or leave. President Kennedy also sends out spy planes to do reconnaissance over Cuba.

  • Bay of Pigs

    With U.S. direction, training, and support, a group of about fourteen hundred Cuban emigrés attempt an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban government aircraft which survived the earlier airstrikes are able to pin the invasion force on the beachhead, and without additional supplies of ammunition, the invaders are quickly crushed by Cuban ground forces. Of the anti-Castro emigrés, 114 are killed and 1,189 are captured.

  • Turkey and the United States agree to deploy fifteen nuclear-tipped Jupiter missiles in Turkey

    Turkey and the United States agree to deploy fifteen nuclear-tipped Jupiter missiles in Turkey starting on June 1, 1961. Turkey is member of NATO and shares a border with the Soviet Union.

  • Vienna Summit

    Vienna Summit, meeting between President John F. Kennedy, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In there they discussed issues about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the relationship between their countries. Khrushchev told Kennedy, "Force will be met by force. If the US wants war, that's its problem." "It's up to the US to decide whether there will be war or peace.”. Kennedy replied, "Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be a war. It will be a cold, long winter."

  • Castro's Speech

    Castro announces that Cuba is taking measures that would make any direct U.S. attack on Cuba the equivalent of a world war. He claims that the U.S.S.R. has invested greatly in helping defend his country. Castro is also very angry and upset that President Kennedy decided to put up a blockade towards Cuban an d any ship leaving. Cuba reacts by sending many weapons and men to the shores to try and defend Cuba.

  • Joint Chiefs advice Kennedy to make an air strike

    Joint Chief Chairman General Maxwell states that all the Joint Chiefs agreed to initiate an air strike and also a blockade on Cuba, but he expresses concern about political impact, and admits that the missile sites would probably not be destroyed. President Kennedy stated that it would give the USSR a perfect opportunity to take Berlin away from us.

  • Discovering the Missiles

    USA U-2 spie planes flew over Cuba and discovered that there were at least six medium range ballistic missiles or MRBM on the western partof Cuba. President Kennedy then issued that any missile fired from the western hemisphere would be claimed as an attack from the U.S.S.R against the USA.

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

  • JFK tells the public about the missiles in Cuba

    On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy informed the public that the Soviet Union and Cuba were building missiles and nuclear weapons on Cuba. This speech was televised and explained to the country what was occurring. John F. Kennedy told the public about their plans to respond to this crisis. They had to be careful, though, with not revealing too much information, because they did not want to alert Cuba of the United States’ plans to respond.

  • Quarantine line

    The Organization of American States approves of a quarantine line between the United States and Cuba. At the end of the day, a naval quarantine line is set up 800 miles off the coast of Cuba. Also, Khrushchev sends a letter saying "there is a serious threat to peace and security of peoples." As a result of this letter, Kennedy pushes back the line farther off the coast of Cuba.

  • Kennedy receives a letter from Krushchev

    Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev, in there he stated “Our ties with the Republic of Cuba, like our relations with other states, regardless of what kind of states they may be, concern only the two countries between which these relations exist” “You are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force.”

  • Kennedy's response to Krushchev

    Kennedy responded to Khrushchev's telegram, stating that the US was forced into action after receiving repeated assurances that no offensive missiles were being placed in Cuba, and that when these assurances proved to be false, the deployment "required the responses I have announced... I hope that your government will take necessary action to permit a restoration of the earlier situation."

  • Krushchev and Kennedy's agreement

    Kennedy agrees to remove missiles from Turkey and Italy if Krushchev removes all missiles from Cuba. Krushchev announces publicly over Radio Moscow that they will be removing all weapons the U.S. sees as "offensive" from Cuba. He also installed a new hotline from Washington to Moscow to prevent future communication delays.

  • Krushchev sends another letter to Kennedy

    the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, sends a letter to the US President, John F. Kennedy, in which he justifies the purely dissuasive objective of the missiles supplied by the USSR to the Cuban regime

  • JFK Press Conference

    He discusses that all IL-28 bombers now in Cuba will be withdrawn in 30 days. Ending this reduced most of the danger toward America and a close war was dodged. He then talks about his plan to set people in Cuba free from Castro.