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Sputnik
Sputnik was a satellite that the Soviets launched into orbit. Because the Soviet Union did that, Americans felt vulnerable to air attacks and inferior in their space technology. The Soviet Union was increasing their amount of weapons and intelligence by developing more weapons. The Americans felt that they could easily be attacked by the Soviets because of the satellite. Eisenhower didn't want to react to Sputnik by using weapons but the tension between the Soviet Union and American increased. -
America Cuts Off Diplomatic Ties with Cuba
We hate the Americans and their tensions with our country. As diplomatic ties deteriorated, Eisenhower began by closing the American embassy in Cuba and cutting off ties with us. This showed us that they were ready to take extreme measures to take down our regime. They were threatened that communism would spread into their precious Western hemisphere. We understand that relations between us declined since Castro took control and the end of our relationship was an accumulation of events. -
Bay of Pigs
The American CIA tried to overthrow Castro's regime but failed miserably. They tried to overthrow our government because it is a communist one. The whole time of fighting, which was 24 hours, it was intense. The Americans couldn't even get past our troops on the beach so all of the 1,400 Cuban exiles didn't stand a chance from the beginning. The CIA was right when it told Kennedy that the invasion might create a rebellion in Cuba but it didn't happen because we actually like Castro. -
Vienna Summit
It was funny how ill-prepared Kennedy was for the summit meeting with Khrushchev. I even heard that he said that it was the "worst thing in [his] life" and that Khrushchev "savaged [him]." Obviously, Khrushchev was more experienced than Kennedy so he should've properly prepared for the summit, but luckily he didn't. I heard that Kennedy even disobeyed his advisors' advice, thus allowing Khrushchev to walk all over him during the meeting. -
The Discovery of Missiles in Cuba
America was able to discover the presence of missiles in Cuba after the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane made a high-altitude pass over Cuba. As the U-2 flew over Cuba, it was able to take a picture of a Soviet SS-4 medium-range missile that was being installed. Kennedy was later told about this on October 16. -
Gromyko Meeting with Kennedy
I can't believe that the Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko was lying to Kennedy to whole time during the meeting. During the third day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Gromyko requested a meeting with Kennedy so that he could tell Kennedy Moscow's position on Berlin. Then, he turned the conversation to one about Cuba and told Kennedy that he wanted peaceful coexistence. However, as he started lying about the missiles in Cuba, Kennedy knew the whole time. What a sneaky politician! -
DEFCON 2
For the first time in history, the US Strategic Air Command was placed on DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Initially, they had established DEFCON 3 and had only kept their B-52s on alert. However, the next day, they declared DEFCON 2 as the tensions grew; America was on more alert than the day before and was prepared to even strike targets in the Soviet Union. I can't believe it was the closest we were to nuclear war. -
American U-2 Shot Down over Cuba
Twelve days before Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down, he had flown in one of the first top-secret reconnaissance missions over Cuba that confirmed the presence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba after he was told to "destroy target number 33." His U-2 spy place appeared on a Soviet radar and as the Soviets tracked his position they were scared that the U-2 would discover their secret nuclear weapons location in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Two missiles, launched by the Soviets, killed him. -
Khrushchev Agrees to Remove Missiles
The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when Khrushchev ordered a withdrawal of missiles from Cuba. After the US found out about the presence of ICBMs in Cuba, Kennedy declared that he would make a naval blockade to prevent Cuba from receiving more ICBMs and demanded that the Soviets withdraw their missiles. The tensions between the two nations were very high but Khrushchev made a last minute decision to turn around a ship that was delivering weapons and to remove the ICBMs that were already there. -
Kennedy's Berlin Wall Speech
Kennedy revised his speech from his previous draft, which Polk said" [wa]s terrible." Over 120,000 West Berliners gathered at a plaza near city hall in order to hear Kennedy speak. One of the most famous lines from his speech was "ich bin ein Berliner" which meant that he called himself a jelly doughnut. Kennedy spoke about the failures of communism and tried to make democracy seem better since democratic countries never had to lock their citizens in to keep them there like the Soviets did.
