CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Existential deterrence o Threatens not just the existence of the countries as themselves, but total

l annihilation of the countriesand the world Cuban Revolution o American playground o Run by a terrible dictator o Castro becomes leader of rebels o Defeats dictator, seems to do good for the country o Meets with Soviets and gets cheap oil from them o American companies refused to refine it, so Castro sent his militia to take over the plants so he could avert economic disaster o America cuts Cubas share of the American sugar market o Cuba nationalizes further companies o Eisenhower declares embargo, trains Cuban CIA agents to sabotage the regime o Cold War in full bloom: Soviets welcome resistance to America (goddammit this country annoys me so much) Why were the Americans so hostile? o Nationalization of American companies Why did they think they could overthrow Castro? o CIA was overconfident o New phenomenon: non-Communist Leftist authoritarianism So why give Cuba missles? o Khrushchev thought that the Bay of Pigs failure was going to be followed by a huge American-led invasion to save face o Emotional commitment to the Castro Revtruly spontaneous revolution o Few ICBMs, but many IRBMs Americans suspicious of soviet shipments, fly a U2 over Cuba, freak the fuck out over the missile sites that they find So there was a crisis which involved a lot of confrontations over a prolonged period of time o The Americans were on their toes for months, had several false alerts o Russians were rather blustery because they stuck to international law o Cubans were ready to try and fend off an American invasion Finally, the Americans offered the Soviets a guarantee of non-interference in Cuba (and removes missiles from Turkey). Soviets decide to bring back the missiles from Cuba. o American willing to concede a lot before invasion (aka look, we can be good people sometime) o