Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis
9th Grade · Social Studies · 30 min
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Learning Objective
I can describe the causes and effects of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1
The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred because the Soviet Union was secretly deploying nuclear missiles to Cuba to protect it and to counteract the threat from U.S. missiles in Italy and Turkey.
- 2
To prevent Soviet shipments to Cuba, President John F. Kennedy initiated a naval quarantine, which the Soviets considered an act of war.
- 3
Nuclear war was averted when Vasili Arkhipov, second in command of a Soviet submarine, refused to authorize the launch of a nuclear torpedo.
