The Cold War Cuban Missile Crisis - 2377 Words

Andrew Villaseà ±or Mr. DuBois World Studies 19 June 2015 The Cold War: Cuban Missile Crisis Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by a thread ... and we weren t counting days or hours, but minutes. Soviet General and Army Chief of Operations, Anatoly Gribkov The closest the World has ever been to nuclear war was with The Cuban Missile Crisis. The lives of millions lay in the ability of President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev to reach an agreement. The crisis began when the United States discovered that just ninety miles from the coast of Florida, the Soviet Union had set up nuclear missiles. On October 22, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missile installations to the public and his decision of the naval quarantine†¦show more content†¦The Cold War began when Joseph Stalin, leader of the Communist Party, used the Red Army to take control of most of the countries of Eastern Europe. The United States as well as Western European countries were greatly concerned. In response to Stalin s military movements, President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine in 1947. In his address to Congress, President Truman decided that â€Å"the United States would aid any country that asked for help in resisting communismâ⠂¬  (Browne 263). The Truman Doctrine became known as the basis for containment, the policy to keep communism from spreading to other countries. According to White House documents online, after the Truman Doctrine, George Catlett Marshall, Secretary of State, proposed the Marshall Plan, the European Recovery Program through which the United States provided aid to Western Europe after World War II, in June 1947. The Marshall Plan was offered to all European countries, but Stalin would not allow the countries his military was occupying to take part. â€Å"In April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed† (Browne 263). The countries involved in this pact were the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal. The NATO agreement said that an armed attack against one or more of its members in Europe and/or America shall be considered an attack against them all. To ward off