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Significance of Cuban Missile Crisis

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Significance of Cuban Missile Crisis
Significance of Cuban Missile Crisis
-This was an intense period where nuclear war could break out at any time.
-A rash decision by any side could spark off war between the USSR and USA and in turn nuclear weapons might be deployed.
-Fortunately, the leaders made rational decisions to resolve the crisis.
-After the Cuban missile crisis, both sides realized the danger of nuclear war and began to talk more about peaceful co-existence.

-A hotline was established bet the USSR & the USA to make immediate telephone communication easier.
-This is to allow leaders from both sides to communicate more effectively and prevent any events like the Cuban missile crisis from happening again
-It marked the beginning of a thaw, albeit a small one, between the USSR and the US.

What were the results of the crisis for the wider international situation?
-A general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War.
-Marked the first time in the Cold War period that the US and the USSR worked together to lessen international tensions, caused primarily by MAD.

Reasons:
-Both superpowers faced economic problems caused by the expensive arms race.
-The USSR was finding the expense of keeping up with the Americans crippling.
-The Americans were beginning to realize that there must be a better way of coping with communism than the one which was having so little success in Vietnam.
-The nations of Western Europe were also worried because they would be in the frontline if nuclear war broke out.

-Bans on nuclear testing, anti-ballistic missile systems, and weapons in space all attempted to limit the expansion of the arms race.
-However, these treaties were only partially successful.
-Both states continued building massive numbers of nuclear weapons, and new technologies such as MIRVs limited the effectiveness of the treaties.
-Both superpowers retained the

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