Cuban Missile Crisis Dbq

760 Words4 Pages

World War II caused many tensions in the world, even in the allied nations. After the war, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were especially tense. The communistic ideals of the Soviet Union clashed with United States capitalism on many occasions. The Soviets wanted to expand their empire and economy to other areas of the world; the U.S. wanted the opposite. They were determined to keep communism where it is, which brings up the question: how did the U.S. contain communism? The division of Berlin, the Korean War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis are all examples of their action. After World War II ended, the allied nations decided to divvy up Germany between U.S., England, France, and the Soviet Union. The Soviets would receive East Germany and their territory became communist, while West Germany would be shared amongst the others as a capitalistic society. In addition to this, they also divided up the city of Berlin in East Germany as capitalist and communist. (Doc B) The Soviets did not particularly like this arrangement and on June 27, 1948, they blocked the …show more content…

did to contain communism is that of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On January 1959, Fidel Castro overtook Cuba to make it a communist nation. (Doc D) The U.S. then launched a failed invasion; the communists remained. Soon after, the Soviet Union began to ship in missiles and nuclear weaponry to Cuba. America, fearing for their own safety, then put a quarantine around Cuba, not allowing any ships with weapons to enter. (Doc D) Tensions were high, with both capitalist and communist nations having the potential to launch a nuclear strike against the other. After some time, the Soviets decided to retreat. They removed their missiles from Cuba and the threat of a nuclear war subsided. (Doc D) The United States worked even under the pressure of a potential nuclear threat to keep the communist Soviets from gaining power through weaponry in