12 Incredible Facts About The Cuban Missile Crisis
Europe Is Divided After WWII 4 World Wages Cold War 6 Fidel Castro Seizes Power 8 Kennedy Brothers Come to DC 10 United States Fails at Bay of Pigs 12 Khrushchev Calls for Respect 14 Plane Spies Missiles in Cuba 16 EXCOMM and Kennedy Consider the Options 18 Missiles Capable of Destroying US Cities 20 US Navy Quarantines Cuba 22 Cubans Down US Plane 24 Crisis Serves as a Warning 26 12 Key Dates 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS
During World War II 1939 1945 German Nazis took over many European countries When Germany lost the war the Nazis were pushed out of these countries Nazi controlled governments schools and businesses had to be rebuilt Europe was divided into eastern and western sections This division was called the iron curtain The United States Great Britain and Canada helped Western European countries rebuild The Soviet Union aided Eastern European countries The iron curtain didn’t just divide countries It divided how people lived Like the Soviets the new governments in Eastern European countries were communist In a communist government the government owns everything So in Eastern Europe governments owned all the businesses and farms They controlled schools and the news The people living there had no freedom of speech They could not own property Some people in Eastern Europe wanted the freedom of noncommunist countries After World War II much of Europe was left in ruins EUROPE IS DIVIDED AFTER WWII 1 4
Communist governments fenced borders to keep people in Soldiers manned guard towers on the borders People who tried to cross into noncommunist countries illegally were oftentimes shot But the iron curtain wasn’t just a physical division It symbolized the hostility between two ways of life CHURCHILL NAMES CURTAIN On March 5 1946 Winston Churchill spoke at Westminster College in Fulton Missouri Churchill had been the prime minister of Great Britain He talked about keeping people safe from war and unfair governments He spoke about the right to live in freedom He said an iron curtain had fallen across Europe He was the first person to use this term to describe the situation there 4,225 Length in miles 6,799 km of the iron curtain After World War II Europe was split into western and eastern sections Western Europe was aided by the United States Great Britain and Canada The Soviet Union helped Eastern Europe rebuild The iron curtain was the border between communist Eastern Europe and noncommunist Western Europe The Soviet Union supplied Berlin Germany with a shipment of butter among other aid 5
