Why did the soviet union feel that it was necessary to place nuclear missile in cuba?
In what Asian country did the u.s. place nuclear weapons that could fire on western Russia?
What waas the significance of the u-2 flight?
Why did Kennedy issue a quarantine instead of a blockade?
The soviet union felt threatened by the missiles the U.S. had placed in Turkey and Greece and wanted a missile base closer to the United States.
I found this from a website:The real-life and human story of what took place in the waters around Cuba between October 22 and 28 of 1962 has mostly been left unrevealed to the general public. The fate of one airborne serviceman was, however, more publicized. On October 27, pilot Rudolph Anderson, piloting a U-2 mission over Cuba was shot down. Another U-2 flight pilot nearly experienced the same fate. While flying a mission over Russia, his plane strayed over Siberia and was nearly intercepted. This later incident was due to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay's neglect to enforce the President's orders to suspend all overflights.
Basically it was Soviet aggression and the U.S. felt threatened by the act.
So what was, and is, the difference between a blockade and a quarantine, the public surely wanted to know? In keeping with Franklin D. Roosevelt's Quarantine Speech of 1937, a blockade is an act of war. A Quarantine is not considered an act of war. Perhaps it was a moot point but it served, for publicity purposes, to stress that war had not been declared by America against Cuba or the Soviet Union.
To understand why the Soviet Union felt it was necessary to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, we need to delve into the historical context of the Cold War. The Cold War was a period of intense political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, characterized by a nuclear arms race and ideological rivalry.
In the early 1960s, the United States had already placed nuclear missiles in Western Europe, specifically in countries like Turkey, which were neighboring Soviet territory. This was seen by the Soviet Union as a strategic threat, as it gave the United States the capability to strike deep into Soviet territory.
In response, the Soviet Union decided to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba, which is only around 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Their intention was to counterbalance the U.S. missile deployment in Turkey and gain leverage in the ongoing Cold War conflict. By having missiles in Cuba, the Soviet Union believed they could deter any potential U.S. attack and achieve a balance of power.
Regarding the second question about an Asian country where the United States placed nuclear weapons to target western Russia, there is no specific instance of the US placing such weapons in any Asian country. However, during the Cold War, the US did deploy nuclear weapons in several European countries as part of its containment strategy against the Soviet Union. These countries included Germany, Italy, Turkey, and others.
As for the significance of the U-2 flight, it refers to an American spy plane incident during the Cold War. In 1960, the United States was conducting reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union using the U-2 spy aircraft. During one of these flights, the Soviet Union managed to shoot down a U-2 plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers. This event heightened tensions between the US and the Soviet Union and undermined trust in ongoing negotiations between the two superpowers.
Lastly, to address why President Kennedy issued a quarantine instead of a blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's important to note that the term "quarantine" was used as a diplomatic euphemism to characterize the blockade imposed by the US on Cuba. Kennedy deliberately chose this term to avoid escalating tensions or appearing too aggressive.
A blockade generally implies an act of war, and Kennedy wanted to avoid military confrontation with the Soviet Union. By using the term "quarantine," the US aimed to frame the situation as a defensive measure to prevent the arrival of Soviet military supplies to Cuba without explicitly signaling an act of war. This allowed for more room for negotiation and de-escalation, ultimately leading to a resolution of the crisis through diplomatic means.