1156 Ch. 28 • The Cold War and the End of European Empires
(Left) The Berlin Wall goes up in 1961. (Right) U.S. President John F. Kennedy
addresses West Berliners, 1961.
Cuba at the “Bay of Pigs” in 1961. It failed miserably. In October 1962,
American aerial photographs revealed that Soviet missiles capable of being
armed with nuclear warheads were stationed on the island of Cuba. The
U.S. government demanded the removal of the missiles and threatened to
destroy them if this demand was not met. Some knowledgeable advisers to
President John F. Kennedy estimated the chances of the outbreak of a
nuclear war at between one-third and one-half, dangerous odds indeed.
Debates in the United Nations helped buy time while negotiations pro
ceeded. The world breathed a collective sigh of relief as Khrushchev ordered
the missiles removed.
Despite the fact that the United States and Soviet Union both signed a
1963 treaty banning nuclear tests, the arms race had accelerated. Soviet and
American naval vessels and submarines closely monitored each others
movements. The Soviet secret police (KGB) and the American Central Intel
ligence Agency (CIA) spread their well-financed spy networks worldwide.
Periodic spy scandals occurred in the West, most notably in Britain, where
several prominent intellectuals turned out to have been spying for the Soviet
Union. The growing number of colonies receiving their independence from
Britain and France fostered increased competition between the two systems
in Africa and Asia.
By the mid-1960s, the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet
Union spread to Southeast Asia. In 1964, the United States officially
became involved in the civil war in Vietnam. When President Lyndon B.