The Cuban Missile Crisis: broken ties & a secret pact
In the second episode of our series on the Cuban Missile Crisis, we explore the fallout from the 1961 Bay of Pigs disaster, and examine why Khrushchev decided to place nuclear missiles in Cuba
The 1961 Bay of Pigs operation was a debacle for the United States that inflamed Cold War tensions to a new height. In the second episode of our series on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Elinor Evans speaks to expert historians Alex von Tunzelmann, Mark White and William Taubman to find out how the failed invasion set the stage for Khrushchev and Fidel Castro to form a pact that would lead the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.
Authors
Elinor Evans is digital editor of HistoryExtra.com. She commissions and writes history articles for the website, and regularly interviews historians for the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast
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