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VICModern HistoryQuick questions
Unit 2: Change and conflict (The changing world order, 1945 onwards)
Quick questions on Cuban Missile Crisis and detente (VCE Modern History Unit 2)
9short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is construction?Show answer
Night of 12-13 August 1961. Initially barbed wire, then concrete. The Wall stopped the haemorrhage of East German labour.
What is soviet missiles deployed?Show answer
Khrushchev placed medium- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba; ostensibly to defend Cuba and to balance US Jupiter missiles in Turkey.
What is uS discovery?Show answer
U-2 reconnaissance photographs (14 October 1962). Kennedy convened ExComm.
What is quarantine?Show answer
Kennedy announced naval blockade (22 October 1962). Soviet ships turned back; tense standoff for six days.
What is brink moment?Show answer
Soviet submarine B-59 in the quarantine zone was depth-charged; senior officer Valentin Savitsky authorised a nuclear torpedo strike, vetoed by Vasily Arkhipov. US U-2 shot down over Cuba; pilot Rudolf Anderson killed.
What is resolution?Show answer
Kennedy publicly accepted Khrushchev's first letter (Soviet withdrawal in exchange for US non-invasion pledge). Secretly conceded removal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Khrushchev agreed 28 October.
What is sino-Soviet split?Show answer
Khrushchev's compromise was condemned by Mao as betrayal; deepened the ideological rift.
What is causes?Show answer
Soviet strategic parity with US (achieved by late 1960s). US bogged down in Vietnam. China's split from USSR offered US opening.
What is strategic Arms Limitation Treaty?Show answer
Caps on intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles. Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty same year.