The Cuban Missile Crisis, the moment at which the Cold War came closest to a nuclear war, took place in
- A.1956
- B.1962
- C.1968
- D.1973
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, 1962. In October 1962 American aerial photographs revealed Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba; President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of the island and, after thirteen days, Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles, the United States undertaking not to invade Cuba. The crisis led to the Moscow-Washington hotline and to the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Option A is wrong because 1956 saw the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian uprising. Option C is wrong because 1968 was the year of the Prague Spring and of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opening for signature. Option D is wrong because 1973 saw the Arab-Israeli war and the oil crisis, a Cold War flashpoint but a later one. The thirteen days of October 1962 are also the reason the non-aligned countries pressed so hard for nuclear disarmament at their early summits.
Read the full article: Cold War, Decolonisation and Non-Aligned Movement Notes
Practice Questions
View allIn which American city did Winston Churchill deliver his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech in March 1946?
- A.Fulton, Missouri
- B.Washington, D.C.
- C.Boston, Massachusetts
- D.Chicago, Illinois
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Churchill, by then out of office, spoke at Westminster College in Fulton on 5 March 1946 and said that an iron curtain had descended across the continent from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.
Read the full explanation →The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was founded in which year?
- A.1945
- B.1947
- C.1949
- D.1955
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The North Atlantic Treaty was signed at Washington on 4 April 1949 by twelve countries, during the Berlin blockade, and bound its members to treat an attack on one as an attack on all.
Read the full explanation →The Warsaw Pact, the military alliance of the Soviet bloc, was signed in 1955 in which city?
- A.Moscow
- B.Warsaw
- C.Prague
- D.Budapest
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The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance was signed in the Polish capital on 14 May 1955, which is why the alliance carries that city's name, although its forces were commanded from Moscow.
Read the full explanation →The Asian-African Conference of 1955, an important step towards non-alignment, was held at which place?
- A.Colombo
- B.Bandung
- C.Belgrade
- D.Cairo
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The Asian-African Conference met at Bandung in Indonesia in April 1955 with twenty-nine newly independent countries, condemned colonialism and racialism, and endorsed the principles of peaceful coexistence; it is often called the forerunner of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Read the full explanation →The first summit conference of the Non-Aligned Movement was held in 1961 at
- A.Cairo
- B.Jakarta
- C.Belgrade
- D.Lusaka
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The first summit of non-aligned countries met at Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, in September 1961, with twenty-five participating countries, and Jawaharlal Nehru, Josip Broz Tito, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sukarno and Kwame Nkrumah are regarded as the movement's founders.
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