The Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
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All 12 Flashcards — The Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
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Question
How and when was Korea divided?
Answer
In 1945 Korea was split along the 38th parallel — a Soviet-backed communist North and a US-backed anti-communist South.
Question
What event started the Korean War in 1950?
Answer
North Korea, under Kim Il-sung, invaded the South across the 38th parallel to unite Korea by force under communism.
Question
Define containment.
Answer
The US Cold War policy of stopping communism from spreading to new countries. Korea applied it in Asia for the first time.
Question
What was the role of the UN and US in Korea?
Answer
The UN (with the USSR absent) sent a mostly-American force under MacArthur. A landing at Inchon pushed the North back.
Question
Why did China enter the Korean War?
Answer
When UN troops neared China's border, China sent huge numbers of soldiers and drove the UN back to the 38th parallel.
Question
How did the Korean War end?
Answer
With a 1953 armistice — a ceasefire, not a peace treaty — that left Korea divided at the 38th parallel, with no reunification.
Question
What were the main impacts of the Korean War?
Answer
Containment spread to Asia, the Cold War militarised, China rose as a power, and Korea stayed permanently divided.
Question
What was the Bay of Pigs (1961)?
Answer
A failed US-backed invasion of Cuba by exiles. It humiliated the US and pushed Castro closer to the Soviet Union.
Question
Why did Khrushchev place missiles in Cuba in 1962?
Answer
To defend his ally Castro and to aim Soviet nuclear missiles at the US up close, mirroring US missiles in Turkey.
Question
What was Kennedy's 'quarantine'?
Answer
A naval blockade of Cuba to stop more missiles arriving, deliberately named to avoid calling it an act of war.
Question
How did the Cuban Missile Crisis end?
Answer
The USSR removed its missiles for a US no-invasion pledge, plus a secret US withdrawal of missiles from Turkey.
Question
How did Cuba lead toward détente?
Answer
The near-miss with nuclear war produced the Washington–Moscow hotline and the 1963 test-ban treaty, easing tension.
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Full study notes for The Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Topic 17.3 hub
Cold War crises
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