Good evening, my fellow citizens. this government,
as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance
of the soviet military build-up on the island of
cuba. within the past week unmistakable
evidence has established the fact that a series
of offensive missile sites is now in preparation
on that imprisoned island. the purposes of
these bases can be none other than to provide a
nuclear strike capability against the western
hemisphere….
— president john f. kennedy, report to
the american people, october 22, 1962

president john f. kennedy reacted strongly to
the situation described in this speech primarily
because
(1) the united states feared an influx of cuban
refugees
(2) these missiles could threaten united states
oil supplies in south america
(3) the location of cuba would allow the united
states little time to respond to an attack
(4) the united states and the warsaw pact
nations had formed a military alliance

after the civil war, and with the termination of slavery, the south was faced with a big problem; what was supposed to happen and how they were supposed to deal with the freedom and the rights that black people and freed slaves had gained as a result of the north defeating the south and forcing the end of slavery. first, most, if not all, of the workforce of the south came from slaves and they did not have an option to replace the loss of said workforce. second, particularly in the south, people were convinced that black people were lesser, less intelligent, less capable and less smart than whites. this posed a huge problem for them. also, southerners were faced with another issue; freed slaves now had a say in how their lives would be lived and the right to politically choose the way they would be governed. people in the south did not want to accept this, none of this and this opposition and the conflicts that arose from it, not to mention the afereffects of the war, forced the congress of the time to enact and enforce the reconstruction plans that had been proposed by president andrew johnson.