Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban missile crisis—known as the October Crisis or The Missile Scare in Cuba and the Caribbean Crisis in the former USSR—was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side. The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict and is also the first documented instance of mutual assured destruction being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. More

After the US had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy, aimed at Moscow, and the failed US attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime, in May 1962 Nikita Khrushchev proposed the idea of placing Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. During a meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro that July, a secret agreement was reached and construction of several missile sites began in the late summer.

These preparations were noticed by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which on October 14 tasked an Air Force-operated U-2 aircraft with scanning the suspected areas in Cuba, securing clear photographic evidence of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles on the ground. The United States considered attacking Cuba via air and sea, but decided on a military blockade instead, calling it a "quarantine" for legal and other reasons. The US announced that it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, while demanding the dismantlement and return of Soviet weapons back to the USSR.

Cuban Missile Crisis timeline