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In May 1960 the Soviet Premier vowed to defend Cuba against US
aggression. After the Bay of Pigs ordeal, Cuban leader Fidel Castro
was expecting another attempt, and the Soviets began to install
long-range missile launch sites in Cuba that would have threatened
much of the Eastern USA.
On August 29 1962, US U-2 spy planes spotted new military
construction and the presence of Soviet technicians.
Photographs of launch sites were delivered to President Kennedy
on October 16, and after considering the alternatives, he ordered a
naval blockade of Cuba and warned that US armed forces would seize
offensive weapons and associated material that Soviet vessels tried
to deliver to Cuba.
Kennedy appeared on national American television on October 22 to
inform the nation that Soviet missiles had been deployed on Cuban
soil and that many US states were now within range of nuclear
strike.
On October 24, Soviet vessels began turning back but work
continued on the launch sites.
Messages were exchanged between Kennedy and Khrushchev with
extreme tension on both sides, and for a while the world stood
closer to the brink of nuclear war than it ever had before.
The crisis was finally settled on October 28 1962 when the
Soviets agreed to dismantle the launch sites in Cuba and return the
missiles to the Soviet Union. In return, President Kennedy lifts the
Cuban trade and weapons embargo, and pledged that the US would never
invade Cuba.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief and stepped back
from the nuclear brink.
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