Cuban Missile Crisis (EXTRA CREDIT)

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the United States ever came to a nuclear war. The US armed forces were very prepared and Soviet commanders in Cuba were ready to use battlefield nuclear weapons as the island's defense to any invasions. In 1962 the Soviets were behind the US in the arms race and had missiles that were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe. The United States' missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. At this time, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island from any US attack. He approved Khrushchev's plan and in the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly to secretly build its missile installations in Cuba. When word got out to the United States and photographs revealed the Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba, President John Kennedy organized a group of his twelve most important advisors, which was known as the EX-COMM, to handle the crisis. Many debates were taken place, causing Kennedy to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. He also wanted to prevent the arrival of anymore Soviet weapons. Tensions began to build on both sides. In a letter, Khrushchev proposed removing Soviet missiles if the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. The worst day of the crisis was October 27th when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. Some tension was eased on October 28th, when Khrushchev announced that he would remove the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, showing that he trusted tge United States would not invade Cuba. Both countries came to an agreement that Soviet light bombers should be removed from Cuba and the United States will not attack and invade Cuba.