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The Cuban Missile Crisis was probably one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War.

For 13 days in October 1962, the world appeared to stand on the brink of nuclear war.

This is one of the few examples from the Cold War where the two main superpowers actually came into direct confrontation with the other.

Cuba is an island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

In 1959, Fidel Castro became its leader.

Castro had overthrown the dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista.

One of Castro’s first moves was to go to the USA to secure support for his new state, but President Eisenhower refused to speak with him.

Instead, Castro accepted the Soviet Union’s offer of support for his new government.

Castro then nationalised all American-owned companies in Cuba, and refused to pay compensation.

Up until 1959, most of Cuba’s trade in sugar and cigars was with America.

Castro changed this to trade with the USSR.

The USA now had a pro-communist state ‘in its own backyard’ or in their ‘sphere of influence’ and from 1959-61, they maintained a frosty relationship with Cuba without any direct confrontation.

In April 1961, just after he was installed as President of the USA, John F. Kennedy approved a plan to invade Cuba and overthrow communism.

The CIA landed 1,400 Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba with the aim of provoking an anti-communist uprising.

The rebels were easily defeated when they were met by 20,000 heavily armed Cuban troops.

All were captured or killed.

Kennedy now looked weak whilst Castro looked like a hero in Cuba.

After the Bay of Pigs incident, Cuba clearly felt threatened by the United States.

Therefore, Castro turned to Russia for help and protection.

Nikita Khrushchev agreed to provide Cuba with weapons and missiles for defence.

An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Castro in July 1962 and construction of a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer.

Cuba was only 90 miles from the coast of Florida meaning that the USA, including many of its biggest cities like Washington DC and New York, would be well within range of these missiles.

Within two days of the latest Cuban threat, President Kennedy formed a special advisory group (Executive Committee of the National Security Council or ExComm) to weigh up various options.

After talks with ExComm, Kennedy was faced with a range of options to deal with the Soviet threat in Cuba.

He could:

• Ignore the missiles: The Soviets would see this as weakness on Kennedy’s part, and they would likely take advantage of it.
• Get the United Nations involved: The USSR would block any UN action so this would be of little value.
• Call on the USSR to remove the missiles: He could do this by explaining the damage their presence was doing to Soviet-American relations.
• Blockade Cuba and not allow any more Soviet ships to enter Cuba: This would still leave missiles on Cuba but the negotiations would continue in the background while publicly Kennedy would be seen to be doing something specific. This risked military confrontation.
• Invade with soldiers or launch air attacks: An unprovoked attack, involving air strikes probably followed by an invasion, would be hard to justify. This would probably lead to Soviet retaliation.

• Missiles in both Turkey and Cuba were removed.
• Both sides agreed to avoid a future confrontation and set up a direct hotline between Washington and Moscow.
• 1963: Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - this controlled nuclear weapons and only allowed tests underground.
• 1969: Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - this prevented more countries from acquiring nuclear weapons.
• Cuba stayed communist.

• The Cold War did thaw and steps were taken to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
• In order to ensure easier communication between Washington DC and Moscow in the event of future conflict, a hotline was installed giving a direct phone link between the White House and the Kremlin.
• Both the USA and the USSR realised they had been on the brink of nuclear war and entered into talks. These talks eventually led to the 1963 Test Ban Treaty. By 1969, both countries promoted the idea of ‘peaceful co-existence.’
• One of the most significant results was that the world never faced this type of crisis again. The Cuban Missile Crisis did pave the way for a period of ��é�ٱ�Գٱ� and there was closer co-operation between the superpowers on human rights, nuclear disarmament and trade.