The Cuban missile crisis

The biggest event during the Cold War which almost led to the nuclear war and to the destruction of the world is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961 President Kennedy adjusted a CIA action to overthrow the communist policy of the Cuban dictator Castro. The Soviet Union used this event to install its nuclear missiles in Cuba in summer 1962. As a big brother The Soviet Union wanted to defend Cuba – this wasn’t the first, or the last time this big and strong communist brother “helped” the smaller countries. Of course, the world didn’t know anything about it because the Soviet soldiers came to Cuba as tourists and the weapons were transported in the night. On October 15 an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by Richard Heyser, revealed several SS-4 nuclear missiles in Cuba. The U.S. representatives were shocked. President John F. Kennedy assembled an advisory group called EXCOM, which consisted of Robert Kennedy, Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, and many more. They didn’t have too many choices, but they knew they have to do something. They could bomb and make an invasion of Cuba, make air strikes against the missiles, or to order a naval blockade in order to prevent Russian ships from bringing additional missiles and construction materials to the island. President Kennedy chose the third alternative. JFK warned the Russians that if they don’t respect the blockade it will be considered as an attack at the US ships and they will react – they will attack back. The US army was almost in the highest condition of readiness, there is only one higher condition – war. This was the second time since the Cold War started. The people didn’t know anything about it. They were told on October 22nd when President Kennedy addressed the American public. After this Castro mobilized the Cuban army. The people outside the U.S. didn’t believe that the missiles were real, because the Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev negated the existence of them. The pictures which have been taken by another U-2 later convinced the public about the danger and made Khrushchev admit that the Soviet army is prepared to attack. On October 23rd Robert Kennedy had a meeting with the Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin and secretly suggested the Jupiter missile trade- the US would remove its missiles in Turkey if the Russians would do the same in Cuba. This was his first meeting with him.

After that they met two more times.
On October 24th Russian ships reached the quarantine line, but Moscow ordered them to stop. This was a sign that Khrushchev also didn’t want to go to war just because of Cuba. Especially after he knew the army of the United States was ready to fight. The people in the US were considered and the government was planning on evacuation the public from the cities. Two days later Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy stating that the U.S.S.R. would remove the missiles if President Kennedy would publicly guarantee that the US wouldn’t invade Cuba. Kennedy didn’t want to back up and lose his authority. The president decided to ignore this letter, but he agreed with the first option.
On October 28th Khrushchev announced that he would return the missiles to the Soviet Union, expressing the trust that the US wouldn’t invade Cuba. This event gave the people the opportunity to understand the danger of a nuclear war and it also led to effort to end the Cold War. Both, the American and Russian, started to work on treaty.