The Cuban Missile Crisis in pictures, 1962

 

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict.

The crisis was unique in many ways, including calculations and miscalculations, as well as direct and covert communication and miscommunication between the two sides.

The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it played out primarily at the White House and Kremlin levels, with relatively little input from the relevant bureaucracy that was usually involved in the foreign policy process.

In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy was informed of the discovery of a U-2 spy-plane of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. The President immediately resolved that this could not be tolerated.

In an intense 13 days, he and his Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev faced each other "eyeball to eyeball" with the power of mutual destruction. One war would mean the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Soviets.

Stopping at a nuclear reef, President Kennedy and the group of advisers he had assembled (known as XCOM) evaluated several options.

After a week of secret deliberations, he announced the discovery to the world and imposed a naval blockade on further shipments of weapons to Cuba.

After a tense second week, during which neither side withdrew. Presented with the choice of whether to attack or accept Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy declined both options.

Instead, they devised an option with three components: a public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a personal ultimatum that threatens to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer is rejected; And a secret sweetener that promised Turkey to withdraw American missiles from within six months. The crisis was resolved at the last minute when Khrushchev defeated the U.S. Offer accepted.

The Cuban Missile Crisis stands out as a singular event during the Cold War and solidified Kennedy's image domestically and internationally. It may also have helped to reduce negative world opinion about the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

Two other important consequences of the crisis came in unique forms. First, despite a flurry of direct and indirect communications between the White House and the Kremlin—perhaps because of it—Kennedy and Khrushchev, and their advisers, struggled during the crisis to clearly understand each other's true intentions. , while the world hangs on it. On the verge of a possible nuclear war.

In an effort to prevent this from happening again, a direct telephone link was established between the White House and the Kremlin; This became known as the "hotline".

Second, after reaching the brink of a nuclear conflict, the two superpowers began to rethink the nuclear arms race and took the first steps towards agreeing a nuclear test ban treaty.