Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 16, 1962, President Kennedy was shown U-2 reconnaissance photographs confirming that the Soviet Union was secretly constructing nuclear missile launch sites in Cuba, capable of striking most major American cities with minimal warning time. Over the next thirteen days — the most dangerous thirteen days in human history — Kennedy and Khrushchev confronted each other in a nuclear standoff that brought the world closer to thermonuclear war than it has ever been before or since. Kennedy rejected calls from his military advisers for immediate air strikes or invasion, instead ordering a naval 'quarantine' of Cuba to prevent the delivery of further offensive weapons. The crisis was resolved through a secret diplomatic channel: the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba and — in a secret codicil not publicly revealed for decades — a US commitment to remove its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The combination of Kennedy's public firmness and private willingness to offer face-saving concessions, and Khrushchev's recognition that he had overreached, produced a peaceful resolution. But post-Cold War document revelations showed how close the world came to catastrophe: Soviet submarines in the quarantine zone had nuclear torpedoes and lost communication with Moscow; one submarine captain, Vasili Arkhipov, prevented the authorisation of a nuclear torpedo launch that could have triggered nuclear war.
- Year: 1962 CE
- Category: Military
