Cuba missile crisis

    Although the Cold War was fought between Russia and the United States, Cuba played a huge role in the outcome of the Cold War. When Cuba decided to become a communist nation in 1959, the Soviet Union decided to lend them their support. This was more an act of aggression toward the United States because now the Soviets had an ally and military bases just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.  The Cuban Missile Crisis took place in 1962, when a Soviet nuclear base was found on the island. A U-2 plane found a medium range ballistic missile being assembled for installation. This is when President Kennedy was briefed about the situation. He and his team had a crisis on their hands. No one knew exactly how many missile sites there were on Cuba or if any of the missiles were assembled and ready for launch. The military struggled with solutions, some of which were to proceed diplomatically with the soviets, bomb all missile sites that were known about, or surround Cuba with a military blockade. Kennedy was briefed on the situation in Cuba on October 16th 1962 and on October 22nd 1962 he released a statement to the public that said the US military was going to create a naval blockade around Cuba and were not afraid to use military force to neutralize the threat. Although the plan seemed very concrete the US citizens were still preparing for the worst, a nuclear war. 

    The United States felt that the missiles had to be removed from Cuba because they caused to much of a threat to the national safety. The Soviets perceived this missiles as their own self defense since the Americans had medium range missiles in Turkey. 

    The Cuban Missile crises came very close to a military confrontation that could have easily become a nuclear war on October 24 when the Soviets ships, bound for Cuba, stopped just short of the US military blockade. The situation got even more tense when an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba. When the plane was shot down many people including US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara thought it would be the last saturday they would ever see. However war was adverted when Khrushchev and Kennedy made the deal that Soviet missiles would be taken  down and the US would not invade Cuba. Their was also a secret agreement made between the two that Kennedy would take his missiles out of Turkey. 

Sources: 

http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis