Cuban Missile Crisis
October 16-28, 1962 · 20th Century
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation from October 16-28, 1962, between the United States and Soviet Union over the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. It reached a critical point on October 22 when President Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba. The crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, ended when Soviet Premier Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.
Key Figures
Nikita KhrushchevJohn F. KennedyFidel CastroRobert F. KennedyAnatoly Dobrynin
Locations
CubaMoscow KremlinWhite House East RoomSan Cristobal
Topics
soviet uniondiplomacyCold Warunited statesnuclear weapons
Connected Events — 3 Connections
Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated existential danger of nuclear weapons directly motivating US-Soviet negotiations to prevent space weaponization that produced the Outer Space Treaty Outer Space Treaty Signed
Established precedent for presidential crisis management without Congressional authorization during Cold War naval confrontations Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Slow fueling and a few exposed launch pads kept the R-7 from deployment in numbers, so by 1962 the Soviets had few ICBMs; placing shorter-range R-12 missiles in Cuba, within reach of the United States, was partly a way to offset that gap. Development of the R-7 Semyorka ICBM
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