| CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS |
| The closest the world has come to nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. The Soviets and Americans were at the worst terms ever. The Soviets were installing ICBMs, or inter continental ballistic missiles, capable of hitting any city in the 48 states besides Seattle. When America had taken surveillance photos of the installations, the red phone to Moscow was hot. Khruschev and Kennedy had to make a compromise to solve the biggest nuclear threat in the history of the world. Hundreds of millions of lives were on the line, all based on two people coming to a solution. At first, the government wanted an all-out invasion of Cuba. Navy, Army, and Air Force. To destroy everything on the island before those missiles could be launched. Earlier Kennedy had made a promise to defy the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba. But he didn’t want to start a nuclear war with the Soviets, but he would be drawn into war by doing nothing at all. Also earlier that year, Khruschev had threatened to take over West Berlin, even if it meant going to war over it. Then Kennedy had an idea. They would quarantine all the Soviet ships passing through, and ignore the letters sent by the Soviet Union. The plan was a success, any ship that stopped for searching could pass if it didn’t carry nuclear weapons, and ships that presumed to have them were turning around. As for the final solution, the Americans agreed not to invade the island again in exchange for the removal of the offensive weapons in Cuba. |