The Cuban Misille Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the hottest point in the Cold War. It is the point where the U.S. and the Soviet Union got the closest to actual fighting. The Cuban Missile Crisis started because of an arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. By 1962, the Soviet Union was lagging far behind the U.S. in the effort to create more powerful nuclear weapons. The Missiles created by the Soviets were only powerful enough to reach Europe, but the American missiles had a much farther range. They could easily reach the Soviet Union quickly. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of placing Missiles in an area closer to the U.S, in order to prevent a potential attack from the U.S. and provide a new strategic arsenal. At the same time, Cuba was looking for a way to defend itself from the U.S. Things were extremely tense after the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion. Even though the invasion failed, the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was positive that there would be another invasion attempt. In 1962, Khrushchev made an agreement with Castro to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The U.S. soon found out about the plan, and tensions began to build. The U.S. tried to stop the Soviets from bringing in anymore missiles by cutting Cuba off from them with a naval quarantine. The tensions worsened when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba. The drama continued until the Americans and Soviets came to an agreement on October 28th. The missiles were taken out of Cuba in exchange for the U.S. to promise that they wouldn't invade Cuba.