Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. In April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had an idea of placing missiles in Cuba. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missiles in Cuba. On October 22, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missile installations to the public and his decision to quarantine the island. On the 25th Kennedy quarantine back the line and raised military readiness to DEFCON 2. Then on the 26th EX-COMM heard from Khrushchev in an impassioned letter. He proposed removing Soviet missiles and personnel if the U.S. would guarantee not to invade Cuba. October 27 a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. Attorney General Robert Kennedy suggested ignoring the second letter and contacted Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to tell him of the U.S. agreement with the first. That is what they did and