Cuban missile crisis October 1962

Cuban missile crisis October 1962. Hillsborough County Veterans Memorial Park. , The Cuban missile crisis , known as the October crisis in Cuba and the Caribbean crisis (Russian: к ариский кризис, tr. Karibskiy krizis) in the USSR , was a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other, in October 1962. It is one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. It is also the first documented instance of the threat of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. , , The United States considered attacking Cuba via air and sea, but decided on a military blockade instead, calling it a "quarantine" for legal and other reasons. The US announced that it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed, and return all offensive weapons to the USSR. The Kennedy administration held only a slim hope that the Kremlin would agree to their demands, and expected a military confrontation. , , On the Soviet side, Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote in a letter from October 24, 1962 to President John F. Kennedy that his blockade of "navigation in international waters and air space" constituted "an act of aggression propelling human kind into the abyss of a world nuclear- missile war". However, in secret back-channel communications the President and Premier initiated a proposal to resolve the crisis. While this was taking place, several Soviet ships attempted to run the blockade, increasing tensions to the point that orders were sent out to US Navy ships to fire warning shots and then open fire. On 27 October a U-2 was shot down by a Soviet missile crew, an action that could, have resulted in immediate retaliation from the Kennedy crisis cabinet, according to Secretary of Defense McNamara's later testimony. However, in the event itself, Kennedy stayed his hand and the negotiations continued. , , The confrontation ended on October 28, 1962; when Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached an agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US agreed that it would dismantle all US-built Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Turkey and Italy. After the removal of the missiles and Ilyushin Il-28 light bombers, the blockade was formally ended at 6:45 pm EDT on November 20, 1962. An additional outcome of the negotiations was the creation of the Moscow-Washington hotline, a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C. , , Cuba perceived the outcome as a partial betrayal by the Soviets, given that decisions on how to resolve the crisis had been made exclusively by Kennedy and Khrushchev, Castro, was especially upset that certain issues of interest to Cuba, such as the status of the US Naval Base in Guantánamo, were not addressed. This caused Cuban-Soviet relations to deteriorate for years to come. :278 On the other hand, Cuba continued to be protected from invasion. , , [Caption:] , Soviet SR-12 nuclear ballistic missile (NATO designation SS-4) in Red Square, Moscow