The Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy’s final conflict and one of the most consequential confrontations in history thus far began in the fall of 1962. The leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, fearing a U.S invasion appealed to Khrushchev for defense. The Soviet response was the secret installation of nuclear missiles on the island, a mere stone’s throw from the coast of Florida. The camouflaged missile silos were discovered by American reconnaissance planes flying overhead. This discovery set off a foreign policy fire storm. Prior to this development, the United States held a key geographical advantage based on the country’s distance from Europe and Asia, mainly The Soviet Union. At this time, no one knew that the island actually held nuclear missiles; it was thought that construction was still underway to house them. Kennedy was bombarded with advisors, military officials and politicians demanding to invade Cuba. Knowing what we know now, such action would have led to full scale nuclear war. On October 22, Kennedy went on national television to inform the American people and the world of what we had discovered. He went on to demand the removal of the missile installations and declared a naval quarantine of the island. Kennedy learned from his Bay of Pigs debacle that he could not always trust his advisors and military officers; had he succumbed to the pressure exerted on him by those same individuals the outcome would have been inconceivably disastrous. Khrushchev obliged the American President and agreed to his demands. Soviet ships on course for Cuba were turned away, and the missiles were removed in exchange for a guarantee Cuba would never be invaded and American weapons would be removed from Turkey. (Faragher, Buhle , Czitrom, Armitage & et al, 2009)