October 1962 was the closest the World ever came to a nuclear war - the most dangerous thirteen days of the Cold War. This period is known by many names: Americans call it The Cuban Missile Crisis, Russians call it The Caribbean Crisis, and Cubans call it The October Crisis. All of these names refer to the same actions and reactions that challenged the world. All agree that it was a crisis and that it refers to the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) placing missiles on the island of Cuba and the United States saying that this would not be allowed for reasons of security.

      Khrushchev conceived this idea of putting missiles in Cuba as a way of countering the missile build up by the United States (U.S.) in Eastern Europe (particularly Turkey). He presented this idea as a means to defend Cuba from another U.S. sponsored invasion, like the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961.

     After a U.S. U2 spy plane delivered pictures of the missiles being placed in Cuba (see picture in upper left of this page) a series of intense negotiations including a naval quarantine of Cuba by the U.S. followed. After intense negotiations, a compromise was reached between the United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. would remove its missiles from Cuba and in return, the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. Thanks to these diplomatic negotiations between the participants we avoided what could have been a catastrophic nuclear war.