For fourteen days in October, 1962, the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. At that time, United States President John F. Kennedy was informed of the presence of a nuclear missile site in Cuba. The United States knew that nuclear missiles were going to be transported to Cuba from the USSR and United States set up a blockade around Cuba to stop this. Soviet ships nearly crossed the blockade border, but turned back before passing it. The Cuban Missile Crisis affected the world because it nearly caused World War III, slightly nullified tension between United States and Soviet Union, and shocked people all over the world.
To start off, the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly caused World War III. The blockade set up by the United States around Cuba was nearly violated by the Soviets. There was a 14 day standoff between the United States and Soviet Union where the Soviets nearly passed the blockade line trying to transport nuclear weapons to Cuba. If soviet ships passed the blockade line, the United States would have shot down the Soviet ships and start a war with the Soviet Union. Many other countries around the war would then have been involved in this war because of the alliances the United States had with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and alliances the Soviets had with the Warsaw Pact. .
Secondly, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, tension between the Soviets and United States was slightly nullified. There were changes made by the United States and Soviet Union after the incident to ensure a nearly tragic event like this will never happen again. A treaty was passed a couple years after the Cuban Missile Crisis called The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which was an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union to stop the spread of nuclear weapons in other countries. This led to removal of nuclear weapons in Turkey that United States had and caused no more issues over placement of nuclear weapons.
