Cuban missile crisis happened in October 1962 when the United States found out.
that the Soviet Union had secretly installed missiles in Cuba, about 90 miles from .
Florida. The missiles could have been used to launch nuclear attacks on America. .
The crisis was one of the most serious incidents of the Cold War, a period of .
intense U.S.-Soviet rivalry that had begun after World War II ended in 1945. Most .
people think that the missile crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union .
to a really close call to have a nuclear war. .
The Soviet Union put the missiles in Cuba earlier in 1962, because the Cuban .
officials were 100% sure that America was going to plan an attack on Cuba .
because they were allies with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. So they were .
pretty much getting ready for a nuclear war between Cuba and the U.S.
President John F. Kennedy of the United States found out about the missiles' .
presence on October 16 and demanded that the Soviet Union remove them. On .
October 22, he ordered a naval blockade of Cuba to stop Soviet Union from .
sending any more missiles or weapons. .
At first, the United States expected to invade Cuba to destroy the missiles. At one .
point, an invasion was scheduled for October 29 or October 30. Nearly all of .
Kennedy's advisers agreed that a landing of U.S. forces in Cuba would probably .
mean war--most likely nuclear war--with the Soviet Union. .
The Soviet Union offered to remove the missiles if the United States would .
promise not to invade Cuba. It later said that it would not remove the missiles .
unless the United States would dismantle its military bases in Turkey. Turkey was .
a U.S. ally that bordered the Soviet Union. Kennedy told the whole U.S. about the .
first deal and agreed publicly. But Kennedy also did a private agreement to quietly .
remove all U.S. nuclear missiles from Turkey in exchange for the removal of the .
Soviet missiles from Cuba. On October 28, Soviet leader Nikita S.