Thirteen days that shook the world - The Cuban Missile Crisis

Before the 1960s, Cuba was ruled by a corrupt dictator named Fulgencio Batista. Under Batista's rule, American businesses had a great deal of control over the Cuban economy. 

American businesses owned most of Cuba’s public railways, almost half the sugar industry, and 90% of the telephone and electric companies. 

In 1959, a revolutionary group led by Fidel Castro overthrew Batista's government.

Once in power, Castro wanted to minimise America’s control on Cuba's economy. 

His new Cuban government seized American businesses and nationalised them. 

The United States was not happy about this turn of events. The American government saw Castro's regime as a threat to its interests in the region.

In response, the U.S. began working to overthrow the Cuban government. 

In 1961, the CIA hatched a plan to overthrow Castro. The plan was to train and arm Cuban exiles and then send them back to invade their homeland.

The exiles were trained in Guatemala and then flown to Cuba in CIA-owned aircraft.

They landed in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, but the invasion was a complete disaster.

The failure was largely due to the lack of support from the local population and the absence of the anticipated U.S. air support.

The exiles were quickly defeated, and many were captured or killed. The debacle served as a humiliating embarrassment for the United States.

Following the invasion, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for help. He knew that the Soviets had nuclear weapons, and he hoped that they would be deter the United States from trying to overthrow his regime.

In 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev decided to take advantage of Castro's vulnerability.

He secretly ordered Soviet ballistic missiles to be placed in Cuba. The missiles were capable of reaching most of the United States, including major cities like Washington D.C., New York City, and Miami. 

In addition to the nuclear missiles, the USSR had also managed to send 40,000 Soviet troops to Cuba.

These were both combat-ready soldiers, but also the engineers and technicians required to assemble and fire the missiles.

These secret movements of missiles and men was in response to the U.S. stationing Jupiter ballistic missiles in Turkey, which was aimed at the Soviet Union.

These American missiles had been placed in Turkey in 1960, and the Soviets saw them as a direct threat, as they could strike the USSR within five minutes of being launched.

On the 14th of October 1962, American spy planes discovered the Soviet missiles in Cuba and President John F Kennedy was faced with a difficult decision: should he order a strike against the missile sites, or should he try to negotiate with the Soviets? 

Further plane photographs on the 15th of October showed they the build-up continued.

Kennedy convened a meeting of his top advisors to discuss what to do. The options were to do nothing, launch a military attack on Cuba, or impose a naval blockade on Cuba.

After much deliberation, Kennedy decided on the latter option. On the 22nd of October, he appeared on American TV and announced that the United States would impose a naval blockade of Cuba until the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles.

This was known as a "quarantine" rather than a blockade, so as not to provoke the Soviets into taking military action.

For a day and a half, during the 24th and 25h of October, some Soviet ships that were heading for Cuba were turned back from the U.S. quarantine line, but further spy photographs showed that the missiles were still in place on Cuba.

Kennedy's advisors said that all missiles would be operational within three days and were capable of reaching American targets within 10 minutes of launch.

The president asked for an estimated death toll if the US was hit. He was told that each missile was capable of killing 600,000 people each.

Then, on the morning of Saturday, October 27th, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down by a Soviet-operated surface-to-air missile as it flew over Cuba.

The pilot of the U-2, named Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed, and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were outraged. They encouraged Kennedy to launch a retaliatory air strike on the missile bases.

However, fearing that such an attack would begin a nuclear war, Kennedy refused.

Instead, late on Saturday evening, the president sent an offer to Khrushchev. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis finally ended on the 28th of October with a secret agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The United States agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey and promised not to invade Cuba.

In return, the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba and to not place any more nuclear weapons on the island.

The world breathed a sigh of relief, and the crisis was over.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a turning point in the Cold War. It showed that both sides were capable of destroying the other, and that diplomacy was necessary to avoid such a catastrophe.

The experience also led to increased cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to prevent future conflicts.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a watershed moment not just for American-Soviet relations, but for international politics as well.

Specifically, it led to the establishment of the Moscow-Washington hotline in 1963, which was a direct communication link between the leaders of the two nations.

The fact that two superpowers with such different ideologies were able to come to a diplomatic resolution in such a short amount of time is a testament to the power of communication and negotiation.

It is a reminder that, even in the darkest of times, cooler heads can still prevail.