Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the single event lasting 13 days that could have evolved into World War III that never came. This event although highly militarized with intent became a matter of diplomatic talks between Premier Khrushchev and President Kennedy. Based off of the failed invasion of the CIA at the Bay of Pigs to oust the communist regime led by Fidel Castro, Cuba had felt that they could not defend themselves properly. The Soviet Union seizing on the fact that they could have missiles in close proximity to U.S. targets as the U.S. had done with missiles in Turkey jumped to send aid to Cuba in terms of missiles, planes and bombs.
Although a dire situation could have evolved with nuclear consequences some good actions came out of the confrontation. This was the point where communication issues were seen between getting messages between the 2 countries and later on a hotline was created between Moscow and Washington to address key issues. Additionally measures talks continued which led to reductions in arms building and new treaties to assure peace of the two countries. source: http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/ |
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