These are the steps that brought the United States and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war in 1962.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was among the most frightening events of the Cold War. The 13-day showdown brought the world’s two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
In the Fall of 1962 the United States demanded that the Soviets halt construction of newly discovered missile bases in communist Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who had pledged in 1960 to defend Cuba, assumed that the U.S. wouldn’t try and prevent the installation of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the communist Caribbean country. But the weapons could potentially reach much of the United States.