Overview of the Cuban Missile Crisis
The climax of the 44-year Cold War was caused by Khrushchev, the Soviet Union leader, by deciding to secretly ship and position nuclear missiles on Cuba, the small communist nation less than 100 miles away from the United States coast. As Kennedy discovers the Soviet’s plot on Cuba, a catastrophe continues to take shape, bringing the world closer to a thermonuclear war. The tensions occurring between the two superpowers are spiraling out of the control of the two leaders. When there is seemingly no chance that the world will avoid a nuclear confrontation, the Soviets and Americans secretly agree upon a deal to remove the missiles. These events spanning an extensive two weeks in October of 1962 would become commonly known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.