Cuban Missile Crisis

Explain the Cuban Missile Crisis. What happened and why is it considered “the hottest moment in the Cold War”? What did Kennedy do to combat the crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness and Soviet forces in Cuba were prepared to use nuclear weapons deployed on Cuban beaches to defend the island if it was invaded. What have happened was that After WWII, only two major superpowers existed. These two powers were, the United States and the Soviet Union. At the end of WWI Germany which had been the major superpower, along with the U.S. was destroyed. Therefore the Soviet Union took over. The Cold War was a period in which the Soviet Union and the U.S. were competing for power. This war was not really a war it was more like a competition. The U.S. and the Soviet Union started to figure out how nuclear weapons worked, and how to use them. Although these two nations were competing for power they had to realize that if either of them shot a nuclear weapon at the other, they would achieve mutual nuclear destruction. That was why the U.S. and the USSR came to a conclusion. They decided that instead of focusing on each other, they would point some of the missiles to other parts of the world. The Soviet Union did not want the U.S. to become the only superpower, so the government decided to install missiles in Cuba. As allies with the USSR Cuba agreed. With Fidel Castro under power things just became more complicated. In the year of 1961, Fidel Castro kicked out of Cuba all the rebels that were against communism. All of these people went to Florida. What president John F. Kennedy did to combat the crisis was that he announced a naval blockade to prevent the arrival of more missiles. He demanded that the USSR dismantle and remove the weapons and declared a quarantine zone around Cuba. For several tense days Soviet vessels avoided the quarantine zone, and Khrushchev and Kennedy communicated through diplomatic channels. Khrushchev finally agreed to dismantle and remove the weapons from Cuba and offered the United States on-site inspection.