Crisis+Summary

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
For thirteen days in October of 1962 the world waited, hoping for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In October 1962, a U.S. spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. Because he did not want Cuba and the Soviet Union to know that he knew about the missiles, Kennedy met in secret with his advisors, inclusing Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, for several days to discuss the problem. After many long and difficult meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies, and demanded the removal of the missiles and the destruction of the sites.

For thirteen days, the world waited, hoping for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. No one was sure how the Soviet leader would respond to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. Recognizing the devastating possibility of a nuclear war, Khrushchev turned his ships back. The Soviets agreed to dismantle the weapon sites and, in exchange, the United States agreed not to invade Cuba. In a separate, unpublicized deal, the U.S. agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. In 1963 there were signs of a lessening of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In June 1963, President Kennedy gave a commencement address at American University in which he urged Americans to reexamine Cold War stereotypes and myths and called for a strategy of peace that would make the world safe for diversity. Two actions also signaled a warming in relations between the superpowers: the establishment of a Hotline between the Kremlin and the White House, and the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In language very different from his inaugural address, President Kennedy told Americans in June 1963, “For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

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