Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 14 – The Cuban Missile Crisis Published Sept. 3, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Though the Cold War was filled with moments of tension, nothing brought the world closer to a reality of nuclear war than the Cuban missile crisis. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba was keen to strengthen its ties to the USSR. Fidel Castro was worried about more aggression from the United States, and the Soviet Union was concerned about American ballistic missiles in Europe that were capable of striking at Moscow. Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev made a deal with Castro to position nuclear missiles in Cuba. These would be Soviet nuclear weapons within range of American targets, and they would deter the United States from further aggression toward Cuba. Both Cuba and the USSR would theoretically benefit. In 1962, missile launch facilities were built in Cuba. An Air Force U-2 spy plane photographed the missile sites, and America instituted a blockade to keep more missiles from being delivered to Cuba. The United States also demanded the weapons already in Cuba be disarmed and sent back to the Soviet Union. Over the course of 13 days, intense negotiations occurred between Khrushchev and American President John F. Kennedy. The Cuban missile crisis played out on television with the entire world watching. The crisis ended when Khrushchev agreed to remove his missiles from Cuba if Kennedy would secretly remove American missiles from Italy and Turkey. The crisis was publicly over, but the world had come closer to nuclear war than anyone at the time realized. The nuclear weapons in Cuba had been under the control of a Soviet officer capable of launching them without any codes or support from Moscow, and the Cuban missile crisis was punctuated by several incidents that could have set things off. Soviet submarine officer Vasili Arkhipov has been credited with saving the world by preventing the launch of a nuclear torpedo from a Soviet submarine that would have certainly triggered war. Furthermore, even after the crisis had publicly ended, nuclear weapons remained in Cuba that the United States was unaware of. The USSR, reluctant to leave such weapons under the control of Fidel Castro, was able to remove them thanks to the efforts of Soviet diplomat Anastas Mikoyan. 1962 was a year for close calls and very serious fears of catastrophe, but clear heads and intelligent diplomacy saw the world through one of history's most dangerous periods. Next time: The Space Race