Cuban Missile Crisis

In October of 1962, aerial photographs were taken over Cuba. They exposed the transportation of nuclear missiles from the U.S.S.R. to Cuba, where America would be in firing range. Kennedy refused the bombing of the missile sites. On the 22nd of October, Kennedy placed a naval blockade on Cuba, which would be moved on the circumstance of the removal of the nuclear warheads. Also, should any attack occur, Kennedy stated that the U.S. would retaliate by firing nuclear missiles at Russia, from the Turkish base sites under American control. The soviets placed a naval ring surrounding the U.S. quarantine, yet no shots were fired for fear of nuclear destruction of the world’s top leading countries. On the 28th, the U.S. and Soviets reached an agreement: the removal of nuclear weapons in both Turkey and Cuba. Perhaps one of the most tense moments of the sixties, the event ultimately gave Kennedy more popular support, as well as spurned scares and parodies in popular culture, such as the 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.