October 1962 is a date that will never be forgotten in the history of the Cold War. This is because it was the date of the Cuban missile crisis, which is regarded as the time when the two superpowers of the 20th century (USA and the Soviet Union) came closest to a full-blown nuclear war.
Arguably, the main trigger factor for this event was the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. This was because the USA desperately wanted to eliminate the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, mainly due to the fact that they saw his insistent communist ideology as a huge threat to the capitalist government in the USA. The CIA invaded the Bay of Pigs, a large beach located on the Southern coat of Cuba. However, the CIA grossly underestimated the strength and power of the counter-revolutionary attack from the Cubans (under Castro’s leadership), and the invaders surrendered after three days. As a result, the failure of the USA only strengthened Castro’s support as a leader, even if Cuba’s relationship with the USA was arguably worse than ever.
The aftermath of the invasion also gave way to the reinforcement of Soviet-Cuban relations. The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, formed a secret agreement with Castro to place many Soviet missiles in Cuba. This was not only to give the Soviets some power over the USA in the war, but also acted as a deterrent for any further aggression towards Cuba. However, the main problem that arose between the USA and the Soviets was that Nikita Khrushchev promised not to send any nuclear weapons to Cuba, but when secret planes were sent over Cuba, the USA found out that he had lied. John F. Kennedy, the US president, did not resort to bombing Cuba, but instead ordered a naval quarantine to Cuba. John F. Kennedy also went to say that the launching of any nuclear missiles from Cuba was to be viewed as a direct attack from the Soviet Union. However, Khrushchev ignored Kennedy’s quarantine, and continued to send Soviet ships to Cuba, although some ships did turn back.
US secret planes later recorded that the Cuban missile sites looked as if they were ready to operate. Following this, the Soviet Union sent a message to Kennedy stating that the missiles would not be launched if the US consented not to invade Cuba. Another letter was then sent stating that the deal would also have to include the removal of US missiles that resided in Turkey. However, the same day a US plane was shot over Cuba, meaning that Kennedy was not in a position to take orders from the Soviet Union. Therefore, he proposed to Khrushchev that Soviet missiles should be removed from Cuba in order to resolve the dispute.
An American attorney and a Soviet attorney met the same day, indicating that the US missiles were going to be removed from Turkey anyway. Therefore, Khrushchev sent a letter deeming that the missiles would be removed from Cuba. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty was then signed by both powers. Arguably the largest and most terrifying crisis in the Cold War died out that very moment.
Some historians argue that Cuba merely played the role of a puppet throughout the whole crisis. However, it can also be argued that the crisis made the corrupt version of communism is Cuba more apparent to the two powers. The aftermath of the crisis also included the suffering of ordinary Cuban citizens, as the USA embargoed any trade with Cuba as a result. This led to an inflation in prices and made life very difficult for some Cubans who had played no role in the dispute. The unstable relationship between Cuba and the USA also continued for much longer after the Cuban missile crisis, and only in 2016 were US tourists allowed into Cuba.
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