Cuban Missile Crisis - Thirteen Days in October 1962 Video

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 ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted. The tensions were at their height on October 27th, 1962, which was known as "Black Saturday". On October 14th, United States reconnaissance, USAF U-2 spy plane and a Navy F-8 Crusader observed and photographed missile bases being built in Cuba. The crisis ended two weeks later on October 28th, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy and the United Nations Secretary General reached an agreement with the Soviets to dismantle the missiles in exchange for a no-invasion agreement. In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy informally proposed that the Jupiter missiles in Turkey would be removed "within a short time after this crisis was over". The last missiles were taken down by April 24th, 1963. In the meeting between Attorney General Kennedy and Ambassador Dobrynin, the ambassador was caught in a lie. He had told Kennedy previously, on the basis of what Krushchev said, that the only missiles placed in Cuba by the Russians were strictly defensive, and were not capable of reaching the United States. "Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by ...