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The Pros And Cons Of The Cuban Missile Crisis

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The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in the month of October, 1962 when American-Soviet relations were tested by the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union. Many historians point to this moment in time as the closest the United States and the Soviets ever came to nuclear war. The tensions began to rise once the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, supported by the American government, failed to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba. As a result, Castro was open for the Soviet Premier Khrushchev to place troops and nuclear missiles to threaten the United States. Khrushchev considered this justifiable because of the American missiles positioned in Turkey. The support for Cuba provided the Soviets with several political and diplomatic advantages, and became an immediate threat in the eyes of the American government. On October 14, a U2 spy plane flying over Cuba took pictures of potential nuclear missiles that were examined by many government officials. Eventually, the missiles were deemed not nuclear, but still capable of reaching the United States. Two days later, President Kennedy was briefed on the dire situation and immediately assembled the National Security Council to determine how to address the issue. This group of men, including his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, would be referred to as ExComm. They considered many options, including a swift invasion force that would neutralize the launch sites before any more missiles were brought in. This

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