cuba

In November 1962, the United States discovered an installation of Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) on the island of Cuba, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. The Soviet Union, who hitherto was strategically inferior to the United States in nuclear capability, donated these missiles to Cuba. Moscow sought diplomatic goals aimed at weakening the US’s continued policy of containment of communism, including a withdrawal of US forces from Berlin, a guarantee that the US would not invade Cuba, and a removal of US missiles from Turkey. The instalment of IRBMs in Cuba strengthened Moscow’s bargaining power in negotiations with the United States. For the first time, the United States were threatened by a military capable of reaching far inside their borders with a potential capability for mass destruction. Unlike previous ground force encounters through history, this threat endangered their major political institutions, civilian population centres, and industrial stru...