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 and Soviet forces in Cuba were prepared to use nuclear weapons deployed on Cuban beaches to defend the island if it was invaded. However, histories opinion of the conflict is more that of praise and commendation because of the "bravery" of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev. However, this extreme, 14 day, tension mounting conflict was really a contest of two men's egos. For example: during President Kennedy's presidential campaign, he had repeatedly spoken of a missile gap between the U.S. and Soviet Union, meaning that neither nation had the capabilities of striking each other from each ones mainland. Despite being briefed by the Pentagon that the U.S. had more missiles than the Soviets, Kennedy maintained his claim that the U.S. had less. After the 1960 election, Khrushchev began to test the new president, and in the summer of 1961 Khrushchev applied pressure to Berlin and eventually built a wall surroundi

Tensions finally began to ease on October 28 when Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the United States would not invade Cuba. Further negotiations were held to implement the October 28 agreement, including a United States demand that Soviet light bombers be removed from Cuba, and specifying the exact form and conditions of United States assurances not to invade Cuba.

During the public phase of the Crisis, tensions began to build on both sides. Kennedy eventually ordered low-level reconnaissance missions once every two hours. On Wednesday, October 24th, the same day that Kennedy ordered the quarantine to begin, military alert was raised to DEFCON 2, the highest level ever in U.S. history. Then on the 26th EX-COMM heard from Khrushchev in an impassioned letter in which he proposed removing Soviet missiles and personnel if the U.S. would guarantee not to invade Cuba. October 27 was the worst day of the crisis. A U-2 was shot down over Cuba and EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. This second letter is proof of egotism halting the resolution of the conflict; in Khrushchev's first letter, he never addressed the U.S. missiles in Turkey, however, now he feels the missile's a threat and adds them to his list of negotiable demands. Kennedy feared having someone go public with the Turkey proposal because it could potentially ruin his career, thus, he kept this part of Khrushchev's proposal extremely secretive. If the U.S. buckled under pressure and removed its missiles from Turkey, where they had been long before the crisis arose, then it could be political suicide and a demonstration of Soviet influencing power. A political enemy would have a field day holding Kennedy responsible for the Turkey proposal.

Both men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in their attempts and successes of dealing with the Crisis, are regaled as heros. History complements (for the most part), the efforts made by these two men to keep world peace stable and prevent the occurrence of a nuclear war. The United States was in an economically safe state while the sixties rolled on. Meanwhile, Russia's government were enjoying their new found post-Stalin socialism attributing great reliefs to the

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Approximate Word count = 1634
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)