InformationFor a long time, the Soviets thought that they were years a head of the US in terms of intercontinental missiles. After all, they had put 'Sputnik' into orbit, well before the US had dreamt of such an act. Most of the Soviet organizations did not believe that there was a necessity to build more intercontinental missiles (i.e., they started to believe in their own propagonda). This laxity made it harder for the Soviets to understand and deal with the fact that they had been surpassed. As it was not possible to build more intercontinental missiles (economic reasons), a group within the newly created Strategic Rocket Forces proposed the using of Cuba as a missile site. Such a move was also backed by the Soviet premier Nikita S. Khrushchev who believed that the future of wars would involve strategic nuclear rockets (and it was he who had actually created the Strategic Rocket Forces).

The Soviets, thus, decided to place medium- (MRBM) and intermediate-range ballistic (IRBM) missile

Missile power parity seems to be the real reason. A tiny section of the Soviet Armed Forces noticed that the US had surpassed them in terms of intercontinental missiles. They wanted to reach, at least, parity and had the firm backing of Khrushchev. As there was not enough resources (nor the support of the entire military institution) to build more intercontinental missiles, they decided to use the IRBMs and MRBMs. These missiles had a smaller range but using Cuba as a 'launcher' would have solved this problem. Also, they were much cheaper.

According to Elekdag, the prevalent feeling at the White House was that the Soviets would bomb the Jupiter missiles in Turkey if the Americans were to bomb Cuba (The Jupiter missiles were theater nuclear weapons which had been deployed in Europe under the 'dual key' arrangement: the host country would build and maintain the base but the US would have the custody over the nuclear warheads and the ultimate veto over its launching). Yet, Elekdag also points out that Kennedy's advisors believed that in the case of an actual bombing of the island, the Soviets would not only demand the evacuation of the Jupiter missiles but also the removal of the 100 American planes which had nuclear warheads as well as the 20,000 American soldiers based in Turkey and the closure of the American bases in Turkey. Furthermore, if the Americans were to reject the Soviet demands then Turkey would be the "victim of Soviet retaliation." It should be mentioned at this point that the Jupiter missiles were pretty much obsolete but were of symbolic importance to Turkey. The missiles were removed on March 1963.

Although the Soviet premier declared that a UN agency could verify his promise, such a UN inspection never took place. The US government, following its U-2 flight inspections, lifted the quarantine on November 20.

United Nations involvement in the crisis

The Soviet premier's declaration that a UN agency could verify that the missiles were removed meant that the UN would finally be involved. Thus, the superpowers were looking to the UN to help end the matter.

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Approximate Word count = 2050
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)