Kennedy immediately put a strict quarantine on all ships going to Cuba. Kennedy had to be careful in the words he chose because if he had used the word "blockade" it would have been interpreted as an act of war. Kennedy had to proceed with extreme caution after his disaster with the Bay Of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961. In a failed coup Kennedy and the American government had trained and financially supported a group of about 1,500 Cuban exilesto try to overthrow Castro. Castro had gotten word of the attack prior to the invasion and almost all of the exiles were either killed or captured. In Dec of 1962, Castro released 1,113 captured rebels in return for 53 million dollars U.S.(6)

On the morning of Sunday October 14, 1962 at 7:37 am Major Richard Heyser was flying over Cuba in an American U-2 Spy Plane. In the course of his six minute flight he took 928 pictures and covered a 75 mile wide stretch of Cuban soil.(2) The photos were then put into transportation capsules and transferred by plane to The Photographic Interpretation Center in Maryland. By 4pm the next day the photographic examiners were almost positive that they had discovered large surface to surface missiles being installed in Cuba. The CIA was notified at 11pm. McGeorge Bundy decided to let the President get a nights rest and he would tell him in the morning.

After President Kennedy saw the pictures of the offensive weapons in Cuba he was deeply concerned. He came under a lot of pressure by his top military generals to make up for the Bay of Pigs invasion by ordering an air raid on Cuba to destroy all the missiles. Kennedy did not take this approach for two reasons. First he could not be sure that they would destroy all possible targets in one run. Second the mission was unsuccessful a nuclear war could be started. The Americans did not know that the Cubans had 40,000 Soviet soldiers, 36 nuclear warheads for their missiles.(3) Possibly the most dangerous thing the Americans didn't know was that the Cubans already had nine "tactical short range" nuclear tipped missiles ready to retaliate against any incoming forces for example, American troops or planes. "It meant that while the United States and the Soviet Union knew they stood on the brink of nuclear war, they did not know in fact that they were standing with one foot already hanging over the edge."(4) Kennedy decided to take a more defensive approach. He decided to stop all ships bound for Cuba. They were to be boarded and checked for offensive weapons. Kennedy made a public address to the world and the American people on Oct 22nd 1962 to announce a strict quarantine. It was a grim scenario but Kennedy believed there was no other way.

The two men in charge of the fate o

Some common words found in the essay are:
Soviet Union, Khrushchev Americans, Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War, Cuba Kennedy, Sputnik II, Americans Cubans, Bay Pigs, WW II, Crisis War, cold war, cuban missile, cuban missile crisis, offensive weapons, missile crisis, nikita khrushchev, nuclear war, war war, invade cuba, soviet union, nine tactical short, surface surface, surface surface missiles, tactical short range, cold war war,
Approximate Word count = 1843
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)