The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 1962 crisis between the Soviet Union and Cuba on the one hand and the United States on the other. The conflict began with the US deploying its medium-range missiles in Turkey and Italy, which pointed to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union discovered this and responded by deploying nuclear missile missiles in Cuba. The most tense period began on October 16, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy saw photographic evidence of Soviet nuclear weapons pointing to America. The crisis lasted for thirteen days until October 28, 1962, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the dismantling of the installations against the United States pledging not to attack Cuba and dismantling and removing its medium-range missiles from Turkey and Italy. This crisis is perceived as the period when the Cold War was almost developing into a nuclear war.
