Cuban missile crisis, major confrontation at the height of the Cold War that brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of a shooting war in October 1962 over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.

Learn about the 13-day standoff in 1962 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. Find out how President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev avoided a nuclear war and resolved the crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis ended over 60 years ago, but we still live in its shadow. Looking closely at what happened forces us to ask difficult questions about the world we have built together, what kind of world we want to build for the future, and how we might get there.

In what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy and an alerted and aroused American government, military, and public compelled the Soviets to remove not only their...

The Cuban Missile Crisis was among the most frightening events of the Cold War. The 13-day showdown brought the world’s two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.

What the PIs discovered that day turned the Intelligence Community (IC), and the world, upside-down -- evidence of Soviet offensive ballistic missiles secretly installed in Cuba with the capability of making a nuclear strike against the continental United States. It was, in the words of NPIC Director Art Lundahl, “the biggest story” of their time.

The deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles only 90 miles from Key West in 1962 brought the world as close as ever to a superpower nuclear conflict. Unsurprisingly, the Cuban Missile Crisis attracted immense interest by contemporary students of international affairs and subsequently by Cold War historians. After the fall of the Soviet Union ...

Learn about the 1962 standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union over nuclear weapons in Cuba. Explore research resources, documents, audio, video, and education materials from the National Archives.

John F Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. By Professor Ernest R May. Last updated 2013-11-18. For fourteen days during October 1962, the world held its breath as John F Kennedy (known as...