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a) Background
The Cuban Missile Crises was not only localized to Cuba and the US directly, on a closer look it was a worldwide crisis, starting long before 1961 and lasting much longer.
After the Second World War the British Empire was supporting Greece and Turkey in economical as well as financial ways. But in 1947, during India's struggle for independence, the Empire was not longer able to give further financial or economic aid. As there were strong communist tendencies in these two countries, the US saw the democratic values in these countries in danger. At the same time the so called "Domino theory" was put up for the first time. This theory says that the loss of one country to Communism would lead to the whole area falling under Communist control. Fearing a communist Europe Truman made a speech in the Congress on July 15, 1948 in which he accepted the full US responsibility of leadership in international affairs. Because of this reason the US took over the financial and economical aid of the British Empire in these two countries. As an exchange for their help the US was allowed to station nuclear weapons in both countries, right at the border of the communist world. Krushchev, the Soviet leader at that time, felt, of course, like having a trigger put on his head. As an exchange he wanted to clear the Berlin question according to his wishes. He had a barricade built around Berlin, which was evaded by the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949) and so Berlin remained separated into two parts.
In the early fifties the first Intercontinental Ballistics (ICB) were invented, which led to a struggle for power. Both of the superpowers, the US as well as the SU, wanted to be the most powerful country on earth. In the mid 50s, when the US had already 400 ICBs and sent up their first satellite, which was able to detect nuclear weapons, they found out that the SU did not have more than 24 ICBs. The Soviet Union had so few because of two reasons: first of all their ICBs were not as good as the American ones, they often missed their targets, or didn't get there at all. On the other hand the Soviet Union did not have the money to afford more Intercontinental Ballistics.
But they did have very good middle range Ballistics, but, unlike the US, they were not near enough the border of the US to pose a real threat. Cuba was the ideal place to station them. To aggravate the situation the US tried to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. Castro and his Soviet Allies were convinced that the Americans would try to take over the island again. Since the Bay of Pigs, there was an increasing fear of a U.S. incursion on Cuban soil.
b) The Cuban Missile Crisis
The US made clear that it would tolerate communist influence in Cuba, but not more. It for sure would not accept missiles in Cuba. But on October 14th 1962 they found evidence of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba for the first time, no nuclear missiles, but surface to air missiles which would be able to destroy high flying airplanes. Soon the US found out that the Soviets were building a defence line against American spy planes. A short time after this discovery they found a small piece of land, from which Cubans were expelled and replaced by Soviets. In this trapezoidal area the Americans soon found nuclear middle range weapons, which, once ready to fire, would be able to reach every big city in the US. Khrushchev's plan was to establish a balance between the missiles in Turkey and Greece and the Missiles in Cuba. Kennedy soon found out that these missiles in Cuba could not only be used to change the balance of power, but also to settle the Berlin Crisis once and for all. He knew, if he used force against Cuba, as his military advisors were telling him, the Soviets would attack Berlin, and roll over half of Europe.
At the top of the crisis an American U2 spy plan was shot down by Soviet anti air missiles. It has never been settled if that happened on permission of Moscow, but what is clear is that there was the imminent danger of a Third World War and everyone at that time was sure that once a nuclear struggle had started, there wouldn't be anyone who could stop it.
Soon after the discovery of the US about the missiles, it brought it forward into the UN to find a solution. But for the Soviet inner circle these discussions were not more than a message from the US that it knew about the missiles. The United American Nations signed an embargo for Cuba right afterwards, which included a barrier for all ships heading for the island. After this period Krushchev and Kennedy started to exchange messages directly. For me this is the basic difference between this crisis and every other crisis. It showed that both leaders were trusting each other that sooner or later they would find a solution for the problem. On October 27, 1962 all 25 Soviet missiles in Cuba were operational.
For Khrushchev it would have been a solution to make sure that the US would never invade Cuba, for Kennedy it was indispensable that the nuclear weapons, both strategic and tactical were removed. It was not easy for Kennedy to prevent an invasion without losing his face or being impeached. In the end the Russians retreated. Khrushchev did something very risky, but not wanting war, he only wanted the world to give the Soviets the respect they demanded, he wanted his native country to be honoured as the superpower it was, not only on the basis of its military strength, but because of its extraordinary achievements. Russia withdrew its missiles afterwards, and as an exchange 6 months later, so it would not be seen in connection, the US withdrew its missiles in Turkey and Greece. The Americans were allowed to count the missiles which left Cuba to make sure that all of them were removed.
c) Results
The Cuban Missile Crisis helped the world to see that the Soviet Union did not want war, and that the two superpowers could talk to each other if they wanted to. This had not been an ordinary communication, but a new form of talks. In the end it had been possible to stabilize a quite dangerous situation peacefully without starting a new war.
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