The Cuban Missile Crisis was an event that sent two great powers to the brink of nuclear war. It started out when the Soviets (led by Khruschev) realized that the US (led by President Kennedy) was way far ahead of them in terms of nuclear power. This came as quite a shocl to them as they had always thought they were ahead of the US, and took pride in knowing it. To give themselves a sense of control and power they decided to place medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles (as well as other weapons) on Cuba pointing at the US. They started shipping the weapons in 1962. A couple of months later the US discovered the presence of a ballistic missile on a launching pad aimed at them in Cuba. They soon learned that the missile (along with other missiles stored there) was capeable of reaching anywhere in the South Eastern US (i.e. Washington D.C.) On October 22nd 1962 President Kennedy declared that the US was putting Cuba under quarantine (a blockade surounding the island that would prevent it from getting resources from the outside world.) It was a difficult choice to make, but his only other options (doing nothing or a surgical air strike) were considered ineffective. After an intense week (during which many messages were exchanged, and the parties started to prepare for war) Krushchev announced (on October 28th) that the construction of the weapon sites had stopped. He also recognized that the missiles placed in Cuba were of an offensive nature. The US lifted the quarintine on November 20th. They also made a hotline communication system between the two capitols. This system was to enable faster and more direct exchange of messages in times of crisis. In 1963 the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was created between the two countries. It would not be farfetched to say that coming so close to a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis pushed the USSR and the US to conclude such a deal.

Throughout this entire 'adventure' Americans were left in total fear of possible being blown to pieces at any time, and not having alot of reassuring information about the whole issue. Many thought that we were going to war the entire time, and just even thinking about having to send your loved one off to war is terrifying. As soon as the entire episode was over American experienced a giant relief, all over the nation people were thinking the same thing, "We're not going to war!!!!"