USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.

Detailed explanation-2: -The week of October 7, 1962, saw bad weather in the Caribbean, preventing American U-2 surveillance planes from making more reconnaissance flights over Fidel Castro’s Cuba, just ninety miles off the Florida coast.

Detailed explanation-3: -Having promised in May 1960 to defend Cuba with Soviet arms, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev assumed that the United States would take no steps to prevent the installation of Soviet medium-and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Soviets were building nine sites-six for R-12 medium-range missiles (NATO designation SS-4 Sandal) with an effective range of 2, 000 kilometres (1, 200 mi) and three for R-14 intermediate-range ballistic missiles (NATO designation SS-5 Skean) with a maximum range of 4, 500 kilometres (2, 800 mi).

Detailed explanation-5: -Why did the USSR put nuclear missiles on Cuba? To close the missile gap: the Soviet leader, Khrushchev, knew the USA had medium and long-range nuclear missiles aimed at the USSR from bases in Turkey, just on the USSR’s ‘doorstep’.