The Cuban Missile Crisis

The closest the world ever came to nuclear power was the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, the Soviet Union was far behind the United States in the arms race. For the United States, the crisis began on October 15, 1962. During the public phase of the Crisis, tensions began to build on both sides. Kennedy proclaimed that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union and demanded that the Soviets remove all of their offensive weapons from Cuba. Tensions finally began to ease on October 28.