It was on October 16, 1962 that the United States was approached with a very dangerous and conflicting problem with the Soviet Union. After sending out American spy planes, pictures of nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba were captured. President John F. Kennedy was informed about this issue but decided not to let the Soviet Union and Cuba know that he knew about it so instead it was kept confidential only to be shared with his advisors to discuss the problem.
The pictures taken by the American Spy planes were carefully analyzed inside a secret office above a car dealership. It was a regular, used building in the state of Washington D.C where top C.I.A analysts worked for long hours to study the various photos to discover the missile sites that were being built by the Soviet Union. The photographs that were taken in the beginning of the summer of 1962, showed troops that were being snuck into Cuba by the Soviet Union had uniforms of checkered shirts to fake their profile of civilian agricultural advisors and were kept in tight places and were told to stay below the decks of boats to prevent being found by the U.S.
President John F. Kennedy decides after many meetings to place a naval blockade or a ring of ships around Cuba to prevent the Soviet Union from bringing in more military supplies. Kennedy already set out for the removal and destruction of the missile sites. On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy finally spoke to the country about the issue in a televised address. It was uncertain on how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to this so called “quarantine” and there was a risk of a nuclear war between these two powers. “The Soviet Union agreed to a deal where they would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba”(JFK In History)
On the same day, President John F. Kennedy sent out a letter to Khrushchev stating and declaring that the United States would not tolerate or let offensive weapons be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the Soviet Union take apart and destroy all the missile bases that were being built or completed and to also give back all their offensive weapons to the U.S.S.R. On October 24, 1962 Khrushchev responded to the letter, saying that the “blockade was an act of aggression and the Soviet ships bound for Cuba would be ordered to proceed” (JFK Library).
In this time span and over the next couple of days, ships came in and out, some turning back from the “blockade” line and others were stopped by the U.S. Naval forces but no offensive weapons were found on board so they were allowed to go through. During the past couple of days, spy planes that were being flown over Cuba revealed that the missile sites were almost finished.
There was clearly no solution to all of this so U.S. forces had been placed around the area at DEFCON2. On October 26, President John F. Kennedy told his advisors that the only solution at that point was a U.S. attack to remove the missiles but Kennedy decided to give the diplomatic channel a little more time. It was that afternoon that an ABC News correspondent was approached by a Soviet Union agent stating that an agreement could be decided on in which the USSR would remove their missiles from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade them. The white house spent some time validating this “back channel” offer when Khrushchev sent yet another letter to the president at midnight in Moscow. “The message was long and emotional and raised the specter of nuclear holocaust, and presented a proposed resolution that remarkably resembled what Scali reported earlier that day. “If there is no
