The 1962 Cuban Missile crisis was triggered when an American U-2 spy plane making a high-altitude pass over Cuba during a routine reconnaissance mission on October 14, 1962 , photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled for installation.

The photographs triggered widespread panic in the White House because all along the US had not realised that following the failure of the CIA led Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961 directed at removing Fidel Castro and restoring American control over Cuba, Castro had made an alliance with the Soviet Union in order to ward off the American threat.

In exchange, Castro agreed to assist the Soviets in increasing their offensive nuclear capability against the United States.

So as part of the pact with the Soviets, Castro allowed the Soviet Union to install Nuclear Missiles on the Cuban Coast within reach of Florida, and other important locations in the United States.

This is the Missile installation that was photographed by the U2 Spy Plane.

The Cuban Crisis

Facing a hostile Military and Intelligence establishment unhappy with his recent refusal to provide Air support for the failed and embarrassing Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion recently repelled by Castro with Soviet help, JFK was at a complete loss. 

To make things worse, in another move that pitted him against the Military-Industrial Complex, he was also planning a withdrawal of US Troops from Vietnam and re-shuffling the Intelligence Services as shown by his dismissal of CIA Hawk, Allan Dulles.

JFK was also in the crosshairs of the Mafia and anti-Catsro Cuban exiles who had hoped to regain control of Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion. His refusal to provide Air Support for the failed invasion had also caused resentment amongst them.

In the end, the Cuban missile crisis was resolved when JFK and Nikita Kruschev, the Russian Premier at the time, came to a diplomatic solution that averted a global Nuclear disaster.

In terms of the agreement, the Soviets accepted Kennedy’s offer to remove American Missiles installed in Turkey in return for the Soviet Union’s removal of its own Nuclear Arsenal from Cuba’s coast.

However, in the context of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, this peaceful solution was viewed by JFK’s detractors as capitulation to the Soviet Union.

The Assassination

Its been suggested that JFK assassination was carried out by the Mafia working with Cuban Exiles co-ordinated with the CIA which provided a diversionary cover story falsely branding Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole assassin.

Astonishingly, Oswald was publicly shot and killed by a lone gunman just after his arrest before he could be Tried for the JFK assassination, so the Oswald Theory was never tested in Court which was pointed out in the Warren Commission Report.

The FBI’s lone gunman theory is viewed as insufficient partly based on ballistic Tests which apparently show that the official Government explanation amounts to an unlikely ‘magic bullet’ theory requiring the bullet that killed JFK to have traveled such an irregular path as to make it impossible for one shooter to have been responsible for the JFK Assassination.

As a result, there has been continued controversy over the JFK Assassination.

The Aftermath

Following Kennedy’s death, America’s Foreign Policy became characterised by external aggression in numerous ‘Global Theatres Of War’ from Vietnam, Afghanistan to Latin America with global dominance reaching its apex with the collapse of the Soviet Union as the Military-Industrial Complex tightened its grip on the American State.

The Trump administration also recently released more de-classified files on the JFK Assassination but the Oswald Lone Gunman Theory still stands as the official explanation for the JFK Assassination.

Despite the tragedy of his death, we will always be indebted to Kruschev and Kennedy for averting a global Nuclear catastrophe in the Cold War era.