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
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.
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.