Cuban Missile Crisis. President John F. Kennedy announced on national television that military spy planes had discovered the existence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. The president ordered a naval blockade of the island and demanded the removal of the missiles. Over the next six days, the crisis escalated dramatically, as the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war. Finally, on October 28, in exchange for a secret US promise not to invade Cuba, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced his country’s willingness to remove the weapons. The crisis ended as suddenly as it had begun, and the world breathed a huge sigh of relief. In November, Kennedy lifted the naval blockade, and the missiles were removed from Cuba by the end of the year.
