The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. The Soviets had installed nuclear missile silos in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. U.S. armed forces were put at their highest state of readiness. Soviet field commanders in Cuba were authorized to use nuclear weapons if invaded by the U.S. The fate of millions literally hinged on …showed first 75 words of 482 total…

…showed last 75 words of 482 total…missiles and returned them to the Soviet Union The key players in the Cuban missile crisis were John Kennedy, Fidel Castro, and Nikita Khrushchev. John Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, a descendent of Irish Catholics who had immigrated to America in the previous century. Fidel Castro was born in Mayari, Cuba in 1926. He received his law degree and became an attorney. Nikita Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka in 1894. He was Premier in 1958.