The Cuban Missile crisis is an event that will forever be linked to American and World history. The decisions that were made during this time, helped to world in avoiding a serious disaster. It also demonstrated what can occur when nations have in their possession very destructive weapons. The purpose of this discussion is to explain how the crisis arose and how it was solved.

             How the Cuban Missile Crisis Arose.

             According to the United States Library of Congress in May of 192 Nikita Khrushchev, the then leader of the Soviet Union, had the idea to place nuclear missiles in the nation of Cuba as a way of hedging the lead that the United States had taking in the developing and deploying of strategic missiles (Cold War:Cuban Missile Crisis). In addition, Khrushchev also viewed such placement as a way of protecting the nation of Cuba from another American-sponsored invasion, such as the Bay of Pigs that occurred in 1961 (Cold War:Cuban Missile Crisis). .

             The reasons for Russia's decision to attempt to protect Cuba from an American invasion were actually a somewhat valid concern. According to Garthoff (1989) .

             "Soviet leaders were considering and making important decisions about expanded military support for Cuba, including the decision to deploy Soviet missiles. Later Soviet accounts charged that these exercises were part of the preparation for further direct U.S. military action against Cuba under an October 1961 directive from President Kennedy to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to draw up plans for an invasion of Cuba.This was a distorted perception, because the plans were contingency plans, not plans adopted in pursuance of a decision to invade. Nonetheless, they seemed to Cuban and Soviet intelligence analysts and leaders to reflect a firm intention, or at the least an active hostility with probable intent (Garthoff 1989)." .

             In addition, to the aforementioned contingency plans the Kennedy administration also deployed sabotage and diversionary units of Cuban emigres on raids into the nation of Cuba.