An evited World war

Post world war 2, the cold war between the United states and USSR was quite a phenomenon. The then 2 super powers have had the desire to conquer the world leadership. There were edged competitions between them to show their supremacy economically and technologically, especially in the arms race. Deadly nuclear weapons had been given more devastation power. This was the time when the military spying had become a very common thing. On 16^th Oct, 1962 the American president John F Kennedy was shown some photographs taken by U-2 spy planes hovering over Cuba which shook him completely.

Cuba is a small island country situated to the north of the United States. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the diplomatic relations between The United States of America and Cuba had seized. On the contrary, this helped in tightening the relations between The USSR and Cuba. Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military aid. The USSR wanted to play this to their benefit to fuel the tensions between USA and them. The USA had its nuclear missiles on standby installed in Turkey border closing USSR which was a threat to the Soviet. To counter this, USSR had approached the then Cuban premier Fidel Castro to cast a joint conspiracy against the growing US influence. The Soviet started installing nuclear tipped missiles pointing to the major cities of USA on the Cuban soil. Upon discovery of the Soviet’s intentions, the US president Kennedy had called for a meeting with group of advisors including their defence personnel. They discussed several options until a final disclosure of the war like situations on the state run television addressing the fellow Americans. He also announced a naval blockade surrounding Cuba to stop any further shipment from Soviet. A tense second week followed, during which neither side backed down. Presented with the choice of attacking or accepting Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy rejected both options. Instead, he crafted an alternative with three components: a public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a private ultimatum threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer was rejected; and a secret sweetener that promised to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months. The crisis was resolved at the last minute when Khrushchev accepted the U.S. offer.

Had this not been resolved, the world would have witnessed a third world war which would have been much more destructive than any of the wars fought so far. The powerful nuclear weapons possessed by both the super powers would perhaps have ended the human existence on earth.