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13 days

 

            In October of 1962 American spy planes discovered that the Soviets were secretly installing nuclear-armed missiles ninety-miles off the Florida coast, in Cuba. Secret meetings were held by John F. Kennedy to decide what to do. Kennedy flatly refused the air-force proposals for bombing strikes on the missile launching sites, but he did decide to set up a navel blockade around Cuba to prevent the ingress of more missiles. This was one of the Excom options, which was the idea of McNamara. .
             The Soviet Union wanted to make a trade with the US. US would remove missiles in Turkey, and the Soviet Union would remove theirs in Cuba. Adlai Stevenson wanted this to happen because he wanted the easy way out of the conflict. He got a chance to prove himself in front of everyone when he just destroyed the Soviet ambassador. It was announced by Kennedy that any attack on the US from Cuba would be accepted as an attack from the Soviet Union, which would trigger nuclear retaliation against Russia's heartland. .
             Khrushchev, the Soviet dictator, also announced that the Kremlin would regard seizing or sinking a Russian ship on the high seas as an act of war in his second letter. The first letter was the one that the US used. For six long days Americans stood breathlessly still on the brink of global atomization. On October 28, Khrushchev finally submitted to a partially face saving compromise; he would pull the missiles out of Cuba, but in return the US agreed to end the navel blockade and not invade the island of Cuba.
             During all this, Kenny called Major Anderson and told him to get shot down. Major Anderson tried his best, but was killed by one of the missiles. He was shot down over Cuba as he took pictures. This was the Kennedy's idea not to provoke the military. The Kennedy brothers were close during this crisis. If JFK was there, so was his brother. They were the ones who got the US out of this mess.
            


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