For example, in April of 1962, The United States moved several missiles and nuclear warheads into Turkey, which happened to border the Soviet Union itself. Seeing as the Cold War was essentially a nuclear arms race, there was hardly any other choice for the Soviets than to make a similar tactical move and place missiles into a location of equal distance. Naturally, Pro-Soviet Cuba met these specifications quite conveniently. All of these factors combined were enough to convince President Khrushchev that action had to be taken in order to not lose public support at home and decline in power in regards to the Cold War. ("Causes").
Not all the blame can be put on the USSR, however. The rapid escalation of the Cuban Missile Crisis was caused by Kennedy's short comings too. Not only did the poorly executed Invasion of the Bay of Pigs tip off Khrushchev that the US was uneasy over Cuba, but it made Kennedy, and by extension, the United States, appear weak. This, of course, made the Soviet Union appear superior, which for obvious reasons did not bode well for the American public. ("Causes") Combined with the embarrassing Vienna Summit, in which Kennedy came off as a light weight novice in comparison Khrushchev and failed to prevent the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kennedy was in a low position in the eyes of the public and to Khrushchev himself.[Hanson] This was unacceptable for Kennedy, especially when elections were around the corner, and consequentially he refused to back down when the missiles were moved to Cuba in a (what would later be deemed "successful") approach of restoring his standing at home and abroad. So, when the missiles were placed, he announced in his televised speech to the nation on the 22nd of October,1962, that if a nuclear strike were to emanate from Cuba, consequences would result in "a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
