The US and Soviets are in middle of a heated cold war that will decide whether communism and the USSR will become the lead power in the international community, or whether US hegemony will remain. President John F. Kennedy is the current president. Cuba, newly liberated by Fidel Castro, has began to ally with the Soviet Union spawning the threat of Communist counterparts just 90 miles away from US southwest shores. Beginning in 1960, and continuing till 1961, US intelligence was compiling information that Soviet ships carrying unidentified contents were traveling between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Backing what US intelligence assumed, later information proved that Cuba was amidst a secret arms buildup. The Cuban agreement with the Czech government in June of 1960 resulted in additional deliveries of small arms and ammunition, light aircraft, military vehicles, and equipment for military factories. In addition, Spanish could now be heard on the airwaves of Czechoslovakian air training areas. The CIA now had evidence that Cuban pilots were being trained in Czechoslovakia. Thus it came as no surprise when, in mid-1961, CIA sources gained intelligence of the arrival of Soviet combat and transport aircraft, including the light bomber IL-28 and the state of the art MIG-15s, 17s and 19s. It was clear by then that a major upgrade of the Cuban air forces was in progress.
Soviet spokesmen's and diplomats assured the US that all the buildup was purely defensive and that the US had nothing to fear. Despite these unreliable promises, US intelligence in October of 1962, produced detailed photo intelligence identifying Soviet nuclear missile installations under construction on the island of Cuba. John F. Kennedy calls together a group of his closest advisor (later known as Ex-Conn) on the evening of October 16th, 1962 to discuss new intelligence of Cuba and the Soviets. The US must make a strategic move to assure its homeland safety and diffuse the Cuban bomb lit by the Soviets.
