Cuban Missile Crisis 

     According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he
conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles
in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United
States in developing and deploying strategic missiles.  He also
presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another
United States-sponsored invasion, such as the failed attempt at
the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
     After obtaining Fidel Castro's approval, the Soviet Union
worked quickly and secretly to build missile installations in
Cuba.  On October 16, President John Kennedy was shown
reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations under
construction in Cuba.  After seven days of guarded and intense
debate in the United States administration, during which Soviet
diplomats denied that installations for offensive missiles were
being built in Cuba, President Kennedy, in a televised address on
October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and
proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be
regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded
to accordingly.  He also imposed a naval quarantine on Cuba to
prevent further Soviet shipments of offensive military weapons
from arriving there. 
     During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and
other communications, both formal and "back channel."  Khrushchev
sent letters to Kennedy on October 23 and 24 indicating the
deterrent nature of the missiles in Cuba and the peaceful
intentions of the Soviet Union.  On October 26, Khrushchev sent
Kennedy a long rambling letter seemingly proposing that the
missile installations would be dismantled and personnel removed
in exchange for United States assurances that it or its proxies
would not invade Cuba.  On October 27, another letter to Kennedy
arrived from Khrushchev, suggesting that missile installations in
Cuba would be dismantled if the United States dismantled its
missile installations in Turkey.  The American administration
decided to ignore this second letter and to accept the offer
outlined in the letter of October 26.  Khrushchev then announced
on October 28 that he would dismantle the installations and
return them to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the
United States would not invade Cuba.  Further negotiations were
held to implement the October 28 agreement, including a United
States demand that Soviet light bombers also be removed from
Cuba, and to specify the exact form and conditions of United
States assurances not to invade Cuba.