the cuban missile crisis
the Cuban missile crisis highlighted the critical moment of tension resulting from the Nuclear arms race:
The competition between the US and the Soviet Union in nuclear weapon technology that marked the Cold war politics. Conceived under the policy of assured self-destruction, that is, if one strikes the other replies and mutual destruction occurs. The arms race produced a huge stock of nuclear warhead and also incorporated some other states like France and China in entering the dynamic.
When the Cuban missile crisis took place, in 1962, both the USSR and the USA had missiles pointing in direction of each other. The hostilities focused worldwide attention as many thought another global conflict would emerge:
After many negotiations, reasons prevailed and the extinguishing notion of pacific coexistence was retaken. The USSR gave up the installation of warheads in Cuba and the US did the counterpart in Turkey.
As well a historical promise to our day remained: The US would not militarily invade the Cuban island and they left the "Bahia de Cochinos", a late tentative that ended provocations.
A Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 of nuclear weapons resulted. Limiting and rendering standards worlwide for preventing nuclear armament misuse.