The United States placed nuclear missiles in Turkey, causing Russia to place some in Cuba.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union were involved in a tense, 13-day military and political standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
Consequently, many people feared the world was on the verge of nuclear war. Nevertheless, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s who offered to remove the Cuban missiles only if the U.S. promessed not to invade Cuba.