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Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union as the First Secretary of the Communist Party during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the U.S. failed to invade Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Cuban premier Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. Later in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s messages with a statement that the U.S. “blockade” was an “act of aggression” and that Soviet ships bound for Cuba would be ordered to proceed. At the end of the crisis, Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy that raised the thought of a “nuclear holocaust” and how he did not want that to happen. He then said he would remove the missiles in Cuba if the U.S. promised not to invade the island.

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Fidel Castro was a revolutionary and the former prime minister of Cuba from 1959- 1976. When the US deployed missiles in Italy and Turkey, Castro wanted the Soviet Union to deploy ballistic missiles into Cuba, to match their power. This lead to tension between the Soviet Union and the US leading to the Cuban Missile Crises.

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The Bay of Pigs was a botched invasion on the coast of Cuba. The invasion was led by 1400 armed Cuban exiles trying to revolt against Castro. This was considered a great success for Cuba, as this led Cuba into the hands of the Soviet Union.

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John F. Kennedy was the president of the U.S. while the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on. Kennedy ordered an invasion of Cuba to try and stop the spread of communism thus resulting in the Soviet Union putting missiles in Cuba to try and protect Cuba from future invasions.  Kennedy then rejected any attack, and favors a quarantine to buy time to negotiate a missile withdrawal. JFK and his advisers are careful to call it a quarantine because a blockade is considered an act of war. Eventually, negotiations work out and the tense time for the American people comes to an end.

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The world had come to the brink of war but this had been averted. Cuba stayed communist and highly armed though the Soviet missiles were removed under UN supervision.

Both sides considered they had secured a victory - Khrushchev had saved the communist regime in Cuba from invasion by the USA, and had negotiated a deal with the USA on the removal of their Jupiter missiles in Turkey. Kennedy had kept his election promise and stood up to the USSR, and kept nuclear missiles out of Cuba.

Both leaders emerged with something from the crisis and both sides had shown restraint. The USA did not react to the loss of a U2 plane and the USSR did not react to a U2 flight over their airspace in Siberia or the US navy forcing a Soviet submarine to surface.

Both allowed their opponent to retreat without too much loss of face. Kennedy did not boast of victory and paid tribute to Khrushchev’s contribution to peace. While Khrushchev did not reveal the secret deal over Turkey, both powers honoured the agreements made.