Cuban Missile Crisis
In the 1960’s the United States asked and received permission from its NATO ally Turkey to place nuclear weapons in Turkey which shared a boarded with the USSR. Well like most countries, the Soviet Union wasn’t happy about having nukes next door. So it retaliated by asking the new Communist government of Cuba if it could put some nukes there, because Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida. Soon the United States government lead by JFK found out and, like the Soviets, they were not thrilled at having nukes in their backyard. So the United States decided to stop Soviet nukes from reaching Cuba by blockading Cuba and stopping all ships that might have nuclear weapons from reaching Cuba. This developed into a high stakes game with ships and airplanes watching each other closely with World War 3 and the end of the world as a possible outcome. Soon the Soviets backed down and agreed to withdraw nukes and not send any more nukes to Cuba, as long as the US withdrew its nukes from Turkey which was agreed too. This was the closest the US and the USSR ever came to fighting and lead to a hotline between Washington and Moscow being set up so as to prevent MAD from happening.
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