why was the cuban missile crisis the most serious event of the cold war?

Answer 1

You could make the arguement that the Cuban Missle Crisis brought the world's superpowers of the day (US and the USSR) to the brink of nuclear war. That is a pretty serious scenario.

Answer 2

Because when the Russian President Nikita Kruschev and the President of Cuba Fidel Castro put their heads together, they decided that Russia could and would send missiles to Cuba which would then face the shores of America. This was more than a threat and something that the President of the United States of America John Fitzgerald Kennedy would not allow. He gave the Russians 24 hours to turn round the ships transporting the missiles or be faced with their sinking and the missiles which the Allied nations had all over Europe would be turned on their cities. They backed off. That was without doubt the first crack in the Iron curtain, and although we were all alarmed at the time and it wasnt too long after the second world war i think we all knew that Russia would retreat. without the strength and determination of JFK who would have fired the first shot - Castro and Kruschev knew it then Russia would still be a problem today, actually Putin isn't behaving much better than Kruschev and as for Castro - well his people have lived in abject poverty for the last 40 years!

Answer 3

The Russians were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba. Denied by Cuba the UN but our ambassador to the UN pulled out photos of the missile sites. Eventually, John F, Kennedy put a blockade around Cuba, which according to international law is an act of war. Russian ships continued heading for Cuba. The closer the ships got to Cuba the higher the tension began to arise. IF they broke the blockade would we attack. If we did would the Russians retaliate? Tensions kept rising. Kennedy tried to come up with an idea that would allow Premier Kruschev to back down and not lose face. We received two letters from the Russians. One was more amiable than the other so we decided to accept the first letter. Kruschev finally thought it was in the best interest of all concerned. However, we had to pledge that we would never invade Cuba and get of our missiles in Turkey (which we were about to do anyway). This crisis ultimately led to Kruschev being ousted as Premier.

Answer 4

At least it was the most publicized. We did face global armeggedon on several other occasions. Check these out:

September 26, 1983, when Soviet early warning system showed that a US ICBMs attack had been launched. Colonel Stanislav Petrov, in command of the monitoring facility put the warning down to computer error and did not notify his superiors, who would have most probably launched a counter-attack.

October 24, 1973 — As the Yom Kippur War was winding down, a Soviet threat to intervene on Egypt's behalf caused the United States to go to DEFCON 3

November 9, 1979, when the US made emergency retaliation preparations after NORAD saw on-screen indications that a full-scale Soviet attack had been launched. No attempt was made to use the "red telephone" hotline to clarify the situation with the USSR and it was not until early-warning radar systems confirmed no such launch had taken place that NORAD realised that a computer system test had caused the display errors. A Senator at NORAD at the time described an atmosphere of absolute panic

January 25, 1995, when Russia almost launched a nuclear attack after a Norwegian missile launch for scientific research was detected from Spitsbergen and thought to be an attack on Russia, launched five minutes from Moscow. Norway had notified the world that it would be making the launch, but the Russian Defense Ministry had neglected to notify those monitoring Russia's nuclear defense systems

Answer 5

It was the closest point in history that we have come to having a nuclear war. At the fall of the Soviet Union it was discoverd that not only did the russians have enough nuclear weapons for most of the united states, the generals in cuba had the autorization to launch these weapons without permission from russia. In the cuban missil crissis, the united states knew about the weapons an told Russia that if they didnt remove the weapons they would do it with force and that angered the russians. But bassicaly it was the closest we have ever come to a nuclear war

Answer 6

The Russians, under Kruschev, placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. These missiles would have reached as far as New York, Cuba being but 90 miles off our mainland.
We instituted an embargo of the Island. Kennedy told Kruschev to get the hell out of our hemisphere and HE blinked. They were removed.
This is the closest (until now) our Country came to Nuclear War. Read or watch "Seven Days in May."

Answer 7

Berlin Blockade and Airlift Korean war Hungarian Revolution Suez disaster shape of the Berlin Wall Cuban Missile disaster Vietnam war Prague Spring Nixon visits China Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan US palms buildup in 1880s INF Treaty signing 1989 Revolutions in jap Europe Fall of the Berlin Wall announcement of independence of a number of Soviet republics Dissolution of Soviet Union on 26 December 1991

Answer 8

simply because it was the principle of russia putting nuclear weapons right in our backyard.

In a way, we HAD to stop the importing of missles to cuba. Or we would be under Russian influence today.

You gotta realize, Russia is an intimidating country.

and there would have been 2 outcomes if we didn't stop them:

1. Intimidation by Russia-- which means russia would use the fact they had nuclear weapons near our country to get what they wanted out of us.

2. This is an outcome of #1. If we refused to comply with the Russian mind; well, lets just say; HIROSHIMA, USA!

Answer 9

Because the possibility of a nuclear war was very real.

The Americans faced the soviets down, helped by the Russian spy Penkovsky who confirmed that the Russians would not stand up to the US if it came to the crunch.

The world owed a great debt to Penkovsky who paid with his life for his 'treachery' to the USSR. If he was lucky he was shot (the GRU tended to burn alive any of their agents caught spying for the enemy).

Answer 10

It was the most "obvious" event, as you might agree that changing the position of missiles is not the same as arguing with words