The Cuban Missile Crisis could have resulted in Nuclear War/Holocaust: The closest the world has come to nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. U.S. armed forces were at their highest state of readiness. Most people were consumed in the fear of an all out nuclear war, or were they? In all actuality most people were "more concerned with their lives and how the Yankees would fare in the World Series".It all started when U.S. intelligence reconnaissance flights (U2 spy-plane) verified USSR constructing launch sites for medium-range and intermediate-range nuclear missiles on the communist island of Cuba pointed at the major cities of the United States. These missiles had a range of about 1,400 miles in a time of less than five minutes. This type of an arsenal so close to the U.S. coast was seen as an obvious "clear and present danger" to the U.S. and her people and was definitely not for defense purposes so the Soviet objective was clear.First they were to establish an offensive base on the island of Cuba. This was to be armed with troops, missiles, aircraft, and ships. Then they would insert sufficient Soviet specialists and military leaders to take Cuba from Castro and establish it as a true Soviet controlled satellite. This would expand their sphere of influence to include the Western Hemisphere thus putting the "enemy in our backyard".More than 4,500 Soviet military specialists, including technicians and a team of soldiers that are similar to our Army Corp. of Engineers, were sent from the USSR. They were to construct launch site and make the sites fully operational as soon as they possibly could. The Soviets also sent a convoy of cargo ships containing crates of Soviet IL28 bombers for defensive purposes. They had an underlying fear the U.S. would mount an attack on the island of Cuba, especially since the ...
