Missile Crisis Ends: Kennedy Lifts Cuba Quarantine

President John F. Kennedy announced the lifting of the naval quarantine around Cuba, formally ending the thirteen-day confrontation that had brought the United States and the Soviet Union closer to nuclear war than any other event in the Cold War. The crisis was over, but the world it left behind was permanently changed, haunted by the knowledge of how close two superpowers had come to destroying civilization. The crisis had begun on October 16, when U-2 reconnaissance photographs revealed Soviet medium-range ballistic missile installations under construction in Cuba, capable of striking most major American cities within minutes of launch. Kennedy rejected both a surgical air strike, which his military advisors could not guarantee would destroy all the missiles, and an invasion, which risked Soviet retaliation against Berlin. He chose instead a naval blockade, euphemistically termed a "quarantine" to avoid the legal implications of a blockade being an act of war. For thirteen days, the world waited. Soviet ships carrying additional missile components approached the quarantine line. American B-52 bombers circled with nuclear weapons aboard. Strategic Air Command went to DEFCON 2, one step below nuclear war, for the only time in history. In Cuba, Soviet forces had tactical nuclear weapons that local commanders were authorized to use against an American invasion, a fact Washington did not know. The resolution came through a combination of public diplomacy and secret channels. Khrushchev sent two letters, the first proposing withdrawal of missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba, the second demanding removal of American Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Kennedy publicly accepted the first offer and privately agreed to the second, with the condition that the Turkey deal remain secret. Attorney General Robert Kennedy delivered this message to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on the night of October 27.