Cuban Missile Crisis - Stepping Back from Nuclear War

Major Rudolph Anderson, Jr., was ordered to fly a U-2 spy mission to Cuba.  The President needed to know the status of the Soviet missile installations.  Were they continuing - or - were they stopped?

Against standing orders from Moscow, the Cubans decided to fire on the American U-2.  Anderson died as his plane crashed to Earth. 

After an exchange of letters with JFK, and a secret meeting between Bobby Kennedy and Anatoly Dobrynin, Nikita Khrushchev reached his decision on the future of missiles in Cuba..  At 3 a.m., the morning of October 28th, Radio Moscow broadcast the Soviet leader’s response: The missiles would be dismantled and removed. 

Not until forty years later did the world learn about the rest of the deal: American Jupiter missiles, in Turkey, would also be removed.

Credits

Clip from DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Discovery-Channel documentary (hosted by Tom Clancy) including interviews, historical footage and recreated scenes, produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Missile Crisis.