Cuban Missile Crisis: the View from Havana - 1 minute read


Cuban soldiers stand by an anti-aircraft gun, Havana, 1962.
Cuban soldiers stand by an anti-aircraft gun, Havana, 1962. Bettman/Getty Images.

On the morning of 29 May 1962 Cuba’s leaders welcomed a delegation of ‘hydrotechnic specialists’ from the Soviet Union. To the Cubans’ surprise, the Soviet delegation also included top military leaders who had come to make an extraordinary offer: nuclear missiles. Nikita Khrushchev had struck upon the idea during a visit to Bulgaria earlier that month as a solution to two problems: Cuba’s vulnerability and the Soviet Union’s missile gap with the United States.



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