Cuban Missile Crisis

Timeline

1961
  • -January 3: The U.S. terminates diplomatic relation
    -April 17: "The Bay of Pigs" - A group of Cuban exiles, backed by the US, invades Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in a failed attempt to trigger an anti-Castro rebellion
    -June 3-4: Khrushchev and Kennedy hold summit talks in Vienna regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • 1962
  • -August 31: Senator Kenneth Keating tells the Senate that there is evidence of Soviet missile installations in Cuba
    -September 11: jdafsSoviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, warns that an American attack on Cuba could mean war with the Soviet Union
    -October 14 : A U-2 flying over western Cuba obtains photographs of missile sites
    -October 14 - 17: The Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly advise Kennedy to make an air strike ( the discussions are referred to as the EX-COMM's )
    -October 18: Gromyko assures Kennedy that Soviet Cuban aid has been only for the "defensive capabilities of Cuba."
    -October 22: Congressional leaders are shown the photographic evidence of the Soviet missile Cuban installations and the President addresses the nation regarding the Cuban crisis
    -October 22: U.S. military forces go to DEFCON 3
    -October 23: Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev in which Khrushchev states that there is a, "serious threat to peace and security of peoples." Robert Kennedy speaks with Ambassador Dobrynin
    -October 24: Soviet ships, en route to Cuba, reverse their course except for one. US Military forces go to DEFCON 2
    -October 25: JFK sends a letter to Khrushchev placing the responsibility for the crisis on the Soviet Union
    -October 26: Khrushchev sends a letter to President Kennedy proposing to remove his missiles if Kennedy publicly announces never to invade Cuba
    -October 27: An American U-2 is shot down over Cuba killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson
    -October 27: A U-2 strays into Soviet airspace, near Alaska, and is nearly intercepted by Soviet fighters
    -October 27: Kennedy sends Khrushchev a letter stating that he will make a statement that the U.S. will not invade Cuba if Khrushchev removes the missiles from Cuba
    -October 28: Khrushchev announces over Radio Moscow that he has agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba