For thirteen days, the United States held its breath, fearing the ultimate destruction of the nation by nuclear weapons. This was the Cuban missile crisis, a struggle fought between the world's two largest superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which nearly provoked a nuclear catastrophe on both sides from October 16, to October 28, in 1962. This crisis had been brewing for many years and was sparked by previous issues between the two nations. The United States had been at odds with Communist ideals for many years beginning with the onset of the Cold War.As the tension grew larger as the two sides continued to feud, the Soviets sent out a second letter explaining that they would only remove the missiles in Cuba if America would do the same in Turkey. To resolve the matter, and avoid a nuclear war, General Robert Kennedy proposed to instead ignore the second letter, and agree on the terms of first. Fortunately, on October 28, the tensions were lowered as Khrushchev announced that they were removing missiles from Cuba. In 1962, an American spy plane discovered the Soviet nuclear missile bases in Cuba. Castro had turned to the USSR for military assistance in fear of a US attack. It was the sighting of these missile bases that marked the beginning of the Cuban missile crisis. There were many reasons why the Cuban missile crisis came about, and undoubtedly the USSR and America's history played major roles in the coming about of this incident. The Soviet bitterness towards America following the Second World War was amongst others one of the definitive causes of this crisis.The Cuban Missile Crisis Between 1959 and 1962 relations between USA and Cuba deteriorated. Up until 1959, America had kept General Batista in power over Cuba and had strong links, especially in trade. Castro’s ascent to power in 1959 triggered the short-term events contributing to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The main cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the cold relationship between the...