The Cuban Missile Crisis is best explained on an individual level, which works best using a liberal point of view. The main actors in this situation were President John F. Kennedy of the United States, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. Fidel Castro of Cuba was also highly involved, but not as much as the other two leaders. This situation was the closest the Cold War ever came to reaching a nuclear level.

There were many factors that led to this condition in the international political system. The Cold War had been going on for about twenty years now. Tension was high between the US and the Soviet Union. There was especially concern over the state of Berlin, the western half of which was controlled by the Soviets. On October 28, 1959, the US made an agreement with Turkey to set up 15 nuclear tipped missiles and a launch site in Turkey (The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962/Chronology). This was a threat to the Soviets. Several months later, the Soviets and Cuba establish diplomatic relations, leading the US to put a trade embargo on Cuba. Then came the Bay of Pigs failed invasion, when the US attempted to invade Cuba. These were the actions that led to the system that was witness to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

While the general thought was that the Soviets were dominating the arms race, the Americans were much further along in 1962. To help change this, Khrushchev came up with the idea to place missiles in Cuba, where they could reach US territory (Larson). That combined with the fact that Castro was looking for a deterrent for another US invasion, Khrushchev’s idea was a solution to both of their security problems. The Soviets put missiles in Cuba due to their insecurity from the missile gap. During his election, Kennedy had portrayed the US as being far behind in this missile gap, while in reality they were far ahead. Khrushchev knew this to be true, but he did not know that Kennedy knew it as well (Larson). Khrushchev was also worried about the US missiles in Turkey, which could easily strike his territory. Another cause of fear for Khrushchev was that the US would actually take the first strike at the Soviets since they knew they had more arms. Putting missiles in Cuba provided a deterrent against an American attack on both the Soviets and the Cubans (Larson).

In mid to late 1962, the Soviets were using civilian ships to send missiles and launch equipment to Cuba (Larson.) The increased shipping traffic to Cuba raised eyebrows in Washington. The director of the CIA believed that the Soviets would build ballistic missile sites, and the US began to make more reconnaissance flights over Cuba (Hatch). These flights found surface to air missiles, but there were no offensive weapons sites found, and the Soviets promised not to build any. Kennedy was still pressured to make more recon flights over Cuba, and the findings were horrifying. On Monday, October 15, 1962, photographs showed 6 SS-4 nuclear missiles and several launch sites (Larson.)

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