When Was the Cuban Missile Crisis

Short answer

• The Cuban Missile Crisis took place in October 1962. The thirteen days most commonly counted are October 16 to October 28, 1962.
• The count starts on October 16 because that was the day after a United States U-2 aircraft photographed Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba on October 14, when the photographs were presented to President John F. Kennedy and his advisers began secret deliberations.
• The count ends on October 28, 1962, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev publicly announced that the Soviet Union would dismantle and remove the missiles from Cuba.
• The public announcement did not end every part of the crisis at once. The naval quarantine continued until November 20, 1962, and the secret part of the settlement, the later removal of United States Jupiter missiles from Turkey, was completed in April 1963.
• In short: if a question asks for the crisis dates, the answer is October 16 to October 28, 1962. If it asks when the whole confrontation was fully unwound, the honest answer adds the November and April dates as well.

How the Dates Are Counted, and Why Some Sources Differ

The most common answer, and the answer used by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, is thirteen days in October 1962. The Library describes the crisis as thirteen days in which the world waited, seemingly on the brink of nuclear war, and hoped for a peaceful resolution. Counting October 16 to October 28 inclusive gives thirteen days. That is the count this article uses for the crisis itself.

A second answer starts on October 14, 1962. That is the date of the U-2 flight that photographed the missile sites. It is a fair starting point for the discovery of the missiles, but it is not the start of the crisis as a political confrontation, because Kennedy had not yet seen the photographs or begun to respond. The State Department Office of the Historian is precise on this sequence: the photographs were taken on October 14, and they were processed and presented to the White House the next day, October 15, thus precipitating the onset of the crisis.

A third kind of answer stretches the crisis into November 1962. That longer view is also defensible, because the missiles were still being dismantled after October 28, the quarantine stayed in place, and the dispute over Soviet IL-28 bombers in Cuba was not settled until later. The State Department Office of the Historian notes that the quarantine continued until the Soviets agreed to remove their IL-28 bombers, and that the United States ended the quarantine on November 20, 1962. So a reader who says the crisis lasted into November is not wrong about the aftermath. The reader is simply counting the unwinding as well as the thirteen days of peak confrontation.

This article keeps the two things separate. The thirteen days are the crisis. The weeks that followed are the settlement and verification: the announcement on October 28 did not mean that every missile had already left Cuba that day.

Background: Why Cuba, Why 1962, and Why Missiles

The crisis did not begin with a photograph. It began with a chain of decisions in 1961 and 1962, each of which changed what the other side feared.

The Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961

In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The United States government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Khrushchev. Before his inauguration, Kennedy was briefed on a plan developed during the Eisenhower administration, under which the Central Intelligence Agency would train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland, with the goal of overthrowing Castro and establishing a non communist government friendly to the United States.

The plan went ahead in April 1961. On April 15, 1961, bombers left Nicaragua to strike Cuban airfields, but they missed many targets and left most of Castro’s air force intact. On April 17, 1961, the Cuban exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Kennedy authorized an air umbrella at dawn on April 19, but the planes arrived late, and the invasion was crushed later that day. Almost 1,200 members of Brigade 2506 surrendered, and more than 100 were killed, according to the Kennedy Library account.

The failure mattered for 1962: it left the Cuban government expecting another United States backed attack, which made a Soviet offer of protection more attractive in Havana. The State Department Office of the Historian makes the link directly: after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and while the Kennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, Khrushchev reached his secret agreement with Castro in July 1962.

United States missiles in Turkey and Italy

The second background fact is the one most often left out of short summaries. The United States had placed Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy, within reach of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev’s decision to place missiles in Cuba therefore had, from Moscow’s point of view, a symmetry: American missiles already stood near Soviet territory, so Soviet missiles near American territory would balance the position and, in the Soviet argument, deter an invasion of Cuba.

This article does not accept the Soviet argument at face value. It presents the fact that the Jupiter deployment existed, that it featured in Soviet thinking, and that it returned at the end of the crisis as a secret term of settlement.

This article does not assert a Jupiter missile count that the opened institutional sources used here do not state. The points that matter for the timeline are that Jupiter missiles in Turkey existed, Khrushchev demanded their removal on October 27, 1962, and the United States later removed them in April 1963.

The secret Soviet deployment in the summer of 1962

After the July 1962 agreement, construction of several missile sites began in the late summer. United States intelligence discovered evidence of a general Soviet arms buildup on Cuba, including Soviet IL-28 bombers, during routine surveillance flights. On September 4, 1962, Kennedy issued a public warning against the introduction of offensive weapons into Cuba. The warning did not stop the construction, which continued in secret until the October 14 photographs made it undeniable.

The Day by Day Sequence: October 14 to October 28, 1962

October 14 and 15, 1962: the photographs and the presentation

On October 14, 1962, a United States U-2 aircraft took several pictures clearly showing sites for medium range and intermediate range ballistic nuclear missiles under construction in Cuba. The photographs, once analyzed, provided the evidence that changed the issue from suspicion to a confirmed deployment. This is the discovery date, and it is the date some timelines use as the start of the crisis.

The images were processed and presented to the White House on October 15, thus precipitating the onset of the crisis, in the State Department Office of the Historian wording. Kennedy summoned his closest advisers to consider options and direct a course of action.

October 16 to October 21, 1962: secret deliberations

For several days, Kennedy met in secret with his advisers, as the Kennedy Library puts it, to discuss the problem without letting the Soviet Union and Cuba know that he had discovered the missiles. Secrecy prevented a rushed public confrontation before the United States had chosen a response.

The options debated in this period, as summarized by the State Department Office of the Historian, were stark. Some advisers, including all the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued for an air strike to destroy the missiles, followed by a United States invasion of Cuba. Others favored stern warnings to Cuba and the Soviet Union. Kennedy decided upon a middle course. An air strike might have missed some sites, killed Soviet personnel, and invited retaliation. A warning alone might have left the sites standing and made the September 4 warning look empty. A quarantine would stop further missiles from arriving, signal resolve, and leave time for negotiation, while keeping the military option in reserve.

October 22, 1962: Kennedy goes public

On October 22, 1962, Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba, and that evening he went on national television to inform the public of the developments in Cuba, his decision to initiate and enforce a quarantine, and the potential global consequences if the crisis continued to escalate. The Kennedy Library records the same date for the speech: on October 22, President Kennedy made the crisis public in a speech to the nation about the missiles in Cuba.

The speech revealed the missile sites, announced the quarantine, and declared that the United States would regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response. That same day, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev demanding that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases and return all offensive weapons to the Soviet Union. Also on October 22, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced a military readiness status of DEFCON 3.

October 23 and 24, 1962: regional support, and Soviet ships turn back

In the days immediately after the speech, the United States sought and received support from the Organization of American States, which the State Department account identifies as one of the reasons the term quarantine was useful: it enabled the United States to receive the support of the Organization of American States. Regional backing framed the quarantine as a collective American response, not only as a unilateral American naval action.

On October 24, 1962, the quarantine went into effect. On October 24, Strategic Air Command forces were placed at DEFCON 2, meaning war involving the Strategic Air Command was imminent; DEFCON 2 was the highest readiness level reached in the crisis. Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s message with a statement that the United States blockade was an act of aggression, and that Soviet ships bound for Cuba would be ordered to proceed. The State Department account then records what actually happened at sea during October 24 and 25: some ships turned back from the quarantine line, while others were stopped by United States naval forces, but they contained no offensive weapons and so were allowed to proceed. No shot was fired at the quarantine line on October 24 that turned the crisis into a naval battle. That restraint, on both sides, kept the crisis in the diplomatic channel for another four days, even as the missile sites in Cuba moved closer to operational readiness.

October 25, 1962: the United Nations confrontation

By October 25, the Kennedy Library day account notes, the president knew that some missiles in Cuba were now operational, and he personally drafted a letter to Khrushchev, again urging him to change the course of events. Meanwhile, Soviet freighters turned and headed back to Europe. The Bucharest, a Soviet vessel carrying only petroleum products, was allowed through the quarantine line, because it was not carrying offensive weapons.

The same day, in the United Nations Security Council, United States Ambassador Adlai Stevenson confronted his Soviet counterpart, Valerian Zorin, with photographic evidence of the missiles. Also on October 25, United Nations Secretary General U Thant called for a cooling off period, which Kennedy rejected because it would leave the missiles in place.

October 26, 1962: the first Khrushchev letter

October 26 was, in the State Department account, a day of virtual stalemate. Kennedy told his advisers it appeared that only a United States attack on Cuba would remove the missiles, but he insisted on giving the diplomatic channel a little more time. That insistence on more time, even when the military option looked like the only certain way to remove the missiles, is one of the decisions that kept the crisis from ending in an attack that day.

The stalemate broke in the afternoon and evening. ABC News correspondent John Scali reported to the White House that he had been approached by a Soviet agent suggesting that an agreement could be reached in which the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade the island. Then Khrushchev sent Kennedy a long, emotional message on the evening of October 26. The State Department account quotes its central image: Khrushchev urged both sides not only to relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, but to take measures to untie the knot. The proposed resolution remarkably resembled what Scali had reported earlier that day: removal of the missiles in exchange for lifting the quarantine and a pledge that the United States would not invade Cuba.

Two other October 26 details show how close the crisis came to escaping political control. A Soviet chartered freighter was stopped and searched, with no contraband found, and photographic evidence showed accelerated construction and the uncrating of Soviet IL-28 bombers. In a private letter, Fidel Castro urged Khrushchev to initiate a nuclear first strike in the event of an American invasion. It did not become Soviet policy.

October 27, 1962: Black Saturday, the second letter, and the shootdown

October 27, 1962, is often called Black Saturday, and it was the most dangerous day of the crisis. First, Khrushchev sent another message, the second letter, indicating that any proposed deal must include the removal of United States Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy Library day account describes it as a second letter from Moscow demanding tougher terms, including the removal of obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The first letter had asked for a non invasion pledge and the lifting of the quarantine. The second letter added a public price in Turkey, which would have looked, to allies and to the American public, like a trade of an ally’s security for Cuba.

Second, a United States U-2 reconnaissance jet was shot down over Cuba by a Soviet supplied surface to air missile, and the pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson, was killed. The shootdown created immediate pressure for retaliation. Kennedy resisted that pressure at a tense meeting of the Executive Committee, and the committee decided not to order immediate military action against the surface to air missile sites.

Kennedy’s response to the two letters resolved the crisis. The Executive Committee decided to ignore the Saturday letter and respond favorably to the more conciliatory Friday message: the public American reply would answer the October 26 letter, and would not accept the October 27 demand for a public Jupiter trade. Kennedy proposed steps for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba under United Nations supervision, and a guarantee that the United States would not attack Cuba.

The Turkey question was moved to a secret channel. That night, Attorney General Robert Kennedy met secretly with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and indicated that the United States was planning to remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey anyway, and that it would do so soon, but that this could not be part of any public resolution.

October 28, 1962: the public settlement

On the morning of October 28, 1962, Khrushchev issued a public statement that Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba. Radio Moscow announced that the Soviet Union had accepted the proposed solution, and released the text of a Khrushchev letter affirming that the missiles would be removed in exchange for a non invasion pledge from the United States. The Kennedy Library day account states the result plainly: the thirteen days marking the most dangerous period of the Cuban Missile Crisis end, and President Kennedy’s public statement effectively ends the thirteen days of the crisis.

October 28 is therefore the end date in every standard thirteen day count. But it is not the date on which the last missile left Cuba, the last bomber was removed, or the quarantine was lifted. Those steps took weeks, and they are covered in the next section.

Why Kennedy Called It a Quarantine, Not a Blockade

The State Department Office of the Historian states the point directly: the use of quarantine legally distinguished this action from a blockade, which assumed a state of war existed. A blockade, in traditional international law, is an act of war. A quarantine, as Kennedy used the term, was presented as a selective interdiction of offensive weapons, not as a general closure of Cuba to all shipping, and not as a declaration of war. That distinction allowed the United States to stop ships carrying offensive weapons, to allow ships carrying non military cargo to proceed, as with the Bucharest on October 25, and to seek the support of the Organization of American States without asking allies to join a war.

The quarantine also gave Kennedy flexibility: it could be tightened, loosened, or lifted in response to Soviet moves, and it left the diplomatic channel open while military pressure increased. That flexibility is why it could remain in place after October 28 as leverage for the removal of the bombers.

The Resolution and Its Secret Terms, in Full

The public settlement, announced October 28, had two visible parts. The Soviet Union would dismantle and remove its missiles from Cuba, under United Nations supervision. The United States would give assurances against an invasion of Cuba, and would lift the quarantine once arrangements through the United Nations ensured that the commitments were being carried out.

The secret settlement had one further part, which remained secret for more than twenty five years, according to the Kennedy Library main account. The United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy Library states that the separate deal remained secret for more than twenty five years, and the State Department account confirms the substance: Robert Kennedy told Dobrynin that the United States was planning to remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey anyway, and that it would do so soon, but that this could not be part of any public resolution.

Two qualifications matter. First, the Turkey removal was not a last minute concession invented on October 27; the accounts present it as something the United States was planning in any case, because the missiles were regarded as obsolete. Second, the secret understanding was not written into the public exchange of letters. It was conveyed orally, through Robert Kennedy to Dobrynin, on the night of October 27.

The public settlement did not include everything at once. The IL-28 bombers in Cuba were a separate issue. The State Department account is clear: the crisis was over, in the thirteen day sense, but the naval quarantine continued until the Soviets agreed to remove their IL-28 bombers from Cuba, and on November 20, 1962, the United States ended its quarantine. The Kennedy Library adds a related public milestone: on November 2, 1962, Kennedy announced the dismantling of the missiles in Cuba. The Jupiter missiles were removed from Turkey in April 1963, according to the State Department account. A summary that says the crisis ended with a simple trade on October 28 therefore compresses three different timelines, public missiles, bombers and quarantine, and secret Jupiter removal, into one date. The accurate summary keeps them apart.

Aftermath: What Changed, and What Did Not

The crisis ended without a nuclear exchange, and without an invasion of Cuba. That outcome is sometimes described as if the crisis had solved the Cold War. It did not. The Kennedy Library main account makes the point in one sentence: although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal, and the missile crisis was over, but the arms race was not.

What did change was the machinery for managing the next crisis. The State Department account identifies two results: a direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin was established, which became known as the Hotline, and both superpowers took the first steps toward a nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The Kennedy Library records the same warming in relations in 1963: a teletype Hotline, and the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. This article gives the year, 1963, without asserting a single signing day.

For Cuba, the outcome was mixed. Cuba was not invaded, which was the pledge Havana had sought, but Cuba had not been a full party to the final negotiation between Washington and Moscow.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was in October 1962, and the thirteen days most commonly counted are October 16 to October 28, 1962. The count starts with the secret deliberations that followed the October 14 U-2 photographs, and it ends with Khrushchev’s public announcement on October 28 that the Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba.

When did the Cuban Missile Crisis start?

The discovery was on October 14, 1962, when a United States U-2 aircraft photographed Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba. The political crisis began when the photographs were presented to the White House on October 15, and the thirteen day count commonly starts on October 16. If a source gives October 14 or October 15 as the start, it is counting discovery or presentation, not the thirteen day confrontation.

When did the Cuban Missile Crisis end?

The thirteen day crisis ended on October 28, 1962, with Khrushchev’s public announcement that the missiles would be removed. The quarantine continued after that date, and the United States ended it on November 20, 1962, after the Soviets agreed to remove their IL-28 bombers. The secret Jupiter missile removal from Turkey was completed in April 1963.

How long did the Cuban Missile Crisis last?

Thirteen days, counting October 16 to October 28, 1962, inclusive. The full unwinding, including the quarantine and the Jupiter removal, took about six months from October 1962 to April 1963.

What caused the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The immediate cause was the secret Soviet placement of nuclear missile sites in Cuba in the summer of 1962, after a July 1962 agreement between Khrushchev and Castro. The deeper causes included the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, which left Cuba expecting another attack, and the existing United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Italy, which Moscow cited as a reason to balance the strategic position.

Why was it called a quarantine instead of a blockade?

Kennedy called it a quarantine to distinguish it legally from a blockade, which assumed a state of war existed. The State Department Office of the Historian states that distinction directly, and adds that the term also enabled the United States to receive the support of the Organization of American States. A quarantine, as used here, meant the selective interdiction of offensive weapons bound for Cuba, not a general closure of the island or a declaration of war.

What was the secret deal in the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The public deal was Soviet removal of missiles from Cuba in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba, with the quarantine lifted once the removal was assured. The secret deal, conveyed by Robert Kennedy to Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin on the night of October 27, 1962, was that the United States would also remove its Jupiter missiles from Turkey, but that this part could not be part of any public resolution. The Jupiter missiles were removed in April 1963, and the secret understanding remained secret for more than twenty five years, according to the Kennedy Library.

Was the Cuban Missile Crisis the closest the world came to nuclear war?

The State Department Office of the Historian describes the crisis as the moment when the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to nuclear conflict during the Cold War. That reflects the combination present in October 1962: nuclear missiles under construction, a naval confrontation at sea, a shootdown on October 27, and DEFCON 2 readiness.

Sources & references

• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Cuban Missile Crisis. https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/cuban-missile-crisis
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The Bay of Pigs. https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/the-bay-of-pigs
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Cuban Missile Crisis day accounts: October 25, 1962; October 26, 1962; October 27, 1962; October 28, 1962. https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct25/ , https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct26/ , https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct27/ , https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct28/
• United States Department of State, Office of the Historian. Milestones in the History of United States Foreign Relations: The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis