The Cuban Missile Crisis
Typically, capitalism is seen as being the “western” style of economy, with capitalism being “eastern”. However, this is a generalisation, and this was never shown more clearly than during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world has ever got to a nuclear war. Cuba was and still is a communist country, and was in an excellent tactical position for firing nuclear warheads on American cities. On October 16 1962, President Kennedy was shown CIA photographs of the construction of Soviet missile installations in Cuba. US military was put on its highest state of alert, and for fourteen days decisions were made and letters were sent between the two superpowers. Cuba was blockaded by the American navy, while the USSR stated that the weapons in Cuba were merely a deterrent. They also suggested that they would remove their warheads if the USA did the same to their missiles in Turkey. Eventually an agreement was reached, the Soviets would send the weapons and their staff back to the USSR, and America promised not to invade Cuba. It was the end of two desperate weeks when nuclear annihilation seemed inevitable.
