What did Nikita Khrushchev do during the Cuban missile crisis?

Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet Union’s premier from 1958 to 1964, at the height of the Cold War.

Nikita Khrushchev announced plans in 1960 to install medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, putting the eastern United States within range of nuclear attack.

US spy planes flying over Cuba in the summer of 1962 photographed construction work on missile facilities

President John F. Kennedy declared a naval blockade to prevent the arrival of additional missiles and demanded that the Soviets dismantle and remove the existing weapons in Cuba.

The situation was extremely tense and could have resulted in war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons after a 13-day standoff. In exchange, US President John F. Kennedy, who had authorised the failed Bay of Pigs invasion a year earlier, publicly agreed not to attack Cuba.

In addition, Kennedy privately agreed to withdraw American nuclear weapons from Turkey. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union negotiated a partial nuclear test ban in July 1963.