Cuban missile crisis

¹ Cultural  

1. A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba; one of the “hottest” periods of the cold war. The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, placed Soviet military missiles in Cuba, which had come under Soviet influence after the success of the Cuban Revolution three years earlier. President John F. Kennedy of the United States set up a naval blockade of Cuba and insisted that Khrushchev remove the missiles. Khrushchev did so.

---

Cuban missile crisis ² Cultural  

1. A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba; one of the “hottest” periods of the cold war. The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, placed Soviet military missiles in Cuba, which had come under Soviet influence since the success of the Cuban Revolution three years earlier. President John F. Kennedy of the United States set up a naval blockade of Cuba and insisted that Khrushchev remove the missiles. Khrushchev did.

---

Example Sentences

The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island triggered the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow took the world to the brink of nuclear war.

From Barron's • Jan. 12, 2026

Brought online with the Cuban missile crisis, the system linked remote computers via telephone lines, a forerunner to the internet.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025

The U.S. government took the threat seriously, ordering the highest level of nuclear alert since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023

Consider the case of Vasili Arkhipov, who was a naval officer on a Soviet submarine during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

From Salon • Feb. 5, 2023

His prestige had never fully recovered from the Cuban missile crisis.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin