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Soviet missiles photographed in Cuba

shanneba

Professional
October 14, 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins on October 14, 1962, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable of carrying nuclear warheads—were now stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had been steadily increasing since the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed, Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose to more than 20,000.

 
My father and his Marine detachment had just finished up a deployment to Japan and Formosa and were headed home to the US on a pleasure cruise compliments of the USN.
They were diverted to the Carribbean in case Cuba got hot and needed to go ashore. They were prepared to go ashore. 😳
 
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