9. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
In October 1962, the United States discovered that the Soviet Union had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. President John F. Kennedy convened his advisors to determine a response, leading to a naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments. After tense negotiations, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. public declaration not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. This 13-day standoff is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war (jfklibrary.org).
