Cuban Missile Crisis

History Cuban Missile Crisis footage. 16. to 28. October 1962: Red Withdrawal: The showdown between the U.S. and the Soviet Union has led the Russians to dismantle their rocket installations in Cuba. Soviet ships steam out from Cuban ports with missiles they are removing from the island. According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. He also presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another United States-sponsored invasion, such as the failed attempt at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.