The Cold War nearly turned very hot in 1962, when the world’s two superpowers reached a two week staredown over Soviet nuclear missiles placed in Cuba. But the crisis wound down quietly over two days, starting with a thaw on this date 52 years ago – October 27, 1962.

The U.S. had obtained evidence of the missiles on October 14, and responded with a naval blockade to prevent further Russian ships from reaching Cuba. The Soviets showed no immediate signs of backing down, and the Kennedy administration started preparing to invade Cuba and initiate a nuclear strike on the USSR if Moscow retaliated. It wasn’t overstating things to say the world appeared to hang in the balance.

Things only seemed to get worse on the morning of October 27, when a U.S. reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba, killing the Air Force major on board. But long, tense, and complicated negotiations finally yielded a breakthrough later that day, when the two countries agreed in principle to a swap: The Russian missiles would come out of Cuba, and the Americans would remove missiles capable of striking Russia from Turkey and Italy. The next day, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev announced on Moscow radio that the weapons in Cuba would be crated and returned east. The Russians had blinked, and Khrushchev would pay a political price. But the stalemate was over, and the Cold War could return to more chilly terms.

http://series.c-span.org/uploadedImages/Content/Images/AHTV/CubanCrisis.gif