Wikipedia2

New U-2 photos show sites near Guanajay built for R-14 (SS-5) intermediate-range missiles. Their reach of about 4,000 km would cover most of the continental United States.

• IRBM sites are under construction; the missiles themselves are still at sea.
• US forces start moving toward Florida and the south-east.

Longer-range sites found (17 October 1962)

Photos from a U-2 flight on 14 October show Soviet medium-range ballistic missile sites near San Cristóbal. President Kennedy is briefed in the morning and calls the advisers who become the ExComm.

• R-12 (SS-4) sites in western Cuba: about 1,900 km range, enough to reach Washington.
• Soviet freighters keep sailing to Cuba across the Atlantic.
• The ExComm starts meeting in secret at the White House.

Kennedy sees the U-2 photos (16 October 1962)

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko tells Kennedy that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive. Kennedy, who has the photos, does not reveal what he knows.

• The ExComm narrows the options to an air strike or a naval blockade.
• Soviet ships keep their course toward Cuba.

Gromyko meets Kennedy (18 October 1962)

A 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. The US answered with a naval quarantine of the island; the crisis ended when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and, secretly, the removal of US missiles from Turkey.

Sections

Longer-range sites found (17 October 1962)

Process details

Map

Impact summary