Cuban Missile Crisis. Aerial photograph of one of the nuclear missile sites (San Cristobal launch site 2), constructed in Cuba by Soviet forces, that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Taken on 1 November 1962, the photograph shows a launch site for medium range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) that would have been able to reach the USA from Cuba. This led US President John F. Kennedy to order a naval blockade of Cuba. The following stand-off brought the world to the brink of nuclear warfare. The crisis ended on 28 October 1962, when Soviet Premier Khrushchev announced that the Cuban sites would be dismantled.