For Americans alive in 1962, it was much more scary than any Halloween. For nearly two weeks in October, the world came as close to World War III or an all-out nuclear war as it has ever been.
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
Here is the New York Times account written by Anthony Lewis
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1022.html#article
Following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, just months after JFK was inaugurated, tensions between the US and the Soviet Union and its Cuban ally were very high. When reconnaissance photos revealed the buildup of Soviet missile bases on Cuba, the United States went to a near-war footing. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had agreed that a full-scale invasion of Cuba was the only alternative.
Instead, Kennedy chose to pursue a blockade or “quarantine” of Cuba. In a nationwide address, he told the country and the world:
“To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated.”
While fears of an invasion or all-out war between the two nuclear superpowers were real and mounting as Soviet ships and nuclear-armed submarines steamed towards Cuba, secret negotiations were carried out. At the center of these talks were missiles placed by the United States inside Turkey and a direct threat to the Soviet Union. Kennedy’s secret agreement to remove those missiles from Turkey ended the stalemate and the world stood down.
Tapes and transcripts of the debates between Kennedy and his advisors:
http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/
A Timeline of the Missile Crisis is available from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Nuclear Age Peace Foundation:
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/
You can read about the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis and the Cold War era in Don’t Know Much About History
