The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major political and military tension between Cuba, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The crisis involved many different events. The tension and secrecy nearly led the three nations to their first ever nuclear war. This difficult situation began when Fidel Castro came to power as dictator in Cuba on January 1, 1959 (Timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis). Shortly after becoming the country's leader on December 19, 1960, he openly declared that he agreed with the Soviet Union and its policies (Timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis). This infuriated the United States, as it was already in conflict with the Soviet Union over whether capitalism or communism was better. On January 3, 1961, the United States severed all diplomatic relations with Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline). Then, on April 17, the United States launched the Bay of Pigs invasion, where a group of Cuban exiles, supported by the United States, began a failed anti-Castro rebellion (Cayton et al. 752). After about two months, Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, and ...