To whom could one attribute the peaceful solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense time in United States history and world history. The Soviet Union had built missile sites and had placed missiles in Cuba that could attack the United States and other areas in the western hemisphere. We wanted those missiles out of Cuba and the missile sites dismantled. President Kennedy announced that the United States would establish a naval blockade around Cuba. We would stop ships from entering the waters around Cuba. The Soviet Union responded by saying they were sending their ships to the Cuban harbors and would not allow us to stop them. People were very concerned that nuclear war could occur.

Ultimately, a peaceful solution was reached. While many figures on both sides were involved with the behind-the-scenes discussions and the planning regarding how to deal with this crisis, from the perspective of the United States, it was President Kennedy that was responsible for a peaceful solution to the crisis. There were many options presented to President Kennedy, and some of them weren’t so peaceful. By publicly taking a tough stance and privately working for a peaceful solution, President Kennedy is the one who gets the credit for a peaceful resolution to this situation. If we responded weakly when the crisis first began, the peaceful option might not have been a viable option available to us. It also was the President who worked for a peaceful solution instead of settling for a more aggressive, warlike option.

In the end, the crisis was ended when the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba if we removed our missiles from Turkey. From this point on, both sides realized how dangerously close we had come to a nuclear war. Steps were later taken to reduce that threat. For example, both sides agreed to ban the above ground testing of nuclear weapons.