A named leader involved in one of the crises during the rise of the

superpowers (Berlin blockade; Korean War; Cuban Missile Crisis).

President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
In the 1950s, Cuba had a close relationship with America. America
bought Cuba’s main crop, sugar, and American companies
controlled much of Cuban industry. The US government supported
the dictator of Cuba, Batista.
But in 1959, a small communist group, lead by Fidel Castro,
overthrew Batista. The communist Fidel Castro took charge of Cuba.
Castro made strong relations with soviet Russia with the US as their
mutual enemy. The Soviet Union bought Cuba’s sugar and sold
them weapons.
The American CIA, with the sanction of President Kennedy,
supported an invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles living in America.
They planned to overthrow Castro and put Batista back in power.
However, their invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1961 was a
disastrous failure. It drove Castro closer to the Soviet Union.
The Russians were worried that the Americans had bases in
Europe from which it could hit soviet cities. But the USSR had no
bases that could hit US cities. In 1962, the Russian leader,
Khrushchev, decided that his country would build bases in Cuba. In
October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane photographed soviet
missile bases being constructed in Cuba. If they were built, they
would bring all major US cities within range of soviet missiles.
President Kennedy addressed the American people on
television. He ordered a blockade of Cuba. The US threatened to
sink soviet ships that crossed the quarantine.
Khrushchev offered to remove soviet missiles from Cuba if the
United States removed its missiles from turkey. It was then agreed
that the soviet missiles would be removed it the Americans
promised not to invade Cuba. Kennedy accepted this offer.
In June 1963 the United States and soviets concluded a nuclear
test ban treaty. A hotline was also set up between USA and Russia
to connect the superpowers in case such an occurrence ever took
place again.