The Cuban Missile Crisis was the deployment of Soviet nuclear ballistic missiles to the island of Cuba in 1962. It was USSR's response to the failed US-sponsered invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and to the presence of American ballistic missiles within range of the USSR. This event is widely considered to be the closest the Cold War came to full-scale nuclear war. Included here are the communications between the leaders of the three countries involved, public statements, and images of the missile sites in Cuba.