The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Moscow-Washington Hotline

The red phone often seen on Television

The Cuban missile crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other. It started in October 1962, and was the closest we have come to a nuclear war. The United States as well as Soviets were prepared to use their nuclear weapons in the battlefield. The Soviets thought the U.S. Would invade Cuba so the soviets were trying to protect them. In the end the Soviet Union agreed to return their missiles that were in Cuba back to the Soviet Union as long as the United States did not invade as well as the removal of nuclear weapons from southern italy and Turkey. They agreed and this resulted in the Moscow-Washington Hotline.

The Moscow-Washington hotline created on August 30, 1963 was a direct phone line between the president and the soviet premier, this became one of the most famous top level communications systems in modern history. This phone is often seen in TV as the Red Phone on the presidents desk, but it is thought that it is a phone line but this is false, it was set up as a teletype connection or also known as a teleprinter which is similar to a typewriter that sends messages. Then later in 1988 this was replaced by fax machines. Since 2008 the Hotline is secure computer link and messages are exchanged by e-mail, Keeping our countries safe from another nuclear war. I think this invention is very important in history because it keeps our main powers of the world in peace.