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The threat that triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis: Range of American Jupiter nuclear missiles in Izmir, Turkey (1961)
In 1961, the US deployed 15 Jupiter nuclear-armed missiles to Çiğli Air Base in İzmir, Turkey. Capable of striking Moscow and the Soviet heartland in under 15 minutes, this deployment left the USSR feeling deeply vulnerable.
In response, Nikita Khrushchev cited these missiles in Turkey as the main justification to secretly place Soviet nukes in Cuba in 1962—triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world ever came to nuclear war.
The crisis was publicly resolved when the Soviets agreed to withdraw from Cuba in exchange for a US pledge not to invade the island. However, the secret backchannel deal was that the US would quietly dismantle its Jupiter missiles in Turkey. By mid-1963, the base at Çiğli was completely decommissioned.
u/Outrageous-Band-3760 — 2 days ago