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Last month marked the fiftieth anniversary of the most significant crisis of the nuclear age: the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. detection of Soviet nuclear forces on the island of Cuba in October 1962 precipitated a tense thirteen day standoff between the two superpowers. The Soviets ultimately agreed to withdraw the missiles from Cuba in exchange for U.S. promises (1) not to invade the island and (2) remove nuclear-tipped Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Yet why did the Soviets place nuclear missiles in Cuba in the first place?