Cuban Missile Crisis. Strategic Air Command (SAC) photo interpreters using a magnifying and mapping machine to examine aerial reconnaissance images of Cuba, obtained in 1962. Analysis of the photographs showed launch sites for medium range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) that would have been able to reach the USA from Cuba. This led US President John F. Kennedy to order a naval blockade of Cuba. The following stand-off brought the world to the brink of nuclear warfare. The crisis ended on 28th October 1962, when Soviet Premier Khrushchev announced that the Cuban sites would be dismantled. For examples of aerial views, see C016/4235 and V900/0167.