Pres. John F. Kennedy's national security team gathered around the photo-intelligence images taken by a U-2 spy plane, revealing the shocking discovery of Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from the United States. This revelation sparked a 13-day political and military standoff, bringing humanity to the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy's leadership and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's eventual decision to withdraw the missiles would avert catastrophe, but not before the world witnessed the closest call to global nuclear devastation in history.