The Cork in the Gulf
The Gulf of Mexico has two ways out to the ocean, and one long island lies across both of them — which is why Cuba, ninety miles from Florida, nearly started a nuclear war.
America's back door
Everything that floats down the **Mississippi** comes out into the **Gulf of Mexico**. The Gulf has just two ways out to the open ocean: the **Straits of Florida** and the Yucatán Channel. And lying across both of them is one long island: **Cuba**.
Claim (consensus): The Mississippi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, whose only connections to the open ocean are the Straits of Florida and the Yucatán Channel — both bounded on one side by Cuba.
Ninety miles
At the Florida end, **Cuba** is about 150 kilometres from Key West, the famous ninety miles. Since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 the **United States** had treated these waters as its own backyard. Then in 1959 Castro's revolution took Cuba, and it turned to Moscow.
Claim (consensus): Cuba's north coast lies about 150 km (the "ninety miles") from Key West; US policy since the 1823 Monroe Doctrine treated the Caribbean–Gulf basin as its sphere, and after the 1959 revolution Castro's Cuba aligned with the Soviet Union.
The cork
Now a rival power had a friend lying across America's back door. Every ship leaving the Gulf would sail past **Cuba**. In October 1962 the Soviet Union put nuclear missiles there, and for thirteen days the world held its breath.
Claim (consensus): In October 1962 the Soviet Union deployed nuclear-armed missiles to Cuba, precipitating the thirteen-day Cuban missile crisis.