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President John F. Kennedy received spy photos showing Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba. This was the point the Cuba Crisis began. Most of the president’s advisors were in favour of an air strike on the Cuban launch pads. In spite of that, Kennedy (who trusted in his brother Robert's judgement, also an advisor) ordered navy ships to stop Soviet ships reaching Cuba.
The positioning of nuclear missiles was a Soviet reaction to the Americans' in Turkey, which were aimed at Moscow. The Soviet leadership also tried to protect Cuba from the USA, because the US had invaded Cuba before( see: Invasion in Pig Bay ).
The third reason why the launch pads were constructed there was the Soviets' attempt to draw level with the USA, especially in the armament field.
Kennedy gave the Soviet leadership under Khrushchev an ultimatum to remove the missiles from Cuba. Furthermore, he asked the United Nations for help to communicate with the UDSSR.
At the very last moment ( 28th of October ), Khrushchev agreed not to deploy the missiles on Cuba. The US, for their part, removed their nuclear weapons from Turkey and ‘promised’ not to occupy Cuba.
The Cuba Crisis was the most serious conflict between the western allies and the Soviet Union, because if the US had invaded Cuba in order to eliminate the threat there, the Soviets would immediately have marched/occupied West Berlin. This would have led to an armed, maybe even to nuclear war.
As a reaction to this very dangerous crisis which took the USA and Russia to the brink of nuclear war, both superpowers agreed to global disarmament as far as possible.
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