The Cuban Missile Crisis was finally defused on October 28th, 1962. Premier Khrushchev accepted the dismantling of the missile sites, and the return of Soviet arms back to Moscow with the agreement that the U.S. would remove their nuclear weapons in Turkey soon. By December, the missiles and bombers had returned to the U.S.S.R. In late April, the U.S. removed the last missile from Turkey. Nuclear War had been averted, though it was a much closer thing than most people realized. For an example, read this article that speaks with those who were there 40 years later.