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50 free Cuban Missile Crisis trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Cuban Missile Crisis trivia quiz covers the thirteen days in October 1962 that are widely considered the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war. It begins with the background: the American Thor and Jupiter missiles in Britain, Italy and Turkey, the Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongoose, the real state of the 'missile gap', Operation Anadyr and the Soviet troops issued with ski boots for a trip to the tropics, and the U-2 flight over San Cristóbal on 14 October that found the launch sites. The heart of the quiz follows the crisis day by day: EXCOMM's options, why Kennedy called the blockade a 'quarantine', the 22 October television address, DEFCON 2 and the B-52s on airborne alert, Adlai Stevenson confronting Zorin at the UN, the boarding of the Marucla, the ABC reporter and the KGB station chief, Khrushchev's two very different letters, Rudolf Anderson's U-2 shot down over Banes, the depth charges dropped on submarine B-59 and the officer credited with saving the world, and Robert Kennedy's secret deal with Dobrynin over the Jupiters. It closes with the aftermath: the hotline, the Test Ban Treaty, Curtis LeMay's verdict and Khrushchev's fall. Questions range from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many days did the Cuban Missile Crisis last, from 16 to 28 October 1962?
Thirteen
Robert Kennedy's posthumous memoir of the crisis was titled Thirteen Days, and Cubans call it the October Crisis.
Q 02What name do Russians use for the October 1962 confrontation?
The Caribbean Crisis
Cubans call it the October Crisis; the Soviet leadership later saw the outcome as 'a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation'.
Q 03Which American missiles had been placed in Italy and Turkey in 1961, within range of Moscow?
Jupiter
Thor missiles had gone to England in 1959 under Project Emily; the Jupiters became the secret half of the eventual deal.
Q 04What was the Soviet code name for the secret deployment of missiles to Cuba?
Anadyr
Plans were written out in longhand and approved by Marshal Malinovsky on 4 July and Khrushchev on 7 July 1962.
Q 05How were Soviet troops bound for Cuba misdirected about their destination?
They were issued ski boots and parkas for a 'cold region'
The tropical climate then wrecked much of their equipment, with fuse failures, corrosion and generator blackouts.
Q 06How many Soviet troops were ultimately brought into Cuba for the deployment?
About 43,000
The head of the Soviet Rocket Forces assured Khrushchev the missiles could be hidden under palm trees.
Q 07Which Cuban leader went to the USSR on 30 August 1962 to sign the final missile agreement, arguing it should be public?
Che Guevara
Khrushchev insisted on total secrecy and promised support if the Americans found out.
Q 08On what date in October 1962 did a U-2 flight first photograph the Soviet missile sites in Cuba?
The 14th
Major Richard Heyser took 928 pictures of what turned out to be an SS-4 site at San Cristóbal in western Cuba.
Q 09Near which town in western Cuba was the first missile construction site photographed?
San Cristóbal
It was in Pinar del Río Province, now part of Artemisa Province.
Q 10What was the NATO designation of the Soviet R-12 medium-range missile installed in Cuba?
SS-4 Sandal
Six R-12 sites and three R-14 (SS-5) sites were being built; the R-12 could carry a megaton-class warhead about 2,000 km.
Q 11What was the name of the group of advisers Kennedy convened to handle the crisis?
EXCOMM
The Executive Committee of the National Security Council was named after the fact by National Security Action Memorandum 196 on 22 October.
Q 12Which senator warned on 31 August 1962 that the Soviets were 'in all probability' building a missile base in Cuba?
Kenneth Keating
He may have got the tip from former ambassador Clare Boothe Luce, who heard it from Cuban exiles.
Q 13Why did Kennedy call the naval blockade a 'quarantine'?
To avoid the formal implications of a state of war
Q 21What did the White House later call 27 October 1962, the day of the U-2 shootdown?
Black Saturday
That evening the Navy dropped practice depth charges on a Soviet submarine without knowing it carried a nuclear torpedo.
Q 22Which officer aboard Soviet submarine B-59 is credited with refusing to fire its nuclear torpedo?
Vasily Arkhipov
Launch needed all three senior officers to agree; the National Security Archive's director said in 2002, 'A guy called Vasily Arkhipov saved the world.'
Q 23What was the intended target of B-59's nuclear torpedo?
The aircraft carrier USS Randolph
He said the US was not denying Cubans the necessities of life 'as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948'.
Q 14At what time on 22 October 1962 did Kennedy deliver his televised address announcing the missiles?
7:00 pm EDT
Speechwriter Ted Sorensen later called it 'Kennedy's most important speech historically, in terms of its impact on our planet'.
Q 15To what readiness level was Strategic Air Command raised on 26 October, the only confirmed time it has happened?
DEFCON 2
B-52 bombers went on continuous airborne alert and B-47s were dispersed to civilian airfields ready to take off in 15 minutes.
Q 16At the UN on 25 October, which US ambassador demanded Soviet ambassador Zorin admit the missiles existed?
Adlai Stevenson
Zorin refused to answer, and Stevenson famously said he was prepared to wait 'until hell freezes over'.
Q 17Which Lebanese freighter was boarded at the blockade line by the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.?
Marucla
It was cleared through after its cargo was checked; the Soviet tanker Bucharest had been allowed past unboarded the day before.
Q 18Which ABC News correspondent met the KGB's Washington station chief on 26 October?
John Scali
'Aleksandr Fomin' was the cover name of Alexander Feklisov, who opened by saying 'War seems about to break out'.
Q 19How did Khrushchev's second message on 27 October, read on Soviet radio, differ from the previous night's letter?
It demanded removal of the US Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy
EXCOMM guessed the shift reflected an internal Kremlin argument, and Kennedy chose to answer the first letter instead.
Q 20Which US Air Force pilot was killed when his U-2 was shot down over Cuba on 27 October 1962?
Major Rudolf Anderson
Two Soviet generals ordered the SA-2 launch over Banes on their own authority; Robert Kennedy told Dobrynin, 'You have drawn first blood'.
Captain Savitsky had assumed from the depth charges that war had begun; the sub was too deep to pick up radio traffic.
Q 24Where in Washington did emissaries of Kennedy and Khrushchev meet on the evening of 27 October?
The Yenching Palace Chinese restaurant
It was in Cleveland Park; the same day Robert Kennedy was quietly meeting Ambassador Dobrynin.
Q 25To whom did Robert Kennedy secretly promise the US missiles in Turkey would go 'within a short time'?
Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin
The Kennedy-Khrushchev Pact was known to only nine US officials and first officially acknowledged in Moscow in 1989.
Q 26How did Khrushchev deliver his acceptance of Kennedy's terms on the morning of 28 October?
By broadcast on Radio Moscow
He drafted it at his dacha without consulting the Politburo, believing the Americans would hear it fastest that way.
Q 27How many Soviet missiles were loaded onto ships and removed from Cuba after the crisis?
42
They went out on eight ships between 5 and 9 November; the Il-28 bombers took another month of haggling.
Q 28On what date was the naval quarantine formally ended?
20 November 1962
By then all offensive missiles and bombers had left, and US forces went back from DEFCON 3 to DEFCON 4.
Q 29What was the code name for the removal of the US missiles from Italy and Turkey in April 1963?
Pot Pie
It began on 1 April and was complete by 24 April, keeping the secret half of the deal quiet.
Q 30Which general told Kennedy that the peaceful resolution was 'the greatest defeat in our history'?
Curtis LeMay
He had wanted an immediate invasion and still favoured one after the missiles were gone; 25 years later he had not changed his mind.