October 22, 2012 — Fifty years ago, in October 1962, the world hovered on the brink of nuclear war with the United States and the Soviet Union locked in a standoff at the height of the Cold War. The crisis lasted 13 days before the Soviet Union backed down and withdrew missiles from Cuba in return for a U.S. pledge not to invade the Caribbean island and a secret deal to dismantle American missiles in Turkey. Graphic shows timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis.