Cuban Missile Crisis established a naval blockade on October 22 to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba; Oval Office tapes during the crisis revealed that Kennedy had also put the blockade in place as an attempt to provoke Soviet-backed forces in Berlin as well. The US announced it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between US President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and
Day of the Cuban Armed Forces Havana. The parade has been held with breaks since 1963, and is presided by the President of Cuba in his capacity as commander in chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and (at times) First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (from 2006 to 2008 and from 2017 onwards, the posts have been held by separate people). With the veterans of the Revolution, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the international deployments of the Armed Forces during the Cold War, active personnel of the armed forces and their families, the diplomatic corps, citizens of Havana