Nikita Khrushchev's Idea to Defend Cuba

In spring of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea to defend Cuba by offering to send nuclear missiles to the island. The United States had surrounded the Soviet Union with its military bases and placed its missiles all around our country. It seemed to me that the possibility of Soviet nukes near the US might restrain the United States from military action against Cuba. To some degree a quote, balance of fear, a formula used in the West, might be reached.