President Kennedy summoned a crisis management team, the Executive Committee  (ExComm), to deal with the threat of missiles in Cuba. Kennedy rejected calls from the  military for an immediate air strike followed by an invasion of Cuba and ordered instead  a naval quarantine (blockade) of the island. Khrushchev ignored the quarantine and  Soviet ships containing missiles headed for Cuba. However, on 24 October, six Soviet  ships turned back towards the Soviet Union. At this point Dean Rusk, the US Secretary  of State, commented, 'We're eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked.'  Nevertheless, the crisis continued as the missile sites still remained in Cuba. 
On 26 October, Khrushchev sent a telegram to Kennedy saying that the Soviet Union  would remove the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba. At this point,  he was convinced that the United States was on a verge of attacking Cuba. Before  Kennedy could respond to this telegram, Khrushchev sent a second, more demanding  letter to the US government insisting on the inclusion of the removal of Turkish missiles  in any deal over Cuba … 
Kennedy continued to see military action as a last resort and on the advice of Llewellyn  Thompson, who had been the US ambassador to the Soviet Union, he decided to  accept Khrushchev's first offer and ignore the second. At the same time, however,  Kennedy's brother and then Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, met with Anatoly  Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador, in Washington DC to agree that the United States  would remove missiles from Turkey. 

[From History 20th Century World, The Cold War by K Rogers and J Thomas]

I therefore make this proposal: We are willing to remove the missiles from Cuba which  you regard as offensive. We are willing to carry this out and to make this pledge  (promise) to the United Nations. Your representatives will make a declaration to the  effect that the United States, for its part, considering the uneasiness and anxiety of the  Soviet State, will remove similar missiles from Turkey.  
We, in making this pledge, in order to give satisfaction and hope to the peoples of  Cuba and Turkey and to strengthen their confidence in their security, will make a  statement within the framework of the Security Council to the effect that the Soviet  government gives a solemn assurance (promise) to respect the inviolability (safety) of  the borders and sovereignty of Turkey, not to interfere in its internal affairs, not to  invade Turkey, not to make available our territory as a bridgehead (position) for such an invasion … 
The United States government will make a similar statement within the framework of  the Security Council regarding Cuba.  
Why would I like to do this? Because the whole world is now apprehensive (worried)  and expects sensible (workable) actions of us. The greatest joy for all peoples would  be the announcement of our agreement and of the eradication (suppression) of the  controversy that has arisen. I attach great importance to this agreement in so far as it  could serve as a good beginning and could in particular make it easier to reach  agreement on banning the tests of nuclear weapons.  

These are my proposals, Mr President.  
Respectfully yours,  
N Khrushchev  

[From https://www.marxistorg/archive/khrushchev/1962/10/27.htm.  Accessed on 20 September 2017.]

My fellow citizens: I want to take this opportunity to report on the conclusions which  this government has reached on the basis of yesterday's aerial photographs, which will  be made available tomorrow, as well as other indications, namely that the Soviet  missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled, their missiles and related equipment are  being crated (put in boxes), and the fixed installations at these sites are being  destroyed. 
The United States intends to follow closely the completion of this work through a  variety of means, including aerial surveillance, until such a time as an equally  satisfactory international means of verification (proof) is affected. 
While the quarantine (blockade) remains in effect, we are hopeful that adequate  procedures can be developed for international inspection of Cuba-bound cargoes. The  International Committee of the Red Cross, in our view, would be an appropriate agent  in this matter. 
The continuation of these measures in air and sea, until the threat to peace posed by  these offensive weapons is gone, is in keeping with our pledge to secure their  withdrawal or elimination (removal) from this hemisphere. It is in keeping with the  resolutions of the Organisation of American States (OAS), and it is in keeping with the  exchange of letters with Chairman Khrushchev of 27 and 28 October. 
Progress is now being made towards the restoration of peace in the Caribbean and it is  our firm hope and purpose that this progress will go forward. We will continue to keep  the American people informed on this vital matter. 

[From Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by RF Kennedy]

John Vorster (South Africa's Prime Minister) placed the blame for South Africa's  intervention in Angola squarely on the shoulders of Russia and Cuba: 'Our involvement  was the effect of Russian and Cuban intervention. If they did not enter Angola, if they  did not take part in this affair, if they did not try to subvert (undermine) the whole of  Angola and to suppress (contain) its people, South Africa would never have entered  Angola at all … We went in to chase Cuba and the MPLA away from the dams  (Ruacana and Calueque)'.  
It can hardly be doubted that the support which the Russians and the Cubans gave to  the MPLA in the form of arms and training contributed in some measure to motivating  South Africa's intervention, but it is unlikely that it was as crucial a reason as Vorster  implied. It was SWAPO, not the Cubans and the MPLA, who threatened the two dams  between Ruacana and Calueque. The main reasons for South Africa's intervention in  Angola was not the presence of Russians and Cubans, but the desire (longing) to  prevent the MPLA government from taking control and preventing the spread of  communism.  
There is also evidence that President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and President  Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, neither of whom favoured the MPLA, welcomed South  Africa's support for the FNLA and UNITA.  
… South Africa's actions drew her progressively (more and more) deeper into the  Angolan war … General Hendrik van den Bergh was sent to France to purchase  weapons to the value of R20 million for the FNLA and UNITA … South African  instructors began to train FNLA and UNITA soldiers in southern Angola.  

[From South Africa in the 20th Century by BJ Liebenberg and SB Spies (editors)]

In August 1987 Angolan and Cuban brigades (units of soldiers) under a Russian  commander began a large-scale attack on UNITA. The South African troops who were  rushed to the rescue made use of tanks for the first time since World War II. The  fighting that raged in Cuito Cuanavale has been called the greatest battle to date in  Africa south of the Sahara. The South Africans, supported by UNITA, halted the  Angolans' advance on the Lomba River and then drove them back towards Cuito  Cuanavale, where the Angolan soldiers dug in and resisted obstinately (stubbornly).  They also began to get increasing support from their air force while the South African  air force began to lose air control. The Chief of the South African Defence Force  (SADF) thought that Cuito Cuanavale could be taken, but that it would cost the lives of  about 300 white soldiers as well as a great number of black soldiers from the South  West African Territorial Force and UNITA. Such a price was regarded as too high and  it was decided to leave Cuito Cuanavale in Angolan possession … 
… Cuito Cuanavale was a turning point in the history of Southern Africa. The stalemate  there led all parties to think again. It was clear to all that victory was not in sight and  that to continue the war would lead to continually greater losses. South Africa found it  ever more difficult to justify the enormous (huge) cost of the war in Angola, amounting  to over R1 million a day. Above all, the lengthening list of young men dying in Angola  and the increasing militarisation of South Africa was arousing opposition. At the same  time Angola yearned (desired) for peace so that her war-damaged economy,  infrastructure and human relations might be repaired.  

[From http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51193.  Accessed on 18 April 2018.]

On 23 March 1988, the South Africans and the puppet armed group, National Union for  the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), supported by the United States of  America, launched their last major assault on Cuito Cuanavale. 
But they were definitely stopped by the communist forces of Angola, Cuba and the  South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), with support from members of the  African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. 
Fidel Castro emphasised the importance of the battle and stated: 'In Cuito Cuanavale  the Cuban Revolution played everything, played its own existence, risked a large-scale  battle against one of the strongest powers of those located in the Third World, against  one of the richest powers with an important industrial and technological development,  armed to the teeth, at that distance from our small country and with our resources, with  our weapons.' 
The apartheid regime tried to present its defeat in Cuito Cuanavale as a tactical retreat.  Throughout these years, some dubious authors have also tried to rewrite history,  minimising and even ignoring the relevance of the fight in Cuito Cuanavale. But the  African revolutionaries never had doubts about who won the battle and its relevance. 
Nelson Mandela said the following about Cuba's participation in Angola, 'Your  presence and the reinforcements sent to the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale have a truly  historic importance. The crushing defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a  victory for all of Africa!' 

[From https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/opinion/cuito-cuanavale-the-turning-point-14003886.  Accessed on 18 April 2018.]

Televised coverage of the movement heightened the importance of an embodied (in  person) image of black militancy. Emory Douglas, who became minister of culture of  the Black Panther Party, described how his thinking was shaped by this medium: 'I was  very inspired by Stokely [Carmichael] and Rap [H Rap Brown]. I used to see them on  TV all the time. And they were fearless in that time. I identified with them. [Stokely] was  talking about Black Pride and Black Power.' Pearl Marsh, who at the time was a  student at a historically black college, decided to stop straightening her hair after  seeing militants on television. In these militants she saw something that seemed to be  her authentic (real) self. 
'It was in Alabama (a Southern State), when I was at Huntsville, and this was a really  strict school. We got to watch television every now and then, and I remember seeing  militant students being interviewed and seeing their naturals (Afro hairstyles). So one  day I washed my hair and stole a fork from the dining commons (dining hall). I mean  literally a kitchen fork and did my hair up and went to class. I felt so relieved … Black is  beautiful didn't overcome everything. The one thing it did overcome was shame; that  we were ashamed that our hair was kinky (curly). I mean the thought that a white  person would ever see your hair not straightened was just inconceivable (unthinkable).  And so it was relief. That this was me. My father died when he saw it. He just died.  I came home with this hair out there looking like this globe. 'You look like an African!' That was pejorative (disapproving). I said, 'Yeah. So I look like an African. I am an  African.' 
… The 'militants' on television gave Marsh a new way to be herself. Kinky hair, a  feature she had worn with shame, was recast (changed) into a glorious symbol of  membership of a proud and beautiful race. 

 [From Ain't I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race by ML Craig]

Angela Davis, activist, educator, scholar and politician lived in the 'Dynamite Hill' area  of Birmingham, Alabama. The area received that name because so many African  American homes in this middle-class neighbourhood had been bombed over the years  by the Ku Klux Klan. 
As a teenager Davis moved to New York City with her mother and attended the  Elizabeth Irwin High School, a leftist school, because a number of its teachers were  blacklisted during the McCarthy era for their alleged earlier communist activities.  
She graduated with a BA (magna cum laude) in 1965. Davis was so moved by the  deaths of the four girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in her  hometown in 1963 that she decided to join the Civil Rights Movement. However, by  1967 Davis was influenced by the philosophy of Black Power and joined the Student  Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and then the Black Panther Party. She  also continued her education. In 1968 she moved further to the left and became a  member of the American Communist Party. 
In 1969 Angela Davis was hired by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as an assistant professor of philosophy, but her involvement in the Communist Party  led to her dismissal. During the early 1970s she also became active in the movement  to improve prison conditions for inmates. That work led to her campaign to release the  Soledad Brothers (from prison). The Soledad Brothers were two African American  prisoners and Black Panther Party members, George Jackson and WL Nolen, who  were incarcerated (imprisoned) in the late 1960s.  
On 7 August 1970, Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of George Jackson,  attempted to free prisoners who were on trial in the Marin County Courthouse. During  this failed attempt, Superior Court Judge, Harold Haley, and three others, including  Jonathan Jackson, were killed. Although Davis did not participate in the actual break out attempt, she became a suspect when it was discovered that the guns used by Jackson were registered in her name. Davis fled to avoid arrest and was placed on the  FBI's most wanted list. 

[From http://www.blackpast.org/aah/davis-angela-1944-0.  Accessed on 18 April 2018.]

[From https://www.history.com_Angela_Davis.  Accessed on 21 March 2018.] 

BLACK PANTHER GREATEST THREAT TO US SECURITY 

WASHINGTON: … Hoover said in his fiscal (financial) 1969 annual report the increased  activity of 'violence-prone black extremists groups' had put more investigative  responsibilities on the FBI. 'Of these,' Hoover said, 'the Black Panther Party, without  question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. Schooled in  the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the teachings of Chinese Communist leader, Mao  ZeDong, its members have perpetrated (done) numerous assaults on police officers,  destroyed public property and have engaged in violent confrontations with police in cities  throughout the country.' Hoover said, 'Leaders and representatives of the Black Panther  Party travel extensively all over the United States preaching their gospel of hate and  violence not only to ghetto residents, but also to students in colleges, universities and  high schools as well.' 
Huey Newton, the Panthers' minister of defence, was arrested for the fatal shooting of a  Californian policeman on 8 September 1968. Another Panther, Bobby Seale, was among  eight demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago indicted  (arrested) on federal charges of 'inciting to riot'. Hoover announced new figures showing  student revolutions during the 1968–1969 academic year caused more than $3 million in  damage to educational facilities and led to more than 4 000 arrests. He said the use of  'organised terror and violence' disrupted more than 225 institutions of higher learning.  There were 61 cases of arson or bombings on college campuses.  

[From https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19690716.2.89.  Accessed on 17 March 2018.]