<P> In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Robert Kennedy informally proposed that the Jupiter missiles in Turkey would be removed "within a short time after this crisis was over ." The last U.S. missiles were disassembled by April 24, 1963 and were flown out of Turkey soon afterward . </P> <P> The practical effect of the Kennedy - Khrushchev Pact was that the US would not invade Cuba . It is possible that Khrushchev placed the missiles in Cuba only to get Kennedy to remove the missiles from Italy and Turkey and that the Soviets had no intention of resorting to nuclear war if they were out - gunned by the U.S. Because the withdrawal of the Jupiter missiles from NATO bases in Italy and Turkey was not made public at the time, Khrushchev appeared to have lost the conflict and become weakened . The perception was that Kennedy had won the contest between the superpowers and that Khrushchev had been humiliated . However, both Kennedy and Khrushchev took every step to avoid full conflict despite pressures from their respective governments . Khrushchev held power for another two years . </P> <P> The enormity of how close the world came to thermonuclear war impelled Krushchev to propose a far - reaching easing of tensions with the US . In a letter to President Kennedy dated 30 October 1962, Krushchev outlined a range of bold initiatives to forestall the possibility of a further nuclear crisis, including proposing a non-aggression treaty between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact or even the disbanding these military blocs, a treaty to cease all nuclear weapons testing and even the elimination of all nuclear weapons, resolution of the hot - button issue of Germany by both East and West formally accepting the existence of West Germany and East Germany, and US recognition of the government of mainland China . The letter invited counter-proposals and further exploration of these and other issues through peaceful negotiations . Krushschev invited Norman Cousins, the editor of a major US periodical and an anti-nuclear weapons activist, to serve as liaison with President Kennedy, and Cousins met with Krushchev for four hours in December 1962 . </P> <P> Kennedy's response to Krushchev's proposals was lukewarm but Kennedy expressed to Cousins that he felt constrained in exploring these issues due to pressure from hardliners in the US national security apparatus . The US and the USSR did shortly thereafter agree on a treaty banning atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, known as the "Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty". </P>

Who led the ussr during the cuban missile crisis