The real reason that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a turning point is because it was the height of the Cold War. During the Cold War tensions between the United States and Russia(or the USSR). The United States wanted to prevent the spread of communism while Russia wanted to promote it. Each of these countries had ICBM's which could have blown each other country to pieces. At the time the United States had enough missiles to blow up the world about 55 times. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a big situation that cooled down the Cold War. It didn't end it but it just cooled down a lot of the hatred. We went from being in almost a state of emergency to a state of easiness and calmness.