Was Khrushchev's decision to put missiles in Cuba was an error in his judgement?

1. why was the U.S.S.R interested in Cuba ?

1.1. strategic importance of the Caribbean islands

1.2. Americas need to safeguard their economic interest in the country

2. what did the U.S.S.R gain by putting their nuclear missiles in Cuba?

2.1. Russia was now able to use missiles in Cuba as leverage to demand concessions in west Berlin and get the western powers to conform to their needs

2.2. with missiles in cuba, more missiles could now reach mainland US thus narrowing in the missile gap as american missiles could reach soviet soil

2.3. it would be a counter to the American missiles placed in turkey which posed serious harm to the U.S.S.R as turkey was geographically near to them

3. how was it resolved?

3.1. both leaders understood the implications of nuclear war and pursued diplomatic means to resolve the crisis

3.1.1. Khrushchev appealed to Kennedy for peace twice and accepted Kennedy's response after the second appeal

4. what were the consequences of the crisis?

4.1. Kennedy was seen as courageous and brae by many Americans,however allies of the USA saw the american objection to missiles in cuba as hypocritical as they themselves had place missiles in turkey

4.1.1. Khrushchev was seen as compramising and conforming to the needs and demands of their cold war enemy,the usa and thus lost prestige within the soviet government