The article is devoted to the study of the allied-partner relations of the USA and the countries of Western Europe during the Caribbean (in the terminology of representatives of a number of historical schools - the Cuban) crisis. The involvement of new sources made it possible to prove that since the summer of 1962 the West German secret services were aware of the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba and warned the government of the Federal Republic of Germany about the impending aggravation of relations between the superpowers. In addition, the author analyzed the features of support for the Americans from the UK and France. The research novelty of the article is also due to the material, which examines the struggle of Switzerland for the minimum possible support for Washington.

The author analyzes the foreign policy strategy of Germany in the late 1960 – early 1970's and the Moscow Treaty of 1970 in the context of building a modern European security system. The most important results of the paper can be concluded in five conclusions: the “new Ostpolitik” is not an independent but a secondary phenomenon of the implementation of the foreign policy strategy of the Federal Republic of Germany; this foreign policy strategy of the FRG, which existed until the reunification of the country, had led to the creation of an Eastern European outpost of Western influence; the leadership of the USSR assessed the prospects of the unification of Germany at that time as “unreachable”; the conflict-ridden environment in international relations gives more chances of success for small and medium-sized states; the hierarchy in international relations requires the large states in the regional area of the security system to consider the two levels of cooperation and the corresponding balances.