There were three options of U.S actions: A surgical air strike taking out all of the missiles, complete military invasion, and blockade of the island. Both a full attack and a surgical strike were problematic. The air force could not guarantee 100% destruction of all the missiles, and even if they did destroy all of them, the attack would have to be conducted against all military targets in Cuba, followed by an invasion, to be of any effect. Has many analysts claim both options could easily escalate to a full war between the U.S and the USSR.

Similar data comes from some game theory analysis

http://plus.maths.org/issue13/features/brams/index.html

And if I am not mistaken there is an alternate flow diagram in one of the basic American high school history books, I am sorry I just do not remember which one is it.