Anyone who was old enough to read and understand the news remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. At the time, it seemed the world was on the precipice of a nuclear was between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. American intelligence determined that the Soviets were building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. The missiles had not yet been delivered. President Kennedy warned Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that the U.S. would not allow the Soviets to install nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. The two leaders publicly exchanged threats. The world watched and waited, with a sense of dread.
The following is from Garrison Keillor’s “The Writers’ Almanac”:
It’s the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, President Kennedy had received photographs from U-2 spy planes over Cuba that showed the Soviet Union installing nuclear missiles and launch sites. He went on the television on October 22 and told the nation that Cuba would be placed under what he called a naval “quarantine” until the Soviets removed them. He also said that he would regard a Soviet nuclear attack on any Western nation as an attack on the United States, and would retaliate. Two hours earlier, Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave the text of Kennedy’s speech to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and he said Dobrynin, who had never been told of the missile deployment, “aged 10 years right in front of my eyes.” One-eighth of the nation’s B-52s went in the air that night, ready to strike. Two days later, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev responded, calling the so-called quarantine a “blockade,” a term that reframed it as an act of war. Khrushchev also said it was “an act of aggression” and insisted that Soviet ships would proceed to Cuba as planned. For a few days, the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message on October 26, in the middle of the night. “If there is no intention,” he wrote, “to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.” The next day he seemed to backtrack, sending another message that the U.S. must remove its missiles from Turkey. Kennedy took a risk and ignored the second message, responding instead to the first one by saying the United States would not attack Cuba if the Soviets removed their missiles from the island. On October 28, the premier publicly agreed to withdraw the missiles, and the crisis was over.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is a personal account of the Cuban crisis written by my niece who is now in her sixties. She grew up during a time when the threat of a missile attack was real and memorable because her her father was a fighter pilot stationed at the Homestead Florida airbase nearest to Cuba, just south of Miami.
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/02/13/half-century-later-cuban-missile-crisis-haunts-dreams/chronicles/who-we-were/
I was a SAC combat crew officer at the time and listened to President Kennedy speak while in an underground launch control center. The moment he finished the SAC warble tone came on followed by: Skybird – Skybird (all SAC combat crews – missile and aircraft) – this is Dropkick (SAC headquarters at Offut AFB in Nebrasks) with a RED DOT (war message) message in four parts. The other officer and I copied and decoded the message. We were thus ordered to initiate a count-down of our ATLAS-F ICBM to “Minimum Hold” and await further orders. We were at that moment only a few minutes from “Missile Away”. I will never forget how close we were at that moment from World War 3.
“American intelligence claimed that the Soviets were building nuclear missile sites in Cuba.”
FIFY
The same people who lied us into war in Iraq. The same people who have overthrown countless democratically elected governments in the name of “bringing democracy”. The same people who want you to believe da Russkies are the only reason Hillary lost. The same people who will tell you if Trump wins again, it’s da Russkies but if Biden wins it was China. The same people who’s livelihoods depend on endless war. The same people who will have us in WWIII if people don’t wake up to propaganda.
What?
Why did Khruschev agree not to put missiles into Cuba if he had no intention of putting them there?
Why do you disagree with what the Soviets said?
Someone needs to fix that cuckoo clock or at least put a mute button on it.
Is dienne77 still upset that Americans fought against Hitler like other people with her views are? I think so.
After all, lots of her fellow travelers believe that all that stuff about Hitler is just propaganda, too.
What is weird is that EVERY President is US history is evil to dienne77 except the wonderful, extraordinary Donald Trump! Who she will defend with all her might.
Ahh, the good old days. When existential threats came from foreign governments. Good times!
now the existential threat to our society and our democracy is our president!
I remember because I was becoming romantically involved with a Swedish visitor who happened to be a grade school teacher in Sweden. She taught in grade school and, at that time in Sweden, the teacher stayed with the same class for 3 or 4 years, I think grades 3 through 5 or 6. The idea being that the teacher would become very familiar with the kids and their needs. Or they could become sick to death of you? In any case, she cut her visit short and immediately scooted back to Sweden because of the the Cuban missile crisis. I was totally blasé (and out of it) and told her not to worry, nothing will happen, so stay already. Turns out, she was right to return home to Sverige, I was the clueless one, at that time.
According to the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, we are closer than we have ever been to armageddon.
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
Most people believe the problem disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union but it did not. Both Russia and the US have the capability of destroying human civilization.
Diane: I believe historians would disagree with Garrison Keillor’s version of how the Cuban missile ended with Kennedy ignoring the second message. Keillor is repeating the main stream press and President Kennedy’s official story.
Historians, backed by Kennedy’s secret recordings of the missile crisis decision-making reveals a quip pro quo deal with the Kennedy Administration agreeing to the second message to with drawing American missiles from Turkey months after the crisis ended.
I was during the Cuban missile crisis a clerk-typist stationed at Hamilton Air Force Base, on San Francisco Bay. My duty station, off the flight line, in a small clerical office was located in a large airplane repair hanger. The Air Base was closed, nobody could come or go. You could hear all our jet planes taking off. Later, I was told our planes were sent to other bases in Northern California and Nevada.
During the crisis my main focus was on what we called the Christmas tree. It was a straight-line series of different color lights on a board. Each light showed the area that our alert covered. First light was for our local base alters. Next light covered Northern California and Nevada, then continental United States and Canada and the final light: Total War. During the days of the crisis, our base was closed and we were on alert: one light short of total war.
Today is the 58th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was a SAC combat crew officer at the time and listened to President Kennedy speak while in an underground launch control center. The moment he finished the SAC warble tone came on followed by: “Skybird – Skybird (all SAC combat crews – missile and aircraft) – this is Dropkick (SAC headquarters at Offut AFB in Nebraska) with a RED DOT (war message) message in four parts.” The other officer and I copied and decoded the message. We were thus ordered to initiate a count-down of our ATLAS-F ICBM with its 20 megaton hydrogen weapon to “Minimum Hold” and await further orders. We were at that moment only a few minutes from “Missile Away”. I will never forget how close we were at that moment from World War 3.
What amazing answers from jim2812 and Emanuele Corso!
You two were at the center of the action. You can correct the history books.
You know how close we came to World War III.
As one of those members of the public who knew only what I saw on TV, as one who was worried sick about the threat of war, I commend you for your service and for adding your insights here!
I agree. My father in law, who was the commander at the Berlin Field Station in the early 80s and was the top intelligence officer in the Army when the Wall fell and led the intelligence reform after the fall of the Soviet Union, died last week. In putting together his obituary and speaking to some of his former colleagues, it is amazing what he must have seen and experienced in his life. And his family never knew a thing about what he was doing. Love it when people like jim and Emanuele can share things they never could when it was classified.
Ironically by 1964, both Kennedy and Khruschev were gone. 😐
Kinda related, at least a Cuban connection. Just saw the so-called Lincoln Project’s ad comparing Fidel to the Idiot. Note the first two words of the ad: “Socialist authoritarians…” Why not “Authoritarians…”? “Socialism” will be manipulated by widespread of the ter, should Biden win, to guarantee these charlatans will be Mitch’s foot soldiers to undermine any policy reforms Democrats will try to make. Should the Idiot win, watch them scurry for favor as quickly as possible.
Here’s the socialism that’s already embedded in our federal system that these folks want to keep obscuring: corporate bailouts and welfare at every turn, military dependents and the VA, and policies to extract wealth from the poor and middle class to provide more tax cuts for the wealthy. “Socialist authoritarians” indeed!
I had just gotten my degree from Ohio State–in history & government–with a wife and two kids, and working nights.. Contrary to the implications of the Atlantic article, many of us knew that the U.S. was more responsible for the crisis than the public was told. I was a strong supporter of JFK, RFK, and Adlai Stevenson. But I was also a veteran. We learned at Ohio State–and at the Armor School–about the American invasion of Russia in 1917 and our missile bases in Turkey–so both sides were dragging the world to the brink. It was a frightening time, dealt with well on a “Call the Midwife” segment. I was just starting to write poetry, and here’s something I wrote at the end of the crisis/standoff:
“We Are Ready”
‘
The drums are quiet now,
Nor blares the horn.
The street is still,
Except for rustling paper
Bearing boldly,
‘WE ARE READY!’
‘And now the songs cannot be sung,
The music can not be played.
No sage can speak, no poet pen,
No children laugh and run.
All that is left that can tell the tale
Is that paper bearing boldly,
Those fateful, tragic, silly words:
“WE ARE READY!”
I was 10 at the time & terrified. I’m sure all of you remember “duck-&-cover”–hiding under your desk, which would, of course, save all of us from nuclear blasts & fallout.
I think that’s what terrified me the most–was this the best adults could do to protect us?
What kind of a world were we living in?
Unfortunately, the questions remain the same…