The Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 CE — Caribbean, United States / Soviet Union

Today: Cuba (and Washington and Moscow)

American spy planes photographed Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba, ninety miles from Florida. For thirteen days in October 1962, Kennedy and Khrushchev traded ultimatums while the U.S. blockaded the island and both militaries went to their highest alert. It ended in a deal: the Soviets withdrew the missiles publicly, the Americans withdrew missiles from Turkey quietly, and a direct hotline was installed between the capitals. It remains the closest the world has come to deliberate nuclear war — and the closest it came by accident was during the same crisis, underwater.

Worth knowing: A Soviet submarine near the blockade, out of radio contact and being shaken by American practice depth charges, believed war had begun. Launching its nuclear torpedo required three officers to agree. Two said yes. The man who said no, Vasili Arkhipov, is the reason the crisis is remembered as a close call rather than the end of the world.

Pattern: Military-technological disruption — A weapon or tactic upends the prevailing balance of power and renders an old defensive or offensive order obsolete.

Entry 224 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.