What Was The Cuban Missile Crisis And How Close Did It Bring Us To Nuclear War?
The Cuban Missile Crisis was arguably the closest humanity has ever come to nuclear war.
The crisis began when soviet leader Khrushchev and Fidel Castro agreed to place nuclear missiles secretly in Cuba and secretly transfer 40,000 troops.
The US discovery of ballistic missile facilities by U2 pilots instantly raised alarms.
Indeed, Cuba was only 100 miles from the State of Florida.
By October 26th, the US was planning a nuclear strike on the USSR.
On October 27th, US navy warships located the Soviet Submarine b-59 incoming their naval blockade.
Without knowledge of the submarine being armed with nuclear tipped torpedoes, the US began dropping explosives to force B-59 to the surface.
Having no contact with Moscow, the soviet crew weren’t sure if war had broken out.
Reading for launch, nuclear war would only be averted because of Vasili Arkhipov, the sole primary officer out of the 3 who refused to fire the torpedo.
Lasting 13 days, the crisis came to an end after an agreement for the soviets to dismantle the bases.
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