The Cuban Missile Crisis
Thirteen days in which nuclear war was closer than at any other time.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 12 days
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
American reconnaissance finds Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962. The confrontation is resolved by a blockade, a public Soviet withdrawal and a secret American agreement to remove missiles from Turkey. It later emerged that a Soviet submarine officer, Vasili Arkhipov, refused to authorise a nuclear torpedo during the standoff — one man's veto. The crisis produced the Moscow-Washington hotline and the first test ban treaty.