1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
This conference, focused on the so-called Cuban missile crisis of 1962, was the fifth in a series attended by former U.S. government officia… read more
This conference, focused on the so-called Cuban missile crisis of 1962, was the fifth in a series attended by former U.S. government officials, along with their Soviet and Cuban counterparts. It was learned that, contrary to U.S. intelligence reports, the Soviet Union had in fact placed nuclear warheads in Cuba before the 1962 crisis. It was also revealed that Soviet field commanders had the authority to use those weapons, without instructions from Moscow, in the event of a U.S. invasion of Cuba. At the peak of the crisis, the U.S. had some 140 thousand troops mobilized to invade the island with just an hour’s notice. The Cuban missile crisis ended when Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev agreed to withdraw Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for a promise by President Kennedy not to invade that Island Nation. Most military and diplomatic experts agreed that the Cuban missile crisis brought the world closer to nuclear war than any other superpower confrontation of post-World War II. close
People in this video
- Bruce Allyn Professor Harvard University->Kennedy (J.F.) School of Government
- Jose Arbesu Chief Cuba->Cuban Interests Section
- James Blight Senior Research Fellow Brown University
- Philip Brenner Professor American University->International Relations
- Sergei Khrushchev Representative Brown University->Center for Foreign Policy Development
- Wayne Smith Mission Chief Department of State->Havana, Cuba
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