Cuban Missile Crisis

• 
• 1/15/2023
  

  Martin Sherwin's "Gambling with Armageddon" Strips away the Myths of Nuclear Deterrence

  by Lawrence Wittner

  As Sherwin points out, “the real lesson of the Cuban missile crisis . . . is that nuclear armaments create the perils they are deployed to prevent, but are of little use in resolving them.”

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/27/2022
  

  Newly Translated Documents Give Fuller Picture of Nuclear Danger During Cuban Missile Crisis

  The National Security Archive has released an English translation of the account of a Soviet submarine officer of events in October 1962 tells the story of how his vessel's commander nearly launched nuclear weapons against US Navy ships enforcing the quarantine of Cuba.  

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  10/16/2022
  

  Nuclear Fears 60 Years After the Cuban Crisis

  From the actions of Soviet naval officers to the real-time recommendations of Robert F. Kennedy, the official story of the 1962 crisis is due for some updates according to historians who've published recent work on the subject. 

• 
• 10/9/2022
  

  What the Cuban Missile Crisis Teaches Us about Ending the Ukraine War

  by Walter G. Moss

  Many people have invoked JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a reminder of the need for toughness in international confrontation. The equally vital but less popular lesson is that creative leadership is just as important. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/5/2022
  

  What the Cuban Missile Crisis Tells Us About Putin's Possible Intentions

  by Michael Dobbs

  The danger of nuclear brinksmanship is not that any one leader is irrational or intransigent, but that even rational leaders can't always control events they set in motion. 

• 
• 4/17/2022
  

  We Need to Talk About Cuba

  by Joseph J. González

  U.S. policymakers should understand that Putin may observe the sixtieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis by provoking another one. 

• 
• 4/17/2022
  

  Even With the Challenge of a Nuclear Crisis, 1962 Was a Year of Hope

  by Walter G. Moss

  For HNN Contributing Editor Walter Moss, 1962 was a year when it seemed the US was capable of overcoming the gravest challenges with positive results (it was a good year for him personally, too). 

• 
• 1/30/2022
  

  Popular Histories Have Influenced World Leaders, Sometimes For the Better

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  Although the popular history genre is often maligned, historians should reflect on the role of Barbara Tuchman's 1962 "The Guns of August" in guiding JFK away from the brink of nuclear war and recognize the power of a story clearly told.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  4/16/2021
  

  The Book That Stopped an Outbreak of Nuclear War

  Serhii Plokhy adds new insight to the Cuban Missile Crisis by examining the domestic political context of the Soviet Union and the political incentives toward nuclear brinksmanship. 

• 
• 12/13/2020
  

  Reflections on Fredrik Logevall's "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956"

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  Fredrik Logevall's new JFK biography is one of the first by a historian who did not personally experience the Kennedy years. Longtime JFK Library historian says this is all to the good, as Logevall makes extensive use of available primary sources to place Kennedy's political and diplomatic views in the context of his formative experiences in wartime. 

• 
• 10/18/2020
  

  "The Silent Guns of Two Octobers" Reviewing a New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  Longtime JFK Library historian Sheldon Stern offers a review of a new book on the diplomatic resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Decoded
  10/13/2020
  

  The Cuban Missile Crisis: Once More Unto the Breach

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  As the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis approaches, longtime JFK Library historian Sheldon Stern reviews Theodore Voorhees Jr.'s new book, which argues that Kennedy and Kruschev each assumed personal control of negotiations in a way that rendered threats of war from hawkish subordinates all bark and no bite.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10/5/2020
  

  The Day Nuclear War Almost Broke Out

  "There should, it seems, be a useful lesson to be learned from that frantic afternoon. But what, in God’s name, is it?"

• 
• 9/8/19
  

  The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Trollope Ploy Myth

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  What we often get wrong about the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

• 
• SOURCE: New Republic
  4-17-18
  

  No, we're not reliving the 1960s, says Harvard historian Arne Westad

  Re: Cuban Missile Crisis: "There are no indications whatsoever that we are moving toward that kind of extremely dangerous era of the Cold War."

• 
• 4/15/18
  

  The Man Who Prevented the Outbreak of World War III

  by Douglas Gilbert

  His name was Vasili Arkhipov. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he refused to go along with an order to fire a nuclear missile.

• 
• 5/13/18
  

  War Was Avoided During the Cuban Missile Crisis, but One Man Died

  by Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias

  It’s worth remembering his story, too, to show us the danger of superpower conflict.

• 
• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  1/11/18
  

  New book lays out for the first time the full story of Cuba's Cuban Missile Crisis

  James G. Blight and janet M. Lang lay out the story in "Dark Beyond Darkness."

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  1-4-18
  

  The Other Terrifying Lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  by George Perkovich

  Historians have focused on how John F. Kennedy’s wisdom narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe. They’ve paid less attention to how little we knew about the Soviets’ true intentions.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  10-27-17
  

  The Cuban Missile Crisis at 55

  by James G. Blight and Janet M. Lang

  “The bullshitter…does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.” —Harry G. Frankfurt, "On Bullshit"