On This Day In History.... 1962 ... On The Brink Of Nuclear War

[ToraToraTora]

JFK ammounced a Navel blockade of Cuba to stop the Russians putting nukes on the island. The world was staring down the barrel of armgeddon. Thankfully for us all the protagonists found a way out for the world.

[ClareTG0ld]

I remember a long time ago when I was first introduced to the Cuban Missile Crisis. As I recall, it was presented thus:

October 22nd: Kennedy announces blockade of Cuba until missiles are removed.

October 24th: Soviet ships head towards Cuba.

October 26th: Krushchev and Kennedy negotiate removal of missiles.

October 28th: Krushchev agrees to remove missiles. Crisis over.

 

And, when presented like that, it's easy to see why I've never been quite able to understand what the fuss was about. Over in a few days and nothing happened. Bunch of scaredy-cats lol.

I jest, of course. Sometimes, history needs to be lived through to be understood properly. When you don't know the outcome, the potential for something horrible becomes that much more terrifying.

[ToraToraTora]

I know it frightened a lot of people. I was too young at the time but my mum was convinced nuclear war was innevitable right up to about the mid 70s and often referred to the Cuban missile crisis.

[MargoTester]

I do remember it and it caused panic in our neighbourhood, in fact the whole country. My parents were convinced their would be another war

[zebo]

I recall being in school on the day when it was going to be nuclear or not and we were all scared thinking we might never go home.

Since then of course we heave learnt that it wasn't as simple as it sounds, the Americans agreed to remove their missiles from, I believe, Turkey but didn't want that making public immediately because it could have been interpreted as weakness by the American public.

[ToraToraTora]

The US agreed to remove their Jupiter missiles from Turkey, they were due to be decommissioned anyway. It allowed both sides to claim something of a success.

[hellywelly4]

I had been married in June of that year and then my husband (who was in the RAF) was sent out to Aden which was at that time an unaccompanied posting. I went back to live with my parents and when the Cuba crisis came I was convinced I would never see him again. It was the most dreadful time and we were all really frightened. I eventually was able to join him but didn't read a national newspaper for months.