Map created by American intelligence showing Surface-to-Air Missile Activity in Cuba, 5 September 1962. Central Intelligence Agency from Washington, D.C. Public domain.
Nuclear Shadows: Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis for the Ukraine War
Sixty years ago, Khrushchev deployed missiles in Cuba, and now Vladimir Putin threatens Ukraine with nuclear weapons. What can we learn from the escalation of 1962?
Since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, the threat of nuclear conflict has never been more imminent than it is today.The war in Ukraine has brought this danger back into sharp focus, as Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly oscillated between indirect and explicit threats to use tactical nuclear weapons.In early October, these alarming signals prompted U.S. President Joe Biden to issue a stark warning about the possibility of “Armageddon,” evoking the specter of an apocalyptic nuclear confrontation.Sixty years ago, the world stood on the brink of such a disaster when the Cold War rivalry between East and West reached its most dangerous point.The crisis was ignited just over a year after the Berlin Wall was erected, as the Soviet Union made significant strides in establishing a missile base in Cuba, a socialist ally in the Western Hemisphere. This base was equipped with SS-4 medium-range missiles, which brought much of the…
