The thirteen-day confrontation between the United States and Soviet Union over nuclear missiles in Cuba — the closest the world has come to nuclear war, and the crisis that forced both superpowers to develop the tools for managing their mutual destruction.
For thirteen days in October 1962, the leaders of two nuclear-armed superpowers stared at each other across the Caribbean and tried to figure out how to back down without appearing to. The missiles were dismantled. The crisis passed. The world learned that nuclear war could happen not just through decision but through accident, miscalculation, or the failure of a submarine commander to reach the surface in time.