Anniversary of Cuban Missile Crisis

[Douglas Caddy]

Joseph McBride writes on Facebook today:

On this date in history, October 27, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis came to its head. Robert McNamara, the secretary of Defense, later said he went to bed that Saturday night not knowing if he would wake in the morning. From my book INTO THE NIGHTMARE: MY SEARCH FOR THE KILLERS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AND OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT: "Even after Khrushchev’s conciliatory message [his moving plea for peace to Kennedy on October 26], however, the full Soviet leadership was still balking in removing the missiles from Cuba. So the final turning point of the crisis was Robert Kennedy’s meeting with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on October 27, delivering an ultimatum from the president while offering the other terms as olive branches. As reported by Khrushchev in his 1970 autobiography, Khrushchev Remembers, what RFK told Dobrynin was:
"'The President is in a grave situation, and he does not know how to get out of it. We are under very severe stress. In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba.... Even though the President himself is very much against starting a war over Cuba, an irreversible chain of events could occur against his will. That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating this conflict. If the situation continues much longer, the President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control.''"

[John Dolva]

Also, the UN (again) votes against the US blockade of Cuba. This time with 191 against 2 (US and Apartheid Israel). (The US was one of the last to maintain a support for the Apartheid regime in South Africa)

[Ray Mitcham]

It was a Russian who stopped a nuclear war in 1962.

Interesting story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov