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Cuban Missile Crisis

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Collage of Putin, Khruschev, a missile, and a fighter jet.

Blundering on the Brink

The secret history and unlearned lessons of the Cuban missile crisis.
by Vladislav Zubok, Sergey Radchenko via Foreign Affairs on April 3, 2023
Castro and Kruschev.
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Putin’s Nuclear Threats Evoke Cold War Tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Russia’s recent nuclear threats have revived Cold War animosity with roots in the Cuban missile crisis.
via Retro Report on February 23, 2023
Map of the western hemisphere, with red rings circling Cuba to show the range of the country's nuclear missiles.

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: An Imperfect Memory, but a Useful Warning

Viewed as public memory, the Crisis has an extraordinarily useful function today: a nuclear warning for the future.
by Sarah E. Robey via Process: A Blog for American History on October 28, 2022
Black and white photo of Fidel Castro giving a speech in front of the Cuban flag.

The 1962 Missile Crisis Was a Turning Point for the Cuban Revolution

The missile crisis led Cuba’s leaders to distrust their Soviet ally—an attitude that ultimately helped their revolutionary system to outlast the USSR’s.
by Antoni Kapcia via Jacobin on October 17, 2022
Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy (left) met with Democratic Party rival Adlai Stevenson on the porch of Kennedy’s house in 1960.

How JFK Sacrificed Adlai Stevenson and the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The standoff 60 years ago has newfound relevance for handling the Ukraine crisis today.
by Peter Kornbluh via Foreign Policy on October 16, 2022
Test launch of an ICBM, reminiscent of a star with a long tail in the night sky.

“Do You Hear What I Hear” Was Actually About the Cuban Missile Crisis

The holiday favorite is an allegorical prayer for peace.
by Reba A. Wissner via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on December 22, 2021
John F. Kennedy on a TV screen.

The Book That Stopped an Outbreak of Nuclear War

A new history of the Cuban missile crisis emphasizes how close the world came to destruction—and how severe a threat the weapons still pose.
by Andre Pagliarini via The New Republic on April 16, 2021
Background photo shows secret deployment of Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. On the right is a photo of Juanita Moody.

The Once-Classified Tale of Juanita Moody: The Woman Who Helped Avert a Nuclear War

America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative whose story can at last be told.
by David Wolman, Susan Seubert via Smithsonian on February 23, 2021
nuclear explosion

The Day Nuclear War Almost Broke Out

In the nearly sixty years since the Cuban missile crisis, the story of near-catastrophe has only grown more complicated.
by Elizabeth Kolbert via The New Yorker on October 5, 2020

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 55

The bullshit, the truth… and Trump.
by James G. Blight, Janet M. Lang via The Nation on October 27, 2017

What the Cuban Missile Crisis Can Teach Us About the North Korean Missile Crisis

To avoid catastrophe, Kennedy turned to diplomacy. Trump would be wise to do the same.
by Martin J. Sherwin via The Nation on August 23, 2017
Screenshot of JFK's televised address.

President Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis Oval Office Address

In response to the build-up of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba, JFK ordered a quarantine of the island and military surveillance missions.
via C-SPAN on October 22, 1962
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Group of 20 summit.
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Diplomacy Defused Cold War Crises. It Can Help Again Today.

The type of quiet, personal, informed diplomacy advocated by George Kennan can reduce tensions with China and Russia.
by Frank Costigliola via Made By History on February 10, 2023
Mushroom cloud of nuclear bomb.

Forgetting the Apocalypse

Why our nuclear fears faded – and why that’s dangerous.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The Guardian on May 12, 2022
Silhouette of a soldier sitting on aircraft

The Long Roots of Endless War

A new history shows how the glut of US military bases abroad has led to a constant state of military conflict.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The Nation on November 30, 2020

Diplomatic Back Channels Were Once Seen as a Good Thing

But they've always been risky.
by Steven T. Usdin via TIME on September 4, 2018

Operation Mongoose: The Story of America's Efforts to Overthrow Castro

And how they helped seal America’s fate in Vietnam.
by Max Boot via The Atlantic on January 5, 2018

Trying to Remember J.F.K.

On the centenary of his birth, seeking the man behind the myth.
by Thomas Mallon via The New Yorker on May 22, 2017
Migrant women and children
partner

Never Never Land

The legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, a plan to save Cuban children from communist indoctrination by leaving their families and resettling in the United States.
via BackStory on October 2, 2015
Collage drawing of elements of US-Cuba relations, including JFK, Castro, missiles, a journalist at a typewriter, and soldiers from both sides carrying guns.

Cuba Libre

Covering the island has been a central concern for The Nation since the beginning—producing scoops, aiding diplomacy, and pushing for a change in policy.
by Peter Kornbluh via The Nation on March 23, 2015
Black-and-white portrait of Fidel Castro looking down with his hand near his ear.

I Was With Fidel Castro When JFK Was Assassinated

A first-person account of Fidel Castro during a monumental moment in history.
by Jean Daniel via The New Republic on December 7, 1963
An illustration of space, with two silhouettes of heads overlapping.

The Fraught U.S.-Soviet Search for Alien Life

During the Cold War, American and Soviet scientists embarked on an unprecedented quest to contact extraterrestrials.
by Sophie Pinkham via The New Yorker on February 6, 2025
Ronald Reagan and Paul Nitze.

A Cold Warrior for Our Time

James Graham Wilson makes a compelling case that the under-celebrated example of Paul Nitze is both instructive and worthy of our emulation.
by Max J. Prowant via Law & Liberty on December 9, 2024
Photographs of historian Zachary Schrag and his father Philip Schrag in front of a Nuclear War plan background

Two Generations of Nuclear Hopes and Nuclear Fears

A conversation with historian Zachary Schrag and his father Philip Schrag about their multi-generational encounters with nuclear threats.
by Alex Wellerstein via Doomsday Machines on October 4, 2024
Israeli artillerymen plug their ears while laying down a barrage on Syrian positions.

The Arab-Israeli War 50 Years Ago Brought Us Close to Nuclear Armageddon

As world leaders scramble to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from escalating, it is often forgotten just how close the Yom Kippur War came to all-out nuclear war.
by Gordon F. Sander via Washington Post on October 10, 2023
The door and interior tunnel of the Nantucket fallout shelter.

Inside JFK's Secret Doomsday Bunker

The president's Nantucket nuclear fallout shelter could become a National Historic Landmark—but efforts to preserve its history have stalled.
by Jenn Morson via Smithsonian on February 6, 2023
C. Wright Mills.

C. Wright Mills’s "The Power Elite" Still Speaks to Today’s America

Mills exposed postwar American power and warned of an authoritarian turn in the book, which speaks to our own moment of inequality and right-wing anger.
by Heather Gautney via Jacobin on December 6, 2022
People in Ukrainian subway station converted into bomb shelter with makeshift beds and kitchen.

The History of the Family Bomb Shelter

Throughout history, the family bomb shelter has reflected the shifting optimism, anxieties, and cynicism of the nuclear age.
by Thomas Bishop via Zócalo Public Square on April 18, 2022
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping walking down a red carpet past a row of Chinese military guards.

Can Cold War History Prevent U.S.-Chinese Calamity?

Learning the right lessons of the past.
by Odd Arne Westad, Li Chen via Foreign Affairs on November 29, 2021
An American propaganda leaflet dropped ahead of Curtis LeMay’s firebomb campaign over Japan.

Narrative Napalm

Malcolm Gladwell’s apologia for American butchery.
by Noah Kulwin via The Baffler on May 17, 2021
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