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The Cuban Missile Crisis — thirteen days in October 1962 when the world came closest to nuclear annihilation. Whittle reconstructs the crisis hour by hour, showing how Kennedy and Khrushchev navigated the most dangerous moment in human history.
Canon
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The crisis was ultimately resolved through personal back-channel communication between Kennedy and Khrushchev, bypassing their own hardliners. The relationship between the two leaders, fragile as it was, prevented catastrophe.
Highlights
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The margin between survival and extinction was one person's decision
At multiple points during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a single individual's decision determined whether nuclear war would begin. Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet submarine officer, may have saved the world by refusing to launch.