HOW WILL THE WAR START
Continuation from yesterday…….On October 24th, 1962 a convoy of Soviet ships was steaming towards a Cuban port. In their wake laid a large contingent of the US vessels enforcing the blockade. Everyone was on edge. If the Soviet ships where to cross the blockade line, they would likely have sparked a military confrontation that could have quickly escalated to an all out nuclear exchange. The sense of doom was in the air. So much so that the U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was quoted as saying “I thought it was the last Saturday I would ever see.”
A few days prior, on October 14th, 1962, a U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba discovered nuclear missile sites under constructions. Missiles that would have had the capability of reaching the US within minutes. President Kennedy immediately gathered a small group of senior officials to debate the crisis. Known as ExComm, the group met continuously for the next two weeks. Deeply divided between those who wanted a peaceful political solution and those demanding that President Kennedy uses the opportunity to strike at the Soviet Union first.
Eight days later, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba while putting all of the U.S. military forces on DEFCON 3. The US B-52 bombers were placed on the highest state of alert, Polaris class submarines were told to expect launch orders and ICBMs were prepared for their countdown sequence. President Kennedy’s adversary Nikita Khrushchev responded by putting Warsaw Pact military forces (Soviet Military Machine) on full battle alert. The U.S. was forced by respond with DEFCON 2.
As the Soviet ships appeared on the horizon the stage was set. If they were to cross the blockade line, the nuclear war was imminent. In fact, both the Soviet Union and the US bombers were already in flight to their respective targets. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev had their finger on the proverbial red button in the highest stakes game of chicken ever played. The world was just a few minutes away from an all out nuclear inhalation.
One simple mistake, one miscommunication, one shot, one dirty look, one wrong word, one loss of communication, one lost nerve or one person buckling under an immense amount of pressure is all that stood between peace and an all out nuclear war.
To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)
What Cuban Missile Crisis Can Teach Us About The Nuclear World War 3 Google