In the tense backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, the world teetered on the edge of nuclear war. Amidst the diplomatic and military standoff between the US and the Soviet Union, a critical moment unfolded unnoticed in the waters off Florida.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one heck of a close call.
Key point: The crisis featured many close calls, but this submarine was armed with nuclear torpedoes and it nearly used them. Here is how the world nearly ended in 1962.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is most commonly conveyed as the story of U.S.-Soviet diplomatic and military posturing that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation over a thirteen-day span in October 1962. But even as President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev raced to avert the abyss of destruction in a series of hurried of negotiations, a Soviet submarine off Florida’s coast came within a hair s breadth of plunging the world into a nuclear catastrophe but for the actions of a lone Soviet navy officer.