The Cuban Missile Crisis: Re-examining a Moment of Extreme Danger

Most Americans know the basic story of the Cuban Missile Crisis: In 1962, the Soviet Union secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the United States discovered them, and after a tense 13-day standoff, the Soviets backed down. The episode is often cited as a model of effective crisis management. However, historian Allen Pietrobon revisits the crisis to argue that it was less a triumph of leadership than a near-disaster averted largely by luck and fear.