October 17, 1962 After another U-2 flight on the night of the 17th, the military discoveres intermediate range (IRBMs) SS-5 nuclear missiles.

In this Sept. 20, 1960 photo, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro, center, speaks with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, right, as his Foreign Minister Raul Roa, left, looks on at the Hotel Theresa during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The world stood at the brink of Armageddon for 13 days in October 1962 when President John F. Kennedy drew a symbolic line in the Atlantic and warned of dire consequences if Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev dared to cross it. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, historians now say it was behind-the-scenes compromise rather than a high-stakes game of chicken that resolved the faceoff, that both Washington and Moscow wound up winners and that the crisis lasted far longer than 13 days.

The Cuban Missile Crisis is 40 years behind us this month. Isn't time to realize how completely dangerous these weapons are and secure from them?

Fidel Castro assumes power after the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 (click here)

I was 21 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, (click here) in the Navy and stationed at NAS Jacksonville in a photo reconnaissance squadron. I believe it was the weekend of around Oct. 14, 1962. The Squadron Duty Officer came tearing into the office demanding to know if I could work on the Crusader camera gear! I told him I could. … I saw the Russian missiles on the ground in Cuba!

My duty officer then ordered me to take the film to the on base photo lab to be processed. After the prints were made from the original negatives, I found out what was going on. I later found out that our XO delivered those prints, showing the Russian missiles in Cuba, directly to President Kennedy!

Howard S. Palmer, 71, Mandarin

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a lesson for every man and woman on Earth. Hasn't the nuclear timeline extended enough? 

Existence of nuclear weapons and human fallibility make repeat of Cuban missile crisis an ever-present threat. (click here)

5:30 AM Monday Oct 22, 2012
By Gwynne Dyer

This month is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16-28, 1962), so we're going to hear a great deal about the weeks when the world almost died. But the past is a foreign country, a place where everything was in black-and-white and men still wore hats, so it's just scary stories about a long-gone time.

Or so it seems.

The outlines of the tale are well known. It was 17 years since the United States had used nuclear weapons on Japan, and the Soviet Union now had them, too. Lots of them: the American and Soviet arsenals included some 30,000 nuclear weapons, and not all of them were carried by bombers any more. Some were mounted on rockets that could reach their targets in the other country in half an hour....