Senior Policy Director John Erath spoke with Newsy on the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis about comparisons to then and now, when tensions are as high as they were then.
Timeline: The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day nuclear crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Learn more.
The Soviet False Alarm Incident and Able Archer 83
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviets designed an early-warning radar system meant to track fast-moving threats to increase the chance of reprisal. On September 26, 1983, however, the system, code-named Oko, malfunctioned. At around midnight, Oko’s alarms rang out, alerting the base of one incoming nuclear missile. The screen read, “LAUNCH,” which […]
The Norwegian Rocket Incident (The Black Brant Scare)
On January 25, 1995, Russian officers at the Olenegorsk Radar Station in the northwestern region of Russia detected the “launch” of what appeared to be a 4-stage missile off Norway’s northern coast. Although the officers were not able immediately identify the missile, the altitude and distance traveled appeared to align closely with the U.S. submarine-launched […]
The Cuban Missile Crisis
For approximately 13 days in October 1962, beginning on October 16, the world stood on high alert amidst a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Photographs taken by an American U2 spy plane revealed suspicious construction activity across Cuba, later confirmed by a low-flying RF-8As to be the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles and infrastructure. The CIA’s […]
