"The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited"

Prof. James J. Wirtz, Ph.D. Naval Post Graduate School

Based on newly released archival evidence and the memoirs of Cuban, Russian and U.S. participants, this talk highlighted little known facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was sparked by the 1962 Soviet decision to place nuclear-tipped missiles just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Some of us remembered this perilous, scary, and near war with Russia. It was dramatic and tense. This presentation reviewed that confrontation, blow by blow, with graphic depiction. Relived President Kennedy’s greatest foreign policy achievement and pondered the continued impact of the crisis and nuclear proliferation on world politics.