“It was neither Vietnam nor Watergate–nor Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963,” the historian Martin Sherwin has written of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “It was just the most devastating event in world history…that somehow didn’t happen.”

For two weeks in October 1962 the world stood at the brink of nuclear war. The Soviet Union of Premier Nikita Khrushchev had begun secretly deploying a nuclear strike force in Cuba, 90 miles from the United States. President John F. Kennedy demanded the missiles be removed and initiated a naval blockade of Cuba. War seemed likely. In this course, which will be a mix of lecture and discussion, we’ll examine the causes and consequences of the crisis, looking at the decisions and actions of Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. We’ll try to determine if war was avoided because of wise decisions and skillful diplomacy, or if, in the words of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, it was a matter of “plain dumb luck.”

This course will combine lecture with class discussions.