The Cold War had never come closer to getting hot. Although proxy wars had been fought, and more would follow, the United States and the Soviet Union had avoided directly exchanging fire. The discovery of a secret missile base under construction in Cuba threatened to change that. Fifty years ago this week, the world waited while the two superpowers bluffed and negotiated, a nuclear holocaust growing perilously real. From October 14, 1962, when the missile base was discovered by aerial reconnaissance, until an agreement was announced thirteen days later, the tension mounted. Ultimately, the Soviet Union dismantled the bases and the US agreed not to invade Cuba. A secret agreement saw the US dismantle missiles in Turkey and Italy. - Lane Turner and Lisa Tuite
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The submarine you see in the picture was a conventional sub equiped with a "special weapon". In the PBS show aired on 10/24/2012, "Secrets of the Dead: The Man Who Saved the World", we are told the "special weapon" was a torpedo equiped with an atomic bomb, which could be fired WITHOUT authorization from Moscow. Scary! The commander of the sub was ready to fire it. You can see the episode online at http://video.pbs.org/video/2295274962/
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