2. Case study 2: The Cuban missile crisis
The culmination of superpower tensions came with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This is when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev decided to deploy nuclear weapons in Cuba. During the 13 days of the crisis in October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came close to a direct military showdown for the first time. Both leaders, US President John F Kennedy and Khrushchev were under intense domestic pressure to...